Cross-Cultural Song Carrying at Song Village

Song Village recognizes the vastness of the wisdom and beauty expressed in each of our human cultures. We believe that this diversity can provide healing, sanity, and balance to both our individual and collective lives. Many of us hunger for perspectives that the dominating cultures of the earth have all but drowned out. Thus, we heartily welcome participation from those who have experience in different traditions, be they from distant lands or from subcultures within the USA.

We also recognize that cross-cultural song-carrying carries the potential to replicate some of the dynamics of worldwide colonization. We humans have a tragic history of people from some cultures raiding the lives and resources of others. This violent appropriation of land and wealth has included terrible racism, slavery, and genocide. Some cultures and peoples have been destroyed. Others have survived and found new meaning in their experience of struggle. But the injustices continue, and there are both past and fresh wounds that remain unhealed.

Thus, it is understandable that someone witnessing a person from a dominant culture, leading a song from a culture that has suffered oppression, might feel the pain of once again having something they feel belongs to them, ripped off. It does not matter that the song leader may intend no harm, for a lack of awareness of the harm done has been a cover for unspeakable violence throughout the world. And professing innocence can actually deepen the pain triggered in this experience.

And yet, in all likelihood, cross-cultural song sharing at Song Village is indeed intended as an act of respect and gratitude for the culture from which a song originates. It is an acknowledgment that another culture has wisdom and beauty that we all need. It is intended as a way to lift and spread that value, so it can help us counter the imbalances the dominant culture has subjected us all to.

This presents us with a dilemma that other song gatherings and many other groups are also struggling with. How can we embrace cross-cultural exchange, while growing in our sensitivity to the pain of cultural appropriation?

At Song Village we recognize that this question is both alive and unsettled. We recognize that different people within the same demographic group may have very different perspectives. Racism teaches us all that we belong to separate groups, based on the arbitrary characteristics that our culture uses to designate race. In reality, our racial characteristics do not define the soulfulness of our connection to a song, regardless of the song’s origin. And our racial characteristics do not define how we feel about who should or should not lead a song from another culture.

Our racial characteristics do, however, greatly affect what we have experienced in a world steeped in racism. And those who have suffered oppression are the ones who know in their bones when that pain is being triggered. While it may be hard to objectively define either one, the pain of perceived cultural appropriation is as real as the innocence of perceived respectful cross-cultural song leading.

Given the complexity, the Song Village organizers have decided not to try to legislate any guidelines. Rather, we welcome any discussion that emerges from our experience together. And we encourage this discussion to proceed with empathy and positive regard for all involved. We want all the feelings generated at Song Village to be heard, all the people expressing them to be cared about, and all the participants to grow in their understanding of each other through the process.