.jpg?fit=900%2C676)
While property tycoons are blaming $4 coffees for our inability to buy a house and politicians are telling us to get better paying jobs to afford bare necessities, Chanel is selling a $1,930 boomerang.
The very reasonably priced “accessory” features alongside a set of three tennis balls for $570, a tennis racket at $2,220 and a stand-up paddleboard with a price only available upon request – which translates to ‘too much for you, plebs’.
The brand has been selling boomerangs since 2006, but it wasn’t until YouTuber Jeffree Star’s recent tweet that people started taking notice – probably because he’s the only person in the history of time to actually purchase one.
Aside from being insulting on the cost/uselessness scale, the boomerang has offended a lot of people who deem it cultural appropriation.
A quick walk around any popular tourism spot in Australia will prove a boomerang is a popular souvenir, ensuring cheap imitations have flooded the market, but recently there has been a push to protect local indigenous creators.
Nathan Sentance, an Indigenous project officer at the Australian Museum, told The Guardian not only was the boomerang a simplification of Indigenous Australian culture, the eye-watering price would do a lot for Aboriginal communities.
“It is no better than the fake inauthentic Aboriginal art from Thailand … except this is much pricier. At A$1,930, it costs nearly 10% of the average income of Indigenous Australians.”
Writer and activist Nayuka Gorrie described the item to The Guardian as “so wrong it is almost absurd” when the most disadvantaged people in Australia were constantly fighting to preserve their culture.
“Having a luxury brand swoop in, appropriate, sell our technologies and profit from our cultures for an absurd amount of money is ridiculous and hurtful. If Chanel truly want to respect Aboriginal cultures, the first place they should start is discontinue this product and issue an apology,” she said.
“Perhaps the next step would be supporting existing black designers.”
While Chanel released a statement that the brand is “extremely committed to respecting all cultures, and regrets that some may have felt offended”, the boomerang is still for sale on their site.
