It's a thing you learn in highschool, that the swastika is an ancient symbol with positive meaning... (or maybe i didn't learn it IN school but looked it up in my highschool-era after discovering there is a town in my province called, "Swastika"...)
But unfortunately, the overwhelming association we (the "western we") have remains with the Nazis - and it always seems like that topic is a sleeping dog we really just want to let lie...
But not today! Time to refresh our collective memory...
The swastika was used by cultures all over the world (including North America right up to the war) before the Nazis adopted it and caused some extreme rebranding for the symbol.
I say they "caused" it not "they changed the meaning" because I think they probably used the symbol for one of its actual/original intentions: good luck. It is horrible that they had such success with their plans. The swastika, by association, became a potent symbol of evil and wrong.
Really, it's not evil. It is potent though - which, I think, is why the association stuck so well. It is a great-looking symbol and the German war-machine exploited it very effectively.
Reading more about the almost universal use of the swastika made me realize just how well it's original forms and uses have been masked/obliterated/hidden/obscured from the eyes of the western world since WWII. (Example: The Navajo, Papago, Apache and Hopi people signed the "whirling log proclamation" in 1940 deciding not to use the symbol in their textiles because of the Nazis' co-opting!)
Until I was somewhere in my 20s (and the internet came along) I would guess that over 95% of the swastikas I had ever seen in my life were the Nazi version - usually in a movie or a textbook. When I happened to spot one, maybe on some local architecture or a book about India, I would literally get a rush of adrenaline because I didn't understand why I was seeing this "evil symbol" in a different context. I thought maybe there was something suspicious going on there that I needed to be wary of. It was very confusing actually.
The swastika was so universally prevalent before WWII that I imagine it must have actually seemed quite strange to some people when the association with Nazism became stronger, Hitler's intentions became clearer, and the symbol's meaning shifted.
Anyway, with the combination of time-passing, the internet/information-age, the interesting and widespread cultural history of the symbol, and it's satisfying aesthetics I don't think the exclusive, Nazi-association (in the western world - have to keep qualifying that) will hold much longer.
Rumblings have already made it to me, a fairly mainstream gal, from the far reaches of the internet that the shift back has begun. There is reclaiming and education going on and I don't see why I wouldn't want to be a part of it.
So this is the beginning of my particular spin on the matter. I like and identify with the word "hobo" - so I started sketching up a little, personal symbol combining the radiating arms of the swastika with the word "hobo". Just in the sketchbook phase at the moment.
* I was really inspired to start doing something personal with the symbol by this post from Virginia Elwood, a tattooer that I admire: Positive Swastika
** Here are a few interesting resources if you want to know more:
And lastly, in honour of the fresh NHL ice, here's some CANCON:
(from The Birthplace of Hockey website - which has some great information despite the fact that I don't agree with Windsor being the birthplace of hockey...)
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Oh what the heck. Here's some more eye-candy:
