I've been keeping this to myself for awhile now but I keep pressing up against this topic a lot in recent discussions because it keeps coming up. I think this is the appropriate and relevant time to mention it, if ever.
I come from Irish ancestry. It was very important to my family that we never lost ties to our home country and home culture. To this day, we still cook traditional Irish food, share Irish folklore, and the older folks in my family strictly adhere to Irish superstitions. Just today I was talking to a member of my family about how they thought they saw one of our traditional spirits in the woods.
When I was very young, we used to go to a local convention center once a year because they would host an Irish culture festival. At the time, most of the people who went were second and third generation Irish immigrants trying to connect with their families. It wasn't just ancient Irish culture, either. It's also how I discovered some Irish and Irish American bands.
However, I have never been to Ireland and I don't speak Irish. Most Irish people would consider me an American. Some people from Ireland have even told me that I would never be seen as truly Irish even if I immigrated there and neither would my children but my grandchildren might. Although, in my opinion, much of Ireland's contemporary culture seems more accepting than that.
I've spoken to Irish Reconstructionists (that is, members of the Neopagan religion) from Ireland who speak Irish and study Irish history. I know quite a bit about Irish folk magic and Celtic mythology from not only being raised in it and studying it but also from seeking out these Reconstructionists and practicing with them. All of this felt very natural.
Even being raised in a poor mostly-white suburb, it wasn't uncommon for people to identify as Italian American or French American or Anglo-Saxon. I was picked on for coming from an Irish family. I was called slurs particular to Irish people and compared to Irish stereotypes. I don't even speak with an accent, but my real name is very obviously Irish and I certainly look the part. People who think that racism against Irish Americans ended with JFK have never had to live with white supremacists who boast about how much German or Nordic blood they have. So in this sense, "Irish" is even a group that I was forced into.
This deep into my post,you might say, "Ella, if that is your real name, (it isn't) what is your point?" Well, I'm getting there. I think this is all important background information to understand where I'm coming from.
We stopped going to the Irish culture festival because a lot of people who had no connection to Ireland began to take part in it and shift the focus away from genuine Irish traditions. Primarily, these were local Druid and Wiccan groups, but we also had a lot of people who did some DNA test and discovered they were 8% Irish or something. The last time we went the most genuinely Irish part we could find was someone offering to find our historical tartan but we already know it, the rest felt more like a St. Patrick's Day celebration.
Personally, I have nothing against Druids or Wiccans using Irish imagery or symbolism but a lot of people in my family vehemently hate them in large part because they make it more difficult for us to find other Irish Americans. They also see Wicca and Druidism as, well, wrong and misguided and they don't want me to have anything to do with those groups. It would be easy for them to claim cultural appropriation.
Here's the point: don't I get a say in whether they're appropriating Irish, or at least Irish American, culture, too? What if I say, no, I don't have any problems with what they're doing? Does my voice override how it makes my family feel? What if I share my experience with my culture and its festivals with my husband (or wife or whatever) and our kids? Are they now culturally appropriating if they do things my family disapproves of despite my acceptance of it?
I really don't know. I think, in general, one should try to be respectful of other people. I like that Wiccans and Druids don't (usually) openly claim to be truly following the authentic, ancient Irish ways. It means that I can (and have) found a lot of common ground with them and I can still search for specific things based on the few words of Irish Gaelic that I do know. As long as they don't start writing articles in Irish Gaelic, I don't care what they do because it doesn't affect me.
However, if they did start doing those things... yeah, I wouldn't be comfortable with that but at the same time cultures aren't rigid things. They change over time and they're influenced by outside forces just as often as they're the influence. Is that really such a bad thing? Sure, Wiccans have a very different idea of who Cernunnos is, but does that mean they shouldn't be allowed to have those beliefs? I don't think so. Should they keep them to themselves? No.
The only issue I see is when you claim or imply some sort of false authenticity. I mean, not even really authentic Irish Reconstructionists do that because to them it comes across as obnoxiously elitist and no two Irish Reconstructionists believe the same thing. It's actually quite simple; don't claim to be a part of a community you've never so much as had lunch with somebody from or whose communal rituals you don't partake in and don't lie about where you get your ideas from or present them as the "proper" interpretation of some text or another. Really, everyone should follow these rules regardless of the question of whether they're engaging in "cultural appropriation."
