Aboriginal Motifs

http://www.ozmall.co.jp/trip/kaigai/001/uluru.asp

Functions and Philosophies

1. Respect

Respecting Indigenous rights to cultural heritage includes the following protocols.

Acknowledgement of the country

Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, are the original inhabitants of Australia.18 As such they have a strong link to country, meaning the totality of life and the spirit of the particular area of land they and their ancestors inhabited.

When organising an exhibition, installation or event of local, state or national significance, it is respectful to invite a representative of the traditional owners to attend and give a ‘welcome to country’ address.

Public art - acknowledging land

For Indigenous artists, it it common practice to seek approval from the Indigenous community for public art-based projects in any particular ‘country’ in Australia. This ensures it would not be offensive to the local community.

Accepting diversity

There are many experience and cultural context within Indigenous communities. The Indigenous cultures are living and evolving entitles. Avoid inappropriate or outdated perspectives and terminology when dealing with any cultural groups.

2. Recognition and protection

The Indigenous visual artists own copyright in their artworks. They can control the reproduction and dissemination of the artworks. It is important to understand the Copyright Act and how cultural material might be protected under them. However, there are currently no special copyright laws dealing with Indigenous cultural material.

Moral Rights and Issues

The Indigenous arts were created not just for entertainment but for passing their messages over the new generations or for the sacred reasons. The techniques has been taken over from the old to the new generations for long time.

Their culture must be respected and the moral rights are to be thought about as well.

 

The alteration of the work by adapting, cutting, editing or enhancing may materially alter the original intention of the work and infringe on the artist's moral rights. It is also important to note that with Indigenous cultural material, maintaining the integrity of the work is important for the source communities as well.

Source:

Protocols for producing Indigenous Australian visual arts:

http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/32368/Visual_arts_protocol_guide.pdf

Native American Motifs

Cleveland Indians

"Chief Wahoo"

THEIR LOGO'S HISTORY

1915-1920

1921-1927

1928

1929-1932

1933-1945

1946-1950

The 1st "Chief Wahoo"

1951-1972

1973-1979

1980

Symbolism and Racism in Sports

The findings about symbolism and racism underscore observations that the Chief Wahoo icon is an appropriated image of American Manifest Destiny ideologies that is difficult to study, and impossible to root out. In a perverted sense this "honoring" or inferiorizing of the "natural" noble-savage Native, is an integral symbol of American popular culture and history. An "Indians" team is generic language shared by "the major six" (National Coalition Against Racism in Sports): Washington "Redskins" and Kansas City "Chiefs" football teams, Atlanta "Braves" baseball team, the Florida State "Seminoles" and the Illinois "Illini" university named mascots, including dancing "Chief Illini" and horseback riding fake warchiefs in feather headdresses at Florida games.

Racism is thus controlled and defined by dominant group ideologies (Thompson, 1990), that responds differentially to similar cases of different ethnic groups. "Frito Bandito and Black Sambo were eliminated, but Chief Wahoo and his ilk live on...." Bellecourt, (1997) maintains, speaking for the suppressed American Indian Movement. Responding to social movements, protests, economic and demographic pressures emanating from minority ethnic groups in relation to institutional structures with specific goals and objectives, our American society, collectively, does not include small groups with idealized or denied histories, like Native American "Nations."

Racism is thereby expressed through the Wahoo icon as being socio-politically acceptable, especially in accordance with group behavior and ritual, continually reinforced by its own leaders. 

CONCEPT/THEME

The name of the team was changed to "Indians" for the honour of the first native American player, Louis Sockalexis.

Then the logo was created, which is modeled on a character in a cartoon called "big chief wahoo". This cartoon was very popular during the 30's.

Sources:

http://www.toonopedia.com/wahoo.htm 

http://www.sportslogos.net/team.php?id=57

http://www.aistm.org/symbolic.racism.htm

http://www.bluecorncomics.com/wahoo.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Wahoo