u/WarningAdorable7756

This is a phrase that was historically used by white Australians to trivialise the cultural practices undertaken by Indigenous Australians to care for their country which often included highly sophisticated land management practices such as controlled cold burns to mitigate bushfire risk, caring for totem animals by protecting the habitats and food resources of native animals, tracking meterological phenomena. The process is underpinned by the philosophy that the land is a living relative, and if it becomes sick, the physical and spiritual health of the whole community suffers.

White Australians collapsed all of this into a term describing Indigenous people wandering off into the bush for a holiday from the real world. Many Indigenous Elders have spoken about how deeply offensive this word is to dismiss a cultural practice with tens of thousands of years of history based on obligations to care for the land as going for a bit of a stroll in the bush for no discernable reason.

This is not the first time Nomad has had issues with racism and a failure to do proper cultural sensitivity checking either.

ETA for clarity: Nomad isn't an Australian brand. AFAIK the owners are from the USA but now live in Germany. They market themselves as a "destination based indie brand" where each release is based on a particular place (sometimes a country, sometimes a city, sometimes a region). They have received complains about cultural appropriation on previous collections based on Shanghai and Tokyo.

I'm not able to reply to comments or my comments aren't showing up for some reason, so addressing some things here:

Re "walkabout" now being used in Australian vernacular to describe people or objects that have gone for a wander u/Im-A-Kitty-Cat the current use of the term describes the movement of a person or an object in an unreliable manner, without reason or explanation (e.g. my keys have gone walkabout). Despite the fact that this semantic drift no longer specifically names Indigenous people as target of this pejorative association, it still dismisses the notion that the practice described as "walkabout" was not a nonsensical or baseless movement of people, it was driven by obligations to the land and community. This is precisely the same misreading made by white colonisers. So the stereotype still underpins the term but it's become so naturalised, it's no longer necessary to include the target by name. This isn't evidence for a word shedding it's racist connotations.

Re my opinion being less valid/weighty than another user whose credentials are being an aussie with ties to the indigenous community u/strega_bella312: how does the age of my reddit account have anything to do with anything? how do you know i'm not australian (i am by the way), and have no familiarity with indigenous communities (i do by the way, i work in an aboriginal health service). i wasn't aware I needed to have my CV and my passport on my reddit profile for my opinion to be valid.

Re requests for further info u/riss85, u/keyholes, u/taversham, u/noodle_mama
Extract from an online resource about Aboriginal culture: ‘Walkabout’ for many First Nations people is a contentious word and considered an archaic colonial term. Its use by non-Aboriginal people is considered inappropriate.
Groups such as Reconciliation Queensland Inc advise against its use when discussing First Nations cultures.

Source: Appropriate words & terminology for First Nations topics - Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/media/appropriate-terminology-for-aboriginal-topics

An Indigenous activist explains how this cultural practice was lost by many First Nations people as part of a cultural genocide in Australia, and the use of this term by non-Indigenous Australians feels like ripping off notions of spirituality and connection to land from her culture, whilst she has been robbed of that aspect of her culture due to historical treatment of Aboriginal people and government policies (if you haven't heard of the White Australia policy, I'd look it up, it's fucked! Basically a government policy to breed and "educate" aka indoctrinate the Indigenous-ness out of Indigenous people).

https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/they-love-our-culture-but-they-dont-love-us-the-blogger-who-forced-the-walkabout-dance-party-name-change/r7v637gyg

Re assertion that it's more insensitive than racist (from a non-Indigenous New Zealander's perspective) u/pureneonn: if Indigenous Australians find the term "walkabout" racist, it doesn't matter if you personally don't see it as racist, merely insensitive.