Rugby bosses must tackle this misuse of Indigenous imagery | Letter
Exeter Rugby Club is wrong to ask its members to decide whether the team should continue with its Native American-themed imagery, writes Dr Malcolm MacLean
Exeter Rugby Club has decided the way forward in complaints about its appropriation of Native American imagery is to ask a group likely to be heavily invested in maintaining that imagery: its members (Exeter’s Tony Rowe: ‘We’re not trying to belittle the image or ancestry of anyone’, 16 October).
We have seen this investment in professional American football teams in Kansas City and Washington DC, and hundreds of other sports teams across the US and Canada – many of which have dropped the appropriated Indigenous iconography and changed their names. Exeter’s approach will surely see the perpetuation of the Chiefs nickname, and the club’s Wigwam bar and stereotyped totem pole.
