Music

Glastonbury has banned the sales of 'offensive and disrespectful' native headdresses

by Mark Teo

Last summer, Bass Coast, the Merritt, B.C.-based electronic music festival, made headlines when they prohibited wearing native headdresses. At the time, we wrote that we hoped Bass Coast was starting a trend: The festival said that they consulted with native groups from the region over the issue, and aligned their policy with “their views and wishes regarding the subject. Their opinion is what matters to us.” To use an oft-overused phrase, the festival was on the right side of history.

Months on, it seems like other festivals are listening—and a positive trend may be evolving. After a Change.org petition was launched (and subsequently received its 65 votes), founder Daniel W. Round said that the mega-festival contacted him, saying that they were banning the sale of headdresses.

“I have just spoken with someone at the Glastonbury festival office—they got in touch to inform me that the festival has decided to ban the sale of headdresses from next year!,” he wrote, in a update. “See the updated list of products/services that traders cannot sell on site.

“Our petition, small in numbers but passionate in support, pushed this issue right up to Emily Eavis, and she listened. From next year, alongside candle flares and flags, Native American style headdresses will not be on sale at Glasto stalls.”

Kudos to Round, Glastonbury, and everyone who supported the petition. While their statement wasn’t as bold as Bass Coast’s—which banned wearing war bonnets outright—it’s important to remember the scale of Glastonbury: It’s one of the biggest music festivals in the world: Kate Bush and Oasis are rumoured to headline next year’s edition, while 2014’s edition of the festival featured everyone from Arcade Fire to Jack White to Four Tet to Richie Hawtin. Indeed, for Glastonbury, banning headdresses is an important statement.

It’s encouraging, too, to see festivals in the U.K. adopt a struggle that they could’ve painted as a North American issue. “There has long been consensus among indigenous civil rights activists in North America about the wearing of headdresses by non-Natives—that it is an offensive and disrespectful form of cultural appropriation, that it homogenizes diverse indigenous peoples, and that it perpetuates damaging, archaic and racist stereotypes,” the Change.org petition writes.

The message is loud and clear: It doesn’t matter if you’re in Canada, the U.S., or the U.K.—cultural appropriation is shitty, no matter where you live.