Erasing the History of Indigenous Cultural Naturism

Erasing history : I am someone who identifies as BIPOC (black indigenous people of color.) I  have been in and around the naturist community for close to decade. Still, I never ceased to be amazed that some naturists of Western/European descent regularly try to erase the history of non European people in naturism.  They ignore the legacy impact of colonial on those people while suggesting they aren’t participants in the naturist community. These Western/European naturists go to great lengths to claim victimhood, because they are naturists. All the while they ignore the victimization of people like me, by their naturist predecessors in the past and still today. While doing all that they diminish the role BIPOC played in introducing naturism to Europeans only to be colonized into clothing.

Recently we posted an update to our wiki on Indian naturism. It highlighted the spiritual/religious origins of naturism expressed the skyclad Digambara and the naked (naga) Sadhus. It acknowledge the historical influence of the naga Sadhus on Alexander the Great and Greek culture. The response of a Western/European follower to our tweet (without I believe first reading the article)  was that kind of nakedness had nothing to do with naturism it was just religion.

“Unless I’m mistaken, this is not behavior linked to naturism, but to religious practice.
It is not the same concept, however, without value judgment.”

When we posted a homage to the first naturism of indigenous people for International Day of Naturism a Western/European person viewing the post responded with this comment.

This is really inappropriate, to conflate Indigenous cultures with naturism. Unless theyve expressed a solidarity with the aims of naturism, this is essentially colonizing their culture and saying it’s a culture of naturism, which is a predominantly western concept.

Our response was to ask how this was a problem when historians and anthropologists all say that indigenous people lived as part of their cultures all the aspects of the modern definition of naturism.

Naturism is a way of life in harmony with nature, characterised by the practice of communal nudity, with the intention of encouraging respect for oneself, respect for others and respect for the environment”. – International Naturism Federation 1974

Even when the cultural patterns of life fit the Western/European definition it is still diminished. What’s the problem, you may ask? The problem is for some Western/European people everything needs to be seen through the lens of theWestern/European experience. This perspective started in the colonial period and has a legacy still today. Consider the response to a tweet we made saying how much stepping away from the toxicity of our @liveclothesfree Twitter account made a huge difference in our followers and site traffic as well as peace of mind. Once  our favorite social media platform became a constant lineup of haters and fake account trolls trying to undermine our message.

What was our crime? Daring to suggest that a bunch of European continent creators were wrong to say racist symbols were ok at naturist places if everyone there agreed it was ok. We challenged the notion those same folks should be able to define the future of naturism through a content creator lens by suggesting there was a greater naturist ideal.  An ideal that was based on improving society through naturist not just catering to specific niche groups and paying customers. When we shared the shift that came for stepping away from that account this this was the response

Twitter used to be our favorite social media platform until all the haters ruined it for us pursuit of the own agendas as Dave Chapelle said tweeting was like writing on a bathroom wall at a nightclub

one response – Twitter has a fair number of wingnuts and trolls and haters, yes.

Instagram’s cleaner. But it’s also heavily sanitized to fit Facebook’s idealized, prudish model of acceptable conduct. You have to self-censor heavily, or be booted.

Not sure if that’s an improvement.

another response – That’s not my experience on Twitter. I don’t know what else to say.

“That’s not my experience I don’t know what to say.” How about please share more of your experience? I want to better understand. Or it’s unfortunate that is your experience, if you are comfortable can you say more. My experience was erased and replaced with only a focus on  the experience of self described progressive white male. As if only that experience is valid

So why is this trend toward erasure and faux oppression emerging now? One word power. The erasure denies the origins of naturism among non western non European societies. It also denies the complicity of Western/European cultures in removing cultural/indigenous naturism from those people during colonization. There is a social shift in power away from European bastions of society and toward non-European people groups. Some see that as a good thing and some see it as a bad thing. Regardless it brings with it a re-examination of history. That re-examination makes some Western/European people uncomfortable because it signifies a loss of power and control. As the history of actions taken during colonial oppression is revealed, and the legacy impact on non European people is exposed, Western/European credibility is lost and with it power. The power to define and control all aspects of naturism. The an example of the current conversation in this power struggle sounds something like this:

“Look at this wonderful thing we have gifted you in naturism. Don’t look over there at the history of racial discrimination and discrimination against non hetero and non CIS gendered people that kept you out before. We want your dollars now, come come join us. But don’t ask us to change. Don’t ask us to see things through your eyes that isn’t fair. You are making us feel uncomfortable. Why not be nice and kind to us?”

Recently a Canadian naturist blogger and twitter follower articulated his awareness of the legacy colonial presence and was responded to as is seen below. The bloggers response was a drop the mic moment.

The naturist community is far wider than white North Americans; some of us were even victims of colonisation. So I’m not sure there’s a need to conflate naturism with the guilt of the white man in the Americas? Sometimes we need to be less self-critical & be kinder to ourselves.

OP response – i’m a white north american so i’m speaking to fellow white north americans in this. i’m also more concerned with being kind to people who are currently suffering under systems that benefit me than being “kind to myself” with this issue. this is certainly a time to be self-critical

The inability or unwillingness to be self critical and do critical inquiry is at the root of the problem. But this has not always been the way of naturism. Maybe it time for a change back the the future.

It wasn’t always that way.

At one time the naturist ideal was based on bettering the human condition, not just personal enjoyment or profit. There was a collective communal aspect to naturism. This that is why there is such a visceral reaction to our ideal that there is a naturist ethic worth pursuing and that naturist ethic is not a moralist or exclusion practice. The web site for the Natur Festival that ran July 3-4  2021,  has a phrase on their page about the naturist movement  that says it well. Naturism is a philosophy that we live and not an activity that we practice.

The early European naturists had an ethic that focused on improving  the human condition. Some of them understood the history and choose not erase but embrace it. Look at this description of naturism’s origins by French naturist pioneers Albert & Christiane Lecocq.

Our philosophy was born in Greco-Indian antiquity, from the meeting between certain Greek philosophers and those they called gymnosophists, or “naked sages” (in fact, Digambara Jains “dressed in the sky” in Sanskrit) who have in particular for principle respect for all life on earth.

Contrast that with the response from the twitter above. Examine this quote by one of the pioneers of French naturism Kienne de Mongeot who believed in Gymnosophy as the naturist practice.

One day we will have to choose between economic materialism thirsty for vulgar pleasures, without ideal, and the love of Life which demands a simple and natural Social Organization. For true progress lies in the improvement of the human person. Not in the more or less astonishing, more or less marvelous “creations” of the economic man. ” Marcel Kienné from Mongeot 1 From the baring of bodies and souls to the imperative of Living First ↓

Marc Alain Descamp widely regarded as the philosopher  of naturism in his book  Vivre nu describes the emergence of nudist movements as a reaction to European Christianity.

 “Before him there was neither prohibition nor proscription of the nude in all antiquity, whether among the Celts, the Greeks, the Romans or the Germans, so no one sought to defend it ”.

It can be that way again

The Natur Festival for a new world is one festival I  would attend if I was in Europe. The theme and goal of the two day festival is bringing ecologists, naturists and Esperantists, around their common values to create a new world.

Bare Oaks Naturist Park social media post for Canada Day acknowledges the appropriation of land from the the First Nations people

https://twitter.com/bareoakspark/status/1410553774955892737

In the end, we can choose to be inclusive of the historical contribution of all people to naturism and modern society. Acknowledging the colonial legacy impact of European colonizers is a choice. If there is a be an expression of naturism that is inviting to all kinds of people, histories and lived experiences cannot be erased.

Let me close with two quotes that are meaning to me and in this conversation one attributed to St Francis of Assisi the contemporary African American author Bell Hooks.

Grant that I may not so much seek … To be understood as to understand; Prayer of St Francis

“The heart of justice is truth telling, seeing ourselves and the world the way it is rather than the way we want it to be. More than ever before we, as a society, need to renew a commitment to truth telling.” Bell Hooks – All About Love

Let the truth telling and understanding begin. Bare your thoughts in the comments.

References

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  From the baring of bodies and souls to the imperative of Living First ↩︎