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When they go further, offering a female “sexy Indian” costume in the face of the high incidence of sexual abuse of aboriginal women in Canada and the number of missing and murdered aboriginal women, a problem becomes easier to grasp.

Ian “DJ NDN” Campeau, a member of the Ottawa-based electronic music group A Tribe Called Red and a member of Nipissing First Nation, says damage from cultural appropriation is real.

“When a culture is being used by somebody outside of that culture and the benefit of it is not going back to the culture that is being used, that’s cultural appropriation,” he said.

It is not confined to the arts.

Campeau led a campaign against sports team names that use aboriginal terms and stereotypical imagery without having aboriginal roots.

Based in the Ottawa area, he was disappointed the youth football league his daughter would have to join to play was called the Redskins.

His protests led to the name being changed. Then he tackled another local team, the Tomahawks, also since changed. An Arnprior, Ont., school team called the Redmen is under similar scrutiny.

For him, the question is the origins.

“Who named them? The Vikings in Minnesota, the man who named them was of Scandinavian descent,” he said. “

The guy that came up with Fighting Irish was Irish. But the guy who came up with the Redskins was not native, the guy who came up with the Indians was not native, the guy who came up with the Chiefs was not native.

“There’s a big difference.”