Cultural Appropriation in Fiction: Mutant Message

Cultural appropriation is an issue close to my heart, due to my tendency to write stories set all over the place. I don't intend to hurt people, but good intentions are as common as dandelions. The issue is how to go about writing such a story in an ethical way.

Most discussions talk about this in an abstract way. That wasn't good enough for me. I wanted details, which meant I needed case studies. I found one for 1p on Amazon: "Mutant Message Down Under" by Marlo Morgan. The story is about the time Marlo allegedly spent with Australian Aboriginal people. This book is the poster child for ways to misrepresent another culture.

In this post, I've included some background information about cultural appropriation. Then it's full steam ahead with reviewing the book's content, with a view to the cultural appropriation issues*... I recommend placing any beverages firmly on the mat during that part. Don't say I didn't warn you.

What is Cultural Appropriation?

Cultural appropriation is a common cultural process. Humans see useful or desirable things in other cultures and they make them their own. This has been going on for all recorded history and probably the unrecorded bits too. Some cultures are melting pots of bits and pieces from everywhere.

This is another way of saying, appropriation isn't always bad. It doesn't automatically harm the cultures involved. The trouble tends to come when the appropriation...

• Silences or replaces the voices of member of that culture.
• Misrepresents the culture. Coupled with the fact they're silenced, this becomes the mainstream view of that culture.
• Leads to profit for the appropriator, whilst members of the originating culture get nothing. This one is particularly noticeable when members of the culture live in poverty.

Outside of this, appropriation might make people grumpy, but the long term results aren't the same. If I wrote a story claiming that all Japanese people wear clogs, it's not going to have a long term effect on the culture or economy of Japan. If I wrote the same about Australian Aboriginal people, I'm sure I could get some people believing me.

Mutant Message Synopsis

Marlo Morgan is an American woman. She visits Australia and helps a group of Aboriginal youths (who she refers to as 'half-breeds') set up a business making window screens (an item she says she introduced to Australia). They need her help, because they're inherently lazy. And white Australians are too racist to try and help, believing Aborignal people to be lazy and worthless.

Far across the country, a tribe with no interaction with the modern world hear about her window screens. They're impressed. I'm not sure why, because they don't live in houses and therefore have no windows**. Or how they heard about it in the desert. But anyway, they invite her to visit them.

She accepts the offer, assuming they're going to offer her an award for her window-screening. Instead, they kidnap her and burn all her possessions. They tell her she's going with them on a journey across Australia lasting three months. So off she goes, as a very pale person with no sun protection and little clothing, over the Australian desert. She doesn't collapse from heat exhaustion or sun stroke.

The Real People (as they call themselves) call her 'mutant' and think she must be from outer space. They teach her the power of telepathy and show her special healing powers which heal bones overnight. Oddly, they don't teach her much about real Aboriginal culture... mostly they live with this strange mix of New Age and Native American beliefs***.

During this time, Marlo teaches them some of her own stuff. Like explaining cake. The Real People have an interesting view of cake:

I found their analogy of icing extremely powerful. It seemed to symbolize how much time, in the one-hundred-year Mutant [non-Aborignal] life span, is spent in artificial, superficial, temporary, decorative sweetened pursuits.

After all the walking and New Age philosophy is done, she's cut loose and sent home. She's sent with a message for the world... that the Real People are dying out through choice because the world is such an icky place. They couldn't tell people the message themselves, for reasons which aren't explained, seeing as they have a person who speaks English.

Breaking Down the Issues

Based on my reading of the book, I've highlighted the main problems (in my opinion). They cover most of the things a writer is likely to get wrong, so I think they could be re-used as a 'things not to do' for other work and other cultures.

1) Making People Shells
Marlo's tribe may have called themselves Real People, but they didn't act like them. They didn't have personalities, best friends, lovers... all the things that make a community a community rather than a hive mind. They were empty shells, ready to be filled with whatever the author needed at the time. They spoke with her words.

2) Reinforcing Stereotypes
Many negative stereotypes were reinforced, particularly in relation to the urban Aboriginal people. They were lazy and unable to motivate themselves on their own. They weren't 'proper' Aboriginals in Marlo's eyes.

The Real People were unable to speak for themselves. They needed a white woman to be their spokesperson--another common stereotype used for hunter-gatherer people.

Then there's the positive stereotypes... the idea of the 'noble savage', with advanced healing powers and an inability to lie. Though positive stereotypes can seem less harmful on the surface, they're not. An example is the issue of healthcare. On average, Aboriginal people have poorer health and shorter lifespans than other Australians. They don't have the same access to healthcare. Marlo's stereotype would have you believe there isn't a problem and therefore nothing needs to be done about it.

3) The Author's Worldview as the Culture's Worldview
Marlo's worldview came from a belief in New Age philosophies. So the Aboriginal people in her story believed these things too. She didn't show any Aboriginal beliefs that might conflict with her worldview, such as the traditional gender roles (which would have prevented her from doing a number of things in the book).

It suited Marlo's worldview to have the tribe dying out on purpose (by having no more children) because they're appalled by the state of the world. This isn't the worldview of real Aboriginal people, who aren't trying to wipe themselves out as a political statement. This also leads back to the problem of pretending a problem isn't a problem (i.e., if their numbers decline it's because they want to die out, not because conditions are bad and need improving).

4) Errors in Cultural Depiction
It's unlikely that you could write a book about another culture without making mistakes. But the level of 'mistake' in this book shows a general lack of research. Marlo bolted in lots of Native American culture (such as dream catchers and feathered head-dresses) as well as some New Age ideas (which seem to be the ones she wanted to promote).

5) Culture out of Context
Marlo's book shows ritual dances used as an entertainment for her. This would be like a story where someone wears a wedding dress to go grocery shopping. Just like the wedding dress, you'd expect some sort of explanation for the out-of-context behaviour.

6) Promoting Fiction as Fact
The book was technically a novel, but the introduction clearly states it's only a novel to protect the identity of the Real People. Marlo claimed it was a real experience in later interviews and talks. Despite the falsehood being uncovered (discussed in more detail later), many readers still believe it was true.

Even in a book clearly marked as fiction, there can be issues. If you've written an urban fantasy set in modern-day Australia, readers are likely to assume you've based your Aboriginal characters on their real culture. They're less likely to assume that if it's set in a mystical land far away.

7) Acting as a Spokesperson
Writing a story does not make you the representative of that culture. It doesn't make your voice more important than theirs. Marlo rubbed salt into the wounds by giving talks and setting herself up as a spokesperson. She seemed to be relying on people from the culture being silent and not having a way to complain.

Though most people wouldn't consider doing something that extreme, there is a more common issue in setting yourself up as an expert: defensiveness. It's easy to admit to a mistake when you're a learner. It's not so easy to admit it when you've claimed to be an expert****.

8) Profiting from Appropriation
I've seen it suggested that authors should considering donating money to the cultural inspiration. It's worth considering in this case, the Aboriginal people weren't objecting to missing out on a share of the profit. They were objecting to Marlo profiting from misrepresentation. The principle is the larger issue here (which isn't to say the donating idea is a bad one... it just doesn't make up for misrepresenting a culture).

What Happened Next?

The book made its way to Australia. Then something happened that Marlo probably didn't expect... Aboriginal people read it and started asking questions. Who were the Real People? Why did their culture bear little resemblance to any other group in that area? Details of the book were sent out to Aboriginal groups across Australia, trying to find out the truth. None of them had heard of Marlo.

Marlo eventually admitted that she'd made it up and apologised to a group of Aboriginal Elders. The full story is detailed in a report by Dumbartung (a group responsible for promoting Aboriginal art and protecting the rights of Aboriginal artists). However, she continued to tour and released a second book, so the apology didn't really mean anything.

Conclusions

In a world where Aboriginal people were writing in every genre, Mutant Message would be irrelevant. It wouldn't have any real impact and most people would realise it was made up. But we're not living in that world, and that's why the appropriation hurt. For many readers, this book was their first introduction to Aboriginal culture... and it wasn't a good one.

It didn't help that the apology got less publicity than the book, allowing Marlo to continue with her lectures and publish a sequel. This example highlights why cultural appropriation is such a sensitive issue. Marlo's inaccurate version of Aboriginal culture is better known than the real thing. In the end, she isn't the one who has to worry about the fall-out from the misinformation. That falls squarely on the Australian Aboriginal people... it's perhaps not a surprise that they're not keen on people writing about their culture. There are too many Marlo Morgans and not enough positive examples.

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* I'm not an expert on Australian Aboriginal culture or issues of cultural appropriation (though I know enough that the problems with the book were like big flashing lights with bells on them). I've cross-checked facts with Aboriginal sources as much as possible, but there may be gaps. Please let me know if I've made a mistake.

** Not necessarily true of modern day Aboriginal people, but the fictional group in the book didn't live in houses.

*** Though this discussion deals mainly with the Australian Aboriginal people, it's worth noting that there are other racial misrepresentations in the book. 1) Appropriating Native American culture and reusing it as alleged Aboriginal practises. 2) Depicting all white Australians as being deeply racist. Racists exist everywhere, but so do people working against racism. I assume she did this so that she would appear to be awesomely un-racist. 3) I didn't notice Australians of other races, which struck me as odd.

**** This was noticeable in the recent racefail discussions, about racism and cultural appropriation in speculative fiction. Some of the arguments were caused by people becoming extremely defensive when they made mistakes, rather than saying "yeah, I'm a beginner at this... and I messed up."