Dreaded culture: The appropriation of a culture of resistance in Aotearoa New Zealand

In Subculture: The Meaning of Style ([1979] 1988), Dick Hebdige noted that ‘somewhere between Trenchtown and Ladbroke Grove the cult of Rastafari had become a “style”: an expressive combination of “locks,” of khaki camouflage and “weed”'. For cultures of resistance such as Rastafari, aesthetic determinants are more than simple visually identifying features. Rather, these elements are the foundation of unity, a shared aesthetic that points to a shared world-view, a shared consciousness or livity. However, in the processes of cultural appropriation, the significance of such aesthetic qualities are often entirely re-determined. This article considers the cultural appropriation of Rastafari in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand in order to reflect upon the intricate ways in which the aesthetic elements of culture play into the processes of appropriation. In so doing, this article illustrates the contradictions and ambiguities involved in processes of cultural appropriation and suggests that such processes be considered in relation to their contextual adoption, rather than by way of simple reductionist binaries.