As Animal Collective prepare the majority of their discography to be released on Bandcamp tomorrow, including a new EP called Bridge to Quiet, they sent out a newsletter to fans tonight acknowledging “a few things we felt important to address and correct.” The group have promised to change the artwork of 2006’s People EP—citing its inclusion of a “racist stereotype”—and the title of their 2003 album Here Comes the Indian. The changes they’ve announced will take effect in the coming days on all digital platforms.
People’s artwork features a black nanny with two white children. “There is no way to excuse using a ‘mammy’ on our artwork, and so we have decided to remove it,” they wrote. “We understand now that using a racist stereotype at all causes more damage than an explanation can repair, and we apologize.” The band pledged to donate future royalties from the record to the Equal Justice Initiative.
Regarding Here Comes the Indian, they wrote: “With utmost respect to Indigenous people we feel that having the word Indian in our record title sends the wrong message by objectifying the American Indian people which is not what we were intending with the music.” The album will now be called Ark and a portion of royalties will go to Seeding Sovereignty.
The group also announced plans to donate a portion of proceeds from 2017’s Meeting of the Waters EP to Cultural Survival. The album features samples they recorded of the Tatuyo tribe in Brazil playing music, and upon its release for Record Store Day, a portion of the sales were directed to IDESAM. “As we were guests in their world, we feel it is only right to continue to show our gratitude,” they wrote.
All of the group’s Bandcamp Day proceeds tomorrow are going to Cultural Survival, the Equal Justice Initiative, Seeding Sovereignty, Southerners on New Ground (SONG), and the Okra Project. They’re also making a $10,000 donation to split between those groups.