Greta Van Fleet frontman Josh Kiszka has issued a statement addressing the #SpeakUpGVF social media movement.
Recent posts from the “Highway Tune” rockers have seen floods of replies with the hashtag, which began in an effort to get Kiszka to respond to and delete a series of 2017 photos that feature him wearing Native American clothing. Non-Indigenous people wearing traditional Native American attire, such as a headdress, is considered by some to be cultural appropriation.
In an Instagram post Monday, Kiszka posted an open letter addressed to “Our indigenous fans.”
“I see you. I’ve taken time to listen and gather my thoughts,” Kiszka wrote. “My appreciation for indigenous culture is bigger than myself. I recognize the harm that ignorance can have on marginalized communities, something I’d never want to perpetuate.”
“Hate, disrespect, and prejudice of any kind are not welcome in this community,” he continued. “As I’ve come into adulthood, I’ve been able to grow and learn. This growth has not stopped and will not stop here.”
Kiszka adds that the Chippewa tribe, an Indigenous people with populations in the northern Midwest and Canada, had a “particularly profound impact” on his early life growing up in Michigan.
“I have made a charitable donation [to] the First Nations Development Institute to help keep indigenous traditions like theirs alive and well,” he wrote.
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