 Yeah, so a few things here about cultural appropriation, which there's a lot of sensitivity to these days So, you know, here we are in the dominant culture facing a disintegration of the culture really Severance of our ties to tradition to our indigeneity to our structures of meaning And so we're hungry for these things We're hungry for Rituals that feel authentic. We're hungry for stories that tell us who we are We're hungry for a sense of belonging. We're hungry for identity because identity is built through relation relationships and our relationships have been attenuated and reduced by consumer culture by Technology so so here we are hungry for meaning hungry for identity hungry for belonging and then we come across Indigenous practices rituals stories That Offer Offer some meaning offer some identity. So one form of appropriation is to like latch on to that and identify with that and It's like it's almost like you're kind of using it Almost as like a consumer product to meet an unmet need At the same time though, there's also a really authentic beautiful longing here like that that That comes from the the bankruptcy of our culture the danger is to bankrupt the other cultures too and To to turn them into, you know Workshop leaders and and to kind of commoditize Their culture and essentially strip mine their culture just as we strip mind their places Their mountains their rivers their soils And there's still something left. It's the culture and maybe we can strip mine that as well So that's that's one of the dangers You know, so you have yeah, so like the hunger for identity and meaning, you know So maybe you practice yoga and you take on a Hindu name and you identify with any do Hindu rituals You know from the yoga tradition And that meets some of the need perhaps And I'm not necessarily even saying this is a bad thing because there's another level here where all of the Cultures on earth that were not fully colonized and that I say fully because Most of them have been to some extent There are very very few if any well, there are few maybe more or less pristine Cultures that have have escaped the influence of modernization But even the ones that have been heavily influenced. There's usually something there that has been preserved And that's been preserved for a reason. It's been preserved not and the reason isn't to keep it and to protect it To preserve our traditions Traditions never were preserved. They never were static. They were alive and organic and they evolved over time and each culture then through what has been preserved or what has not died what has not been colonized Has a gift to offer the the planet today like these precious treasures that have been kept Sacred and kept safe within Maori culture within every culture Outside of the dominant culture Those are Part of the great reunion the coming together the next evolutionary step of the planet They've been kept safe for a reason and the time and this isn't just like me some white guy making this up okay, this comes from a lot of deep conversations and communion with wisdom keepers and They all say the same thing Which is that the time has come For the hidden treasures to be made visible to be brought into the world to be shared whether it's by Indigenous people whether it's Secret like mystery schools and lineages that have within dominant cultures have kept certain knowledge safe and secret It was necessary for it to be secret and no longer necessary So all of the hidden gifts are coming to the surface right now for the times that we are in so I think that Yeah, I think this is and it might be a bit of a contentious thing to say Especially as a person with pale skin but maybe those of you Who are connected to these traditions? Can feel the truth of it? that all Things ultimately all gifts are meant to be given forward. So there's An element that's still necessary of protecting it protecting it from being Monetized commercialized strip-mind Basically to keep it sacred, but no longer to keep it secret to say yeah, this is a sacred offering to the world We would love for you to learn Our dances but not to learn them as some kind of spectacle To put on a performance and charge money for it But to learn them as the gateway to a deeper knowledge that we've kept safe for you and when it when that knowledge is offered and accepted with permission and Grounded in that lineage and Connected with a whole way of thinking and a whole value system and Part of this arising story when it's done in that way, that's not cultural appropriation that's receiving a gift respectfully and Accepting the duty that comes with a gift the obligation that comes with a gift to pass the gift forward to use that gift for the purpose that it's there for and Not to divert the gift toward narrow self-interest