Alessandro " <ale.profeti@email.it>
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 07:57:37 -0000
Subject: [nafps_again] Natives Vs. Exploiters: positive outcomes on the Italian front
Hello everybody.
>
> Ale wanted you all to learn about the most recent
> developements in the twinkie-situation down here in> Italy, but because of his limited English skills asked> me if I could do that instead, and I was glad to> oblige.
> Greetings
> Maxmaran
> Natives Vs. Exploiters: positive outcomes on the
> Italian front.
> As we all know, exploiters of Indian sacred
> spirituality are active all over Europe, but at least
> in Italy life has become much harder for them lately.
> A few weeks ago the founder/moderator of a very
> popular MSN community in Italian language devoted to First Nation has banned all advertisement of "Indian spirituality events" from the board.
> Recently Hunkapi, an Italian based association
> promoting cultural exchange with American Indians, has> taken a formal stance against this kind of phenomena and published, both on their website and on their> official magazine, the translation into Italian language of many documents written by American Indians
> to denounce the New Age rip-off of Indian
> spirituality. Among which Al Carroll's by now famous> warning originally published on the NAFPS website.
> The same documents were also published on many local websites and forums devoted to American Indian> culture.
> Many Italian websites offering "Indian shamanic
> experiences" and the like have disappeared after
> having been exposed, the most glamorous example of> them all probably being the "Golden Horse" website, manned by Italian associates of Harley "Swiftdeer" Reagan.
> Of course plastic shamans are still active on the
> Italian soil, but it is safe to say that Italian
> people are better informed about them now than it was two years or so ago. And the exploiters' business activities surely feel the difference.
> Even more remarkable is the fact that all this was
> achieved without mounting some huge campaign of activism involving thousend of people, but mostly with the work of individuals, like Alessandro Profeti of> the Wayaka website, that has been working on it harder than anybody else, and small groups of people like the Hunkapi Association.
> And of course nothing would have been possible without> the knowledge and help of all people at nafps_again Yahoo! newsgroup.
> I say this because I think there is a big lesson in
> it. If in each and every country of Europe a few
> individuals, coordinating via the web with Indians on> the other side of the Ocean, had to do the same...
