I'm a random (Aussie, migrant) stranger who wandered by because you were mentioned as talking about cultural appropriation in Australia.
Acknowledgement of the traditional owners is very rare in my experience outside government/university circles.
And while I don't hang out much with hippies, I do get a very strong sense of, as you say, mix-&-match wet liberal hippy nonsense (I must remember that!). I'm shocked at how rarely even the fact that Australia is in the southern hemisphere is considered, and that for example traditional paganism and feng shui are intended for the northern hemisphere. Let alone the Australian landscape and biology, and you can just forget about Indigenous peoples.
I think there's a cultural embarrassment both about their existence and the state of that existence, and I think some of the stuff taken from NorAm Natives is taken precisely because the white Australians involved are completely oblivious to the fact that in fact the situations are quite comparable - they think NorAm Natives are magical fairytale humans deeply in touch with the earth blah blah blah. And I saw some of the same treatment of Indigenous Australian peoples when I lived in NorAm, and I found it fascinating how other continents' indigeneous legacy is more attractive, because no-one can call you on the bullshit I guess.
Aussie cultural appropriation
Acknowledgement of the traditional owners is very rare in my experience outside government/university circles.
And while I don't hang out much with hippies, I do get a very strong sense of, as you say, mix-&-match wet liberal hippy nonsense (I must remember that!). I'm shocked at how rarely even the fact that Australia is in the southern hemisphere is considered, and that for example traditional paganism and feng shui are intended for the northern hemisphere. Let alone the Australian landscape and biology, and you can just forget about Indigenous peoples.
I think there's a cultural embarrassment both about their existence and the state of that existence, and I think some of the stuff taken from NorAm Natives is taken precisely because the white Australians involved are completely oblivious to the fact that in fact the situations are quite comparable - they think NorAm Natives are magical fairytale humans deeply in touch with the earth blah blah blah. And I saw some of the same treatment of Indigenous Australian peoples when I lived in NorAm, and I found it fascinating how other continents' indigeneous legacy is more attractive, because no-one can call you on the bullshit I guess.