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Dear wider world:
"maori spirits": not universally evil, also, not often called spirits. Also, Maori do not have shamans or medicine men or live in teepees, and they never have. Ever. Kaumatua is not a difficult word to find and it would be so much better than shaman, thanks.
Also, enough of the soul-eating Maori monsters!11!!1. If you want to incorporate that aspect of Maori culture, great, good for you, but get it right. Otherwise, don't use it in fic, don't use it in fanworks, and DON'T, DON'T, DON'T use it in actual published work - and published only a few years ago, I might add - that you want to get money for. (*cough* Gotham Knights 16-17. The thing that pissed me off the most about them is that it was half-right- some (some) of the art was pretty good (and then some was awful. There's a whole goddamned wiki page on ta moko and it even has pictures! But it is fairly recent, so.)
And may I just add? I know next to nothing about Maori culture and history, I don't speak te reo and I don't even know my mihi. So if I can tell that it's appalling, so can everyone else. JUST SAY NO to using a culture you know nothing about.
NO LOVE
Me
This PSA was brought to you by Gotham Knights 16-17 (Devin Grayson, Roger Robinson), and then seeing it once to many times as a gimmick. And I really like GK, so it pissed me off more than normal. NO MORE EATING BRAINS, WORLD, OKAY?
ETA: THIS IS ME PUBLICALLY DEFENDING![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
keymash's HONOUR, BY THE WAY. I was busy sleeping when she was being given the inappropriate smackdown by my brother and his friend, who are clearly unable to distinguish IRONY from LJ comments. So, *ahem*, I have known keymash for, like, at least over a year and she was so totally making a joke oh my god. A satire, even. *shakes head*
That said, I am sort of glad because that was very funny.
"maori spirits": not universally evil, also, not often called spirits. Also, Maori do not have shamans or medicine men or live in teepees, and they never have. Ever. Kaumatua is not a difficult word to find and it would be so much better than shaman, thanks.
Also, enough of the soul-eating Maori monsters!11!!1. If you want to incorporate that aspect of Maori culture, great, good for you, but get it right. Otherwise, don't use it in fic, don't use it in fanworks, and DON'T, DON'T, DON'T use it in actual published work - and published only a few years ago, I might add - that you want to get money for. (*cough* Gotham Knights 16-17. The thing that pissed me off the most about them is that it was half-right- some (some) of the art was pretty good (and then some was awful. There's a whole goddamned wiki page on ta moko and it even has pictures! But it is fairly recent, so.)
And may I just add? I know next to nothing about Maori culture and history, I don't speak te reo and I don't even know my mihi. So if I can tell that it's appalling, so can everyone else. JUST SAY NO to using a culture you know nothing about.
NO LOVE
Me
This PSA was brought to you by Gotham Knights 16-17 (Devin Grayson, Roger Robinson), and then seeing it once to many times as a gimmick. And I really like GK, so it pissed me off more than normal. NO MORE EATING BRAINS, WORLD, OKAY?
ETA: THIS IS ME PUBLICALLY DEFENDING
keymash's HONOUR, BY THE WAY. I was busy sleeping when she was being given the inappropriate smackdown by my brother and his friend, who are clearly unable to distinguish IRONY from LJ comments. So, *ahem*, I have known keymash for, like, at least over a year and she was so totally making a joke oh my god. A satire, even. *shakes head*That said, I am sort of glad because that was very funny.
