Today in an announcement complying with their strict “no dickheads” policy, Aunty Meredith has categorically banned the wearing of Native American headdresses (forever?) at Meredith Music Festival this year because 1) You would never wear one in real life 2) You aren’t Native American and 3) We can’t see a god damned thing back here.
Mirroring similar measures undertaken by the Bass Coast electronic music festival in Canada last month, festival season’s most reliable indicator of basic-ness and youth culture’s most obnoxious form of sartorial cultural appropriation bar perhaps the forehead bindi (please everyone, stop wearing forehead bindis), wasn’t explicitly named in Aunty’s updated banned items list, but listed alongside run of the mill Things You Shouldn’t Bring To A Music Festival like flares, weapons and industrial calibre power generators (also, hilariously enough, bongos, we’re looking at you that guy) is a section mentioning “offensive signage, slogans, clothing and costumes”, that last word linking to a compelling op-ed piece published a few years back on nativeappropriations.com explaining why the decision to wear a Native American headdress or similar form of culturally significant head accoutrement – despite seeming innocuous, stylish and harmonious with your personal brand as an inclusive, free spirited and culturally curious young person – is in fact deeply offensive to those for whom that particular item of clothing is more than just a fashion statement.
