A post-colonial inquiry into J.K. Rowling’s newest story
Beloved young adult novelist J.K. Rowling has come under fire for culturally appropriating “the living tradition of a marginalized people,” by writing about the Navajo legend of the skinwalker in a new story. The piece—which can be found on Rowling’s website—details the history of magic in America, but the history of Native American magic is only touched upon in the first part of the story.
Now, the question of cultural appropriation becomes a factor, especially because Rowling hastily ran through 400+ some years of Native tradition and culture in the same number of paragraphs as a hamburger-style essay.
Many fans have welcomed Rowling’s new insights into her universe, but members of the Native communities, including myself, are frustrated with the writer’s sloppy and ignorant attempt at detailing our history.
The question becomes this: Is Rowling’s writing of indigenous “magical” history racist? Yes, yes, and yes. Perhaps many will disagree with me, and some may even call me too sensitive, but when it comes to perpetuating Indigenous people’s stereotype to the white world, I cannot withhold my criticisms.
First off, Rowling exclusively writes about Indigenous peoples in the first piece in her series—save a paragraph on a Native wand-maker in piece four. My first criticism is that her shortest piece in the four-part story is the part on Indigenous magic. At five paragraphs, Rowling’s first piece is the length of a grade nine essay. How can we not be angry about the colonizer writing our history? Many young Indians are going to read this story, and the European’s aspect of the Potter universe gets more books than we do paragraphs? Don’t tell us we are being too sensitive.
Secondly, the first piece is only detailing the history from the 14th century to the17th century. Now, I’m not even sure if Rowling did any research on our history, but our culture has existed long before the 14th century. Furthermore, to say that this history ends in the 17th century—the time when the colonizers first arrived in North America—perpetuates the stereotype that Native Americans are an archaic thing of the past, leaving plenty of room for the colonizer to replace us as the “true natives” of North America.
Anyone who has done any reading on Native American culture knows we are a diverse people with a number of different tribes, all with unique variations of culture, history, and mythology. Rowling, apparently, has not done any research—or worse, she has and decided to ignorantly appropriate our culture with one brush. In her story she uses the Navajo myth of the skinwalker broadly across all tribes. Rowling, you do know the Navajo tribe is exclusively in the Southern states, right?
Another criticism is the fact that you discussed some “no-maj” (a North American term for muggles) medicine men that faked their magic and labelled North American wizards as skinwalkers. I understand that this is Rowling’s Potter universe, and that she can do what she wants with it, however, the medicine man is a sacred position that is passed on from generation to generation. It is the most divine position of a tribe and holds similar reverence to a pope, or perhaps even more accurately, as a prophet. They are the conduit through which tribes practice their spirituality, and to use that in your story in such a derogatory way, without discussing the importance and reverence of the medicine man is somewhat insulting. But, in the colonizer’s culture, the colonizer can do what they want with our holy men—including using it as a prop to paint all Native tribes as being the same.
Now, after the first piece, the history of Indigenous peoples is absent. Instead of detailing the history of persecution, racism, displacement, and genocide, Rowling decides to detail the persecution of witches, and other colonizer-on-colonizer persecution. It is as if we did not even exist prior or subsequent to colonization. If Rowling is to discuss persecution of the magic community, why not discuss the cultural genocide the colonizer committed against Indigenous peoples? There is a time in North American history where Indian youth would be beaten to death for using “plant-magic,” as Rowling would put it. Did Rowling forget about this part of the Indigenous peoples history? Or does she know this, but prefers not to write it because it is too dark and ugly for her story?
This is the reality of our history; of Indigenous peoples history under the tight-web of colonization. The colonizer can take our mythology and use it when they want without touching the bloody and destructive history. This is why we are angry at what some may deem as “trivial” like cultural appropriation in young adult fiction. You can’t take the icing and leave the cake. This is a history that must be told and retold. This is the history of a land and culture taken from us, and Rowling has unwittingly shown that to her readers.