Fate's Refusal to Honour (or at least properly research) Depictions of Non-Japanese Figures 2: Electric Bogaloo ft. Wandjina from the Current JP Summer Event

Disclaimer: While I am an Australian, I am NOT of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Therefore, I am coming at this issue from an outsider's perspective. If there is an Aboriginal person, or more specifically of the Mowanjum people from the Kimberly regions, please PLEASE correct me if I am wrong on any front.

The culprit behind the events of the current Summer story in the JP servers has recently been revealed to be Wandjina, a creator Dreamtime figure from the Mowanjum people's culture.

In any other context, I would be thrilled to have an Australian figure in FGO, but the problem here is the figure they use.

Wandjina are sacred to the Mowanjum people, and therefore one needs to go through Aboriginal Law to obtain the right to use the Wandjina's image.

In Australia, this resulted in an actual conflict between a non-indigenous artist and aboriginals. You can read more here, but one quote to note is from an Aboriginal man of the Darug people, Chris Tobin: "Aboriginal law is very specific on what you can and can't do with wan[d]jinas." Another quote on this topic is made by the owner of an Aboriginal art gallery, Adrian Newstead: "Only a few Aboriginal artists ever win the right to depict wan[d]jina, and only then after years of initiations and ceremonies..."

I am NOT attaching an image of FGO's iteration of Wandjina due to this. Not only is her appearance only Aboriginal on a surface-level with her 'dot art' aesthetic (dot art* is only a recent addition to Aboriginal culture, created back in the 1970s), having no resemblance to an Aboriginal person (note, that while many Aboriginal people are white/pale, FGO continually chooses to depict people of colour as light skinned as possible. And yes, I know she's blue, not white. There is literally no records of her being blue skinned; is this because Wandjina's are associated with rain????) but she is also not very Wandjina looking? These figures do not have mouths, have large eyes meant to resemble the eye of a storm and are typically depicted with elaborate headdresses. That little glowing boomerang on her head is not exactly elaborate. And WHY does she have a boomerang??? Because she's Australian???? By that logic, every Japanese figure needs to have a katana. #GiveMurasakiaKatana2023.

There is also the issue of Cnoc na Riabh. While it is funny to think that she's a foreigner because of an Australian influence, Yaraan-doo is also another Aboriginal figure. And it is slapped onto a white girl for a fan service event. I'd just rather Fate leave Aboriginal culture alone and just do, like, Ned Kelly or something if they're going to continue like this.

More resources and info under the read more!

You'll have noted in the quotes that I've edited an 'n' into wanjinas. This is so I didn't confuse anyone: both can be the correct spelling! I just stuck to what I thought FGO was using for their Wandjina.

Here's an overview of what wandjinas are and their inappropriate use in art: https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/what-are-wandjinas

Here's another page about an inappropriate use of Wandjinas (note: it's only a short synopsis about a documentary that covered the incident, I'm uncertain if you would be able to get access to the documentary outside of Australia): https://www.creativespirits.info/resources/movies/who-paintin-dis-wandjina

It should also be noted that the two websites I've linked above are from the website Creative Spirits. While it is run by a non-Indigenous person, the person behind it is currently transitioning it to be an Aboriginal owned and run resource. You can read more about how this site is run in his About page.

*If you want to know about dot art's origin, here and here are some resources on them. However, this article brings up something interesting that I would like to bring back to FGO Wandjina's dot art aesthetic. It notes that "the term 'dot painting' stems from what the Western eye sees when faced with contemporary Aboriginal acrylic paintings" (emphasis mine). All three articles note that dots were used to obfuscate sacred symbols and artifacts so that those who were not initiated into their cultures could not see what these figures were. In that case, what the hell is the dot art seen on Fate's Wandjina supposed to represent? In this article, it talks about the symbolism in Indigenous art. Fate's Wandjina has none.

Wandjina, the culprit behind the 2023 summer event. The first Australian character in FGO (though not the first in the whole franchise; Requiem has the Rainbow Serpent).

I highly encourage every aventurine fan to step back and criticize the fact that hoyoverse decided to make Romani culture as the basis for his character and took aspects from history like discrimination, slavery, and even the stereotypes as story notes for a fictional planet named after a Romani slur.

This isn't the first time a gacha game let alone hoyo have pulled shit like this. Fgo, genshin, arknights, and probably several more that I've never played. Stay vigilant of this and listen to the people who are most impacted by this.

I am not Romani so I encourage you to check out Florian on youtube, he's talked about aventurine already. Check out the discussion in the comments too

Have you had any news from the Mowanjum people? Are they aware of FGO's representation of Wandjina?

No Mowanjum comment yet, but there was one (1) comment about it from another Kimberley native. No other sign of awareness yet.

Foreigner class Wandjina for the Wandjina World Tour event in Fate Grand Order.

Illustrator: Keito Koume.

Wanted to practice some transparency effect in watercolor.

Separate from any debate over whether they "should" do so or not, I feel like there's no way fgo retracts a finished playable servant given how skinflinty Lasengle can be.

I think the most they'd do if faced with extreme pressure would be to censor the name like they did in the Chinese server ("Wandjina" to "Foreigner 393"). But I haven't really seen signs of that level of pressure.

Booming Laughter. Like Thunder.

[Meteo Hoshizora] is deadass the only writer at TM that cares about the Southern hemisphere @ Nzambi, various Aboriginal Servants, the Vietnamese twins

unfortunately being cared about by a TM writer is not a blessing

— @scarfdyedshadow

I understand the concerns, but gonna wait to see how things play out before forming too much of an opinion on the Wandjina situation. Not really my place to decide how it should be judged, after all.

Day 323:

Kriemhild: First the Grail grows legs and disappears, then it uses them as if it's a rocket, and now it just teleports? My little fool, is this a regular occurrence on these temporary Singularities?!

Master: ... I'll be honest, this is a first for me. At least no one ate anything out of it this time, though!

Kriemhild: *takes a deep breath, then exhales* I know that I'll just get even more angry, but who would be idiotic enough to eat directly from the Holy Grail?

Master: ... Chacha and Musashi.

Kriemhild: Why am I not surprised that the wondering sword-wielder would do that?

so they went and did it huh. Not surprised, not even disappointed, just... disgusted, I guess

ARE YOU KIDDING ME GODDAMN IT TYPE-MOON

It's gotten worse I'm going to dry I think I'll send another email about the issue to the centre. Do we have access to all her ascensions? Ugh ...

No one tell me why she's a foreigner; if it has something to do with aliens I'm going to flip every table I can get my grubby hands on. The Mowanjum peoples have ALSO had problems trying to seperate their creator from "theories" about being depictions of aliens.

She's got dark skin at least ... One point for that. It's a lousy little point amongst the everything but hey, it's something.

5* Foreigner Wandjina ascensions.

Your commentary on information availiability in other languages on the Wandjina post was really eye opening to me. I imagine this is way more of an issue than I, or other internet randoms, really get right now. Just wanted to say thanks for chiming in on it.

Yeah, it's very easy to overlook the impact of the language barrier, especially for English monolinguals since their language is kinda the default language of the internet.

It's a commonly occurring thing, so much so that it became a central theme of this event. The story here certainly has its unfortunate choices of expression, but the spirit of it honestly couldn't be more positive. A lot of problems are caused by AA's and Wandjina's inability to communicate with each other, but instead of framing the consequences of miscommunication as a thing to be condemned, the plot frames it as a necessary middle step for mutual understanding. Something that must be tackled with patience and willingness to engage in good faith.

It's a really adorable and kind-hearted story that earnestly promotes respectful engagement with other cultures and attempts to reconnect with cultures that didn't survive colonization. The one problem with it is that the culture chosen to symbolize that is one that very much did survive colonization and practices an active faith to this day, so the narrative ends up feeling a little

I absolutely can't say that directly living the event's themes these past few days was an experience free of stress, but I ultimately agree with the game's narrative that miscommunications will happen and should not discourage us from trying to know others better. Nasu's failure to verify that the Mowanjum community is still alive is in no way comparable to Vesna Tenodi's claims that her divinely inspired purpose is to teach the Mowanjum how to practice their faith more correctly.

For better or for worse, the story of this summer event became self-demonstrating on a meta level, which makes its content much richer and more relevant to debate. I think I already gave every thought I currently have about it, but I'm very interested to see what direction the topic will take if the community becomes genuinely willing to talk about it instead of throwing stones. Most of all, I really want to say what an informed Mowanjum player has to say about the situation. Hopefully will happen soon rather than in 2 years when NA gets there.

The newest event antagonist in Fate/Grand Order is a culturally insensitive portrayal of a Wandjina. Something that the game should never have portrayed at all. Please read below for the full details

Australian reps in FGO right now

Eingana/Rainbow Serpent (who might be that unnamed girl from Fate Requiem)

Bahloo (one of Rasmine's components)

Knocknarea Yaraandoo

Wandjina

• tentative possibility

• Component of a completely different character

• component of a completely different character

• has little to any actual connection

great; fantastic.