ms. bricolage

It’s here! After months of talking about it, and weeks of procrastinating it, ups, downs and some skype calls, it is here! Welcome to The Stitchers Lab Network presentation/applications post!

With season 3 starting soon in a few months and after everything we did, nothing seems better than doing the prep for it together. That’s how the idea of a net came to me and @harleyquinl, we love the fam, we love the show and we want a space where we can all get to meat each other better and share the feels and hopefully a strong and pretty emotional friendship.

Do we have your attention?

Radcliffe’s exact quote is: “And I’m still friends with them because I don’t think that friendship should be drawn along those lines.”

And like… This is exactly what we mean when we talk about how being an ally means you have to actively help dismantle racism, especially within your communities and with other white people. If you’ve ever said “But I’M not racist so what do you want me to do??????” then this shit right here is what the fuck you’re supposed to do.

Pretending like your white friends holding racist beliefs is just some minor thing you disagree with like what toppings go best on pizza or if Coke is better than Pepsi is, to be quite honest, fucking disgusting.

And if you think that severing a friendship over racism is going too far then you perhaps need to re-evaluate how much of an ally you actually are.

The Plains warbonnet is not a Cherokee thing. It is not a Navajo thing. It is not an Indian thing. It is a Plains thing.

Stop calling every silly thing you draw that even vaguely resembles a native “Cherokee” or “Navajo” or “Aztec.”

Stop drawing the warbonnet everywhere as the apparently definitive native thing. It isn’t part of all of our 600+ cultures.

Same goes for the tipi, not part of every one of the 600+ indigenous cultures.

Stop thinking that if a native person doesn’t have dark, “mahogany” skin, that their heritage is invalid. Even without admixture, we actually do have varying skin tones.

Stop wearing crappy fake warbonnets.

Stop wearing redface.

Stop using us as your silly mascots. We are people.

Stop saying “spirit animal.” It’s derived from a New Age bastardization of a something that actually exists in some of our cultures.

Don’t smudge. Cleanse all you like, that’s fine, but don’t smudge.

Don’t call us “Indians.” “Native American” isn’t great either, it is not our name, but it’s slightly better than “Indian.” “Indigenous” is also fine.

Don’t use NDN/ndn. That is ours.

Step off about our hair. If you meet a long-haired native, admire it if you like, maybe even ask them about it (RESPECTFULLY), but do not touch. The same applies for someone with short hair, but additionally for those with short hair, don’t say things like “oh you’d look more native/Indian/etc if your hair was long.” We didn’t all traditionally have long, flowing hair. Believe it or not, there are actually different haircuts existing in our various cultures, and aside from that ultimately it’s a personal choice, one does not need to have long hair if they don’t want to. Doesn’t make them any less native to have short hair.

Don’t pray to our spirits/gods/energies. Native spiritualities are closed, they are not for outsiders.

Don’t say “The Native Americans believed…” Firstly, the past tense is silly, we still exist and do things. Secondly, we are NOT A MONOLITH. As I mentioned before, there are upwards of 600 different Native American cultures.

Don’t ask about someone’s “Indian name.” That’s not only insensitive, the name you are referring to in that instance is something sacred, and might not be something that person wants to share with you.

Don’t call yourself silly crap like “howling wolf” or “flying eagle.” That’s also racist and insensitive.

Regardless of whatever you might think you’re doing, or what your intentions may be, if a native person tells you that what you’re doing is disrespectful, STOP DOING IT.

You aren’t honoring us. You’re just mocking us further, demonstrating your continued ability to treat us like shit and get away with it even now, centuries after our colonization began. Your feelings are not more important than our history and survival.

To those doing your best as allies, thank you, keep doing what you do. HOWEVER, don’t let opportunities to educate others escape you. By letting them continue to be ignorant, you are failing. Spread the message.

There will be no “please.” It’s been more than 500 years, and we still are made to be invisible in our homelands. Still we are treated like less. Some even think we all died long ago.

We are still here

We will still be here

Merry Stitchmas in July Chelsea! @msbricolage I hope you enjoy this Camsten fic + sassy Camille. 

Summary: Deleted scene in which Kirsten’s friends intervene in the search for her father, to give her a much needed break. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Camille knocked on Kirsten’s door for the second time that night. “Hey, just checking in.”

Kirsten glanced at her roommate hovering in the doorway, but quickly turned back to her equations. If she could just figure out the algorithm to where her father traveled to, maybe she could make some progress.

“You going to eat that?,” she asked, pointing at the plate she dropped off an hour ago. It hadn’t even been touched.

“Not hungry.” She wrote down another piece of the equation.

Camille tapped on the doorframe. “Just like every other night this week,” she said under her breath. She tried taking it easy on her, but Kirsten was only falling deeper into her own obsession. It was time to call in reinforcements. She walked back out to the living room and pulled out her phone. Kirsten’s gone off the deep end.

Cameron quickly texted back. I’m already on my way. He threw on a hoodie and was out the door in less than a minute, not even bothering to put his contacts back in.

for @seriouslyobsessed!! i was your secret santa. your secret july santa aha. happy stitching!

They’re in the middle of checking out when Cameron notices. “Wait, why do you need two hazelnut spreads?”

Their clerk scans the first one. Kirsten waits until she’s got the second one in her hands before saying, “Well, one for my place, one for yours.”

“I already have some at my place.”

“No you don’t.”

Cameron halts, a tomato in his hand. “What do you mean I don’t? I just bought one last month.”

Kirsten plucks the tomato from his hands and puts it on the conveyor belt.

“That was last month,” she says, when Cameron doesn’t move.

“Who goes through that much hazelnut in a month?”

Nakia Bahadir & Zoe Zimmer