Indigenous Fashion, on the Daily

Nā Mandeno Martin | Tainui, Ngaati Maahuta
Te Wainuiarua Poa | Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi

The space between inspiration and appropriation is, to the non Indigenous person, a fine line. When white people create fashion inspired by Indigenous culture, they defend themselves in the name of art belonging to no-one. That is the answer for the ignorant, and those who clearly haven’t studied enough academia to come to terms with the word ‘plagiarism’—which seems over exasperated in a student’s life.

To cherry pick the best parts of a marginalised, and often suppressed indigenous culture is to ignore the struggles endured to be able to wear our own tāonga with pride. 

Indigenous fashion isn’t purely advocating rights or sustainability, but active decolonisation of what it means to wear what gives us pride in our ancestral lands. This encompasses breaking standards set upon body types, gender, identity, and the Victorian merit to modesty. The Western value of what's acceptable and what’s appropriate is embedded in the way we embellish ourselves, and it’s time to have that discussion.

Starting right off the bat with tangi: within the Māori world it is widespread knowledge that you wear all black. You shouldn’t wear anything too revealing, like short skirts or shorts—this is enforced heavier upon our wāhine. Ripped jeans are a holy hecka nah, unless you want to get roasted by every kuia within the marae radius. The gumboots are a bit of a slide because no one will make it up the hill to the urupā in red bottoms. European ideals of modesty, popularised by rituals such as the funeral customs of Queen Victoria, where it is common practice to wear all black to represent mourning for the loss of a loved one. These ideas were forced tactics to assimilate Māori to the ‘proper’ standards of Western dress. 

This extends further than tangi, it reaches our workplace, education institutions, and night outs. If one doesn’t cover or dress themselves according to the occasion you will be ostracised. 

Introducing the term ‘hori’ or ‘bougie’, commonly associated to Māori people who dress in oversized, impoverished looking ‘home wear’, or dress in expensive garments but come from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Let me tell you how much I hate when white people use the word ‘hori’ to describe a low quality looking thing or person. They use our kupu to affirm the way we dress without having to experience the legitimate poverty passed down from their ancestors. This disallows access to the luxurious everyday wear that is readily available to the majority. 

Indigenous fashion is the reclamation of what we, as Māori and especially as tauira, see fit. This involves our hand-me-down clothes from our grandparents, the hoodie you’ve  had since year 10, and that Tommy Hilfiger jacket you got for an absolute bargain. I guarantee you that Becky will be trying to recreate the same look, but in overpriced Nike booty shorts and doo rag looking bandana from Lovisa anyway. 

Because it always has been and always will be, beautiful to be brown.