You will probably hear a lot about decolonization and how important it is to decolonize your craft, but few talk about what it really is and how to actually do it.
Colonization have caused great harm to indigenous culture, as many of us have learned in school, people with indigenous backgrounds tell their and their families stories, and we are more aware of daily life. It has happened all over the world, to the Native Americans, to Sami people, to Aboriginal people just to name a very few cultures that has been harmed by this straight out stupid idea of colonization.
Colonization is also used a lot in spirituality. For example, by using and repurposing things from indigenous cultures to get profit, such as mass marketing of dreamcatchers and yoga classes without acknowledging their origins and the people of the original cultures' opinions. The use of white sage for cleansing is also wrong. One reason is because the plant is overharvested due to this, another is that this is another example of just using a small aspect of what it reallly is and change it.
This form of using others culrures in this way, and especially the closed ones, often goes by cultural appropriation. The reason for this exact word I can't explain. It has absolutely sonfused me as a non native english speaker as "appropriate" is the "good" word, when you dress appropriate you dress a right way. And because when you behave inappropriate which is the opposite you might behave like a creep, or wrong in societies standards. This all have gave me personally a real head twist and I have got asked multiple times on why it's appropriation, not inappropriation. Truth is I can't answer, I have the same question myself.
Moving on, this often happens due to lack of knowledge, or ignorance and arrogance, and how we can prevent this from happening in our practice.
To prevent this, the best way to do this is to research. The best form of research is cross referencing, and never stop reading abt just just because you "have read enough". You will always get new knowledge, even in topics you thought you wouldn't find anything new. Read about its origin, where its from and how its used. There is no harm in learning about a closed practice, as long as you don't practice it.
Closed practices should only be practiced if you are born or married into a culture. These practices often don't have much written sources as they are often shared in family by talking and teaching about it all their life. Some of those that are written are also written about someone who appropriate the culture, so if you wanna read about it, make sure to read it from a person of that culture.
