Bionicle – my actual part in its origins (2015)

I am going to have a field day with that site.

Thank you.

Hm, does it not have the tabletop game (hex tiles, D&D dice) on that site, or am I just not finding it?

It's worth considering if the people complaining are the actual people so concerned or just Social Justice Warriors bitching for attention.

If it's the former, it is obviously and absolutely necessary to listen to their concerns and perhaps demands and try and find a solution that satisfies everyone.

If it's the latter, we really need to use their playbook and just Cancel Culture(tm) the SJWs for the betterment of humanity.

You will never please everyone.

I am an immigrant in a European country. Most people are like “wow, good for you, you’ve learned the language!”, but I have also, from a couple of gen Z folks, had accusations of being a coloniser and cultural appropriation… for learning the language of the country in which I live. I was surprised enough that I didn’t realise I was being accosted at first. As a crusty old millennial it never even occurred to me that learning someone’s language could be offensive to them. “Portuguese is for the Portuguese, not for foreigners!” was one of them. Strange how there’s this mix of anti-coloniser sentiment that actually seems to be or at least feed into anti-immigrant sentiment.

Bluntly, I think these people are idiots, and safely ignored.

Well there was a time when Maori were stopped by others from speaking and using their own language, and I guess nowadays they've had to bootstrap Maori language starting with full immersion Maori language schooling from childhood. There's a couple of generations of Maori between post WWII and late Gen X who weren't bought up in the Maori language and have had to go to great lengths to reclaim it, but most haven't been able to at all. Maori culture isn't just about the language, there's the meaning and context of the language, as well as cultural aspects of place (whenua, turangawaewae) and ancestral connection (whanau, whakapapa). You can't divide or separate these things, and the language is not a thing floating around in isolation from the culture.

It holds true for every culture. Even the English will tell you english is a language and kindly don't bastardise it. That is to say there's a whole culture around the English language and its proper usage.

Look at these artefacts the community was admiring just yesterday https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41536156 We know jack all about the people who created these, and most of it was lost. Three comments in the whole thread, we know humanity fucked up because we don't know what to say, and so we keep making the same mistake over and over and over

It's really funny because if someone is accusing you of cultural appropriation, they're actually saying you're not acting like how they think YOU should act, the stereotype for how you look or your background, and they're telling you to feel bad about it. i.e. racism.

The real distinction was whether one is PARODYING another culture than their own. That usually does not go well unless you have good comedic skills and an audience that trusts you.

They're a multi-billion dollar company with no connection to Māori culture, and they picked some Māori words for your product because they feel exotic and they'll "help crack the Far East market". The article doesn't talk about the brief incorporating actual Māori culture, just picking up the words because they sound good.

Do you need a "safe way" to make a product for profit using a culture you don't know anything about? There's plenty of room for Māori people and pākehā to make content that actually incorporates the language and the culture. Look at the use of haka in sporting events, for instance.

Back in undergrad I had to attend an event that was about these extreme social justice-y topics, and yeah, it was pretty self defeating. Was my first exposure to that kind of thing outside of the internet.

It was kind of offensive, since a big chunk of it was telling me that I was supposed to be mad about "outsiders" trying to participate in positive or neutral aspects of my home country's culture without necessarily fully understanding it.

The Māori's main criticism was the use of the word "Tohunga", which in Māori means something like "respected expert", but in Bionicle meant "funny little guy who is constantly getting into trouble".

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/31/andrewosborn

> The Maoris protested that the word Tohunga - the name Lego gave to the cowed inhabitants of the island - was the Polynesian word for spiritual healer and that using it in such a trivial context was offensive.

Lego changed that term to "Matoran", and modified a few other terms/spellings slightly, and the Māori were happy.

As the user Kaikue pointed out in another comment, the Māori had a couple specific comments, which Lego addressed, and then everyone seems to have moved on.

My stance on appropriation is more nuanced than most, I think. If you're not part of a culture, but you use their language, dress, or other cultural trappings, that's appropriation; whether or not that's bad is a different question. But here's the thing: you don't get to be the one who decides whether or not it's bad. A billion dollar company commercializing Māori language because they thought it sounded neat was probably not the greatest starting point, and though I'm sympathetic to Alastair for not having access to the resources to properly vet his usage of te reo Māori, I don't think Lego had such limitations and probably should have put a little more effort in.

Perhaps another, more recent example: in the video game Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, one of the main cultures that the player interacts with are the Huana, a Māori/Pacific Islander-inspired culture that is, not coincidentally, beset on multiple sides by colonial powers. Game director Josh Sawyer says[1] "...we should have also hired some Māori consultants specifically to look at the Huana. The Huana aren’t really Māori (just like the Rauatai aren’t really Japanese), but even a fictional culture that’s only “inspired by” a mix of real world cultures can still get into uncomfortable or outright bad territory.

A few Pacific Islanders have contacted me to tell me that they appreciate that Deadfire deals with PI-type cultures and colonial themes. I’m genuinely glad for that, but we could have very easily done something incredibly shitty through pure ignorance. It never hurts to ask ahead of time."

[1]https://www.tumblr.com/jesawyer/622841880878678016/looking-b...

I believe LEGO (unsuccessfully) tried to trademark several Maori words as well, which certainly is a bit of an attack.