Why People Are Upset About Ilvermorny on J.K. Rowling's Pottermore

Harry Potter fans have undoubtedly heard of the new information written by J.K. Rowling on Pottermore regarding other wizarding schools around the world.

 

In addition to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Scotland), Beauxbatons Academy of Magic (France), and Durmstrang Institute (Bulgaria), which all appeared in the series, we now have Mahoutokoro (Japan), Uagadou (apparently all of Africa), Castelobruxo (Brazil), Koldovstoretz (Russia), and the currently infamous Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (North America).

 

Attentions given to the three former schools are nothing compared to a full back story for Ilvermorny. Mahoutokoro recieves two paragraphs; Uagadou, three, including unnamed and unnumbered additional schools also in Africa, though it reads as if they are no longer around; and Castelobruxo, two and a footnote on Bill Weasley's pen pal. Koldovstoretz didn't even have any information on the Pottermore page, which claimed 11 magical schools but named only six. Rowling has also hinted at an Australian school, but no official information on that is currently available.

 

Now, the writing on Ilvermorny begins with a somewhat brief - though more extensive than any of the other schools - description of the founder's childhood. Isolt, the founder, fled to America from her evil aunt, and then further into the New World from the Puritans who surely would not have accepted a witch among them (Salem, anyone?). And here we begin with the problems.

First, probably a more personal one in comparison to the more prominent issues: why are Muggles called No-Majs in America? Obviously, with no contact with the white European wizard up until then, the Native Americans would have to have called their magic-less people something. But No-Maj? That's short for 'No Magic.' Is No-Maj how the white people shortened the translation? The indigenous people didn't speak English. And each tribe has it's own language and word for everything; the native tribes didn't mingle that much, especially not enough to have one continent-wide term for non-magical people like the Europeans, Jo.

 

Maybe she didn't learn this, being from Europe, but that's where the research comes in. Writers research, even for fanciful stories, because it needs to be real for our audience - especially, especially, especially if what we're writing includes a real group.

 

In public arguments, we see several problems with Ilvermorny. One being that the founder is a white Irish woman, basing her school on Native culture. The issue lies then in the White Savior trope, especially in the time of the European colonization of North America and the genocide of the indigenous people. Bloggers thewingedoctopus and femmenightwing question whether we would be accepting if Uagadou and Mahoutokoro were founded by white people during Africa's colonization and World War II respectively. Why couldn't the founder have been native, honestly? The least Rowling could have done was let Isolt meet with native magic people, rather than run into the Hidebehind and Pukwudgie (saving the Pukwudgie, and "earning" its servitude).

 

Isolt stole the culture in Ilvermorny's Hogwarts-esque houses. None of the other schools seem to have this similar system, which raises questions given that Isolt didn't attend Hogwarts. Anyway, the Ilvermorny houses are represented by cultural animals as opposed to the everyday animals of the Hogwarts houses. The Hogwarts founders chose a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake; Isolt chose a Thunderbird, a Pukwudgie, a Horned Serpent, and a Wampus. Rowling could have easily used everyday, non-religious, equally indigenous North American animals to represent these new houses; for example, I offer: a bison, a prairie dog, a wild turkey, and an opossum. There was no need, besides what now seems to be a faked inclusion of native people and culture, to use mythological creatures without paying attention to the actual tribes from which these legends come from.

 

The Thunderbird comes from the Algonquin, Ojibwe, Menominee, and Winnebago tribes. The Wampus derives from the Cherokee Ewah. The Pukwudgie is known by the Ojibwe, Algonquin, Abenaki, Wampanoag, and Mohican tribes. The Horned Serpent is the only creature I would accept the use of, as there is some imagery of a horned serpent in European Celtic history; however, in native context, the Horned Serpent belongs to tribes in the Southeastern Woodlands and Great Lakes, the Yuchi people, and known by other names by the Alabama, Sioux, Cherokee, Cree, Shawnee, Oji-Cree, Ojibwe, Abenaki, Choctaw, Dakota, and Natchez tribes; another horned serpent legend is found in Mesopotamian mythology.

 

In creating her school, and using the appropriated animals to represent what leads each student (that is, the mind, body, heart, and inul respectively), Isolt could have named each house like her Hogwarts predecessors. Ilvermorny was truly founded not only be Isolt, but by her husband, and their two "adopted" sons; therefore, each house could have been named for each family member, like the Hogwarts houses were named for each founder (literally their last names).

 

But, of course, Rowling writes, "the idea of naming the houses after themselves, ad the founders, was swiftly abandoned, because Webster felt a house called 'Webster Boot' had no chance of winning anything, and instead, each chose their favorite magical beast." Suck it up, Webster. If anyone says you can't win anything because your name doesn't sound like Winner Material, practice at something until you can win; it's not their fault you lack ambition.

 

Further, one school for all of North America wouldn't cover the amount of students that would need to show up. A blogger by the handle ladynyoko calculated, based on what we know about the Wizard:Muggle Ratio in the UK, that magic is present in 0.01% of the population. Take this over to the United States alone (and keep in mind that Ilvermorny is the only school on the continent) and a minimum of 47 Hogwarts-size schools would be needed to accommodate the wizard population. And Africa? The biggest continent? One school - granted it is the biggest of the 11 worldwide schools. Math is part of research, and none of this adds up.

 

In conclusion, we can hope and guess that J.K. Rowling meant no harm, but her sloppy, minimal research feeds the erasure of an entire group of people. We must, as a society, hold our celebrities to better standards and expectations. Native people are rightfully upset at what was done to their culture, especially when Rowling fought blatantly racist critics on the casting of Noma Dumezweni as an adult Hermione Granger in the new play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, but remains silent about the issues she inadvertently created on Pottermore. As Ebony Elizabeth tweeted, "The message Rowling sends through her silence speaks louder than words. (Black readers got our answer. Her Native readers deserve the same.)" and "Let me tell you something about liberation. Until we are all free, no one is truly free." Fantasy does not excuse cultural appropriation.

 

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Sources, in order of use:
Pottermore
Harry Potter Wiki
LA Times
thewingedoctopus on Ilvermorny
Thunderbird
Wampus
Pukwudgie
Horned Serpent
ladynyoko on math
Ebony Elizabeth

 

Note: this article is not an attack. I respect JKR and her work; I just wish we could all have a better, stronger representation without hint of prejudice. This is not to say Ms. Rowling is prejudiced, but that there was valid offence taken at a piece of her writing, which was surely not intended on her part.

 

If you follow me on Twitter, you may know that I myself had a weak moment, in which I took the Ilvermorny sorting quiz on Pottermore. I don't want to try to hide that. I didn't remember my early disapproval of Rowling's use of Native American culture, or the Native responses I had read, until after, but the bug crept back and compelled me to write all this between.