Thinking a lot about @ExeterChiefs and the Native American branding. So many reasons why this is a really odd branding choice for an English rugby team, but when I look at fans’ comments, it’s clear they don’t have any idea why it’s offensive. @ExChiefs4Change

And I can’t really blame them – British people aren’t ever really taught about indigenous people and how they’ve been treated, and I doubt the Chiefs have done much to give any context to the headdress, the Tomohawk chop, the Pow Wow bar.

To be honest, I was pretty ignorant on a lot of this until I was lucky enough to travel and find out about a lot of different indigenous cultures. I was, and still am, horrified at what I found; cultures eradicated, children stolen, whole peoples treated as sub-human.

These pictures are from a museum in Vancouver – the Great Raven mask was once banned, along with cultural ceremonies like Potlatches. It represents great power in a community and can only be worn by its leaders. It’s incredibly valuable and important to the Kwakwaka’wakw people.

Lots of First Nation communities from the Pacific Northwest were forced to give up valuable, beautiful items that represented their culture – either confiscated by the ‘government’, or they were forced to sell them.

So to see white, British people now wearing similar items without any knowledge of what they mean, to see them caricatured by a plastic costume, is just desperately sad. People were forced to give up and forget their culture, punished by the ‘law’ for practicing their culture –

– and now rugby fans in England can freely wear a headdress and sing a chant. @ExeterChiefs have an opportunity to teach people about this history, how indigenous people across the world were persecuted by this country and colonies, about the powerful, positive meanings behind

these beautiful headdresses, what the Pow Wow really represents. Instead they’ve chosen to ignore any history behind this, ignore all the native American voices that are upset by this. What a missed opportunity. Here’s to @ExChiefs4Change making more waves.