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Supporting indigenous tourism
Sasin Tipchai/Pixabay
A TOTEM POLE IN VANCOUVER, CANADA
SOUTHEAST ASIA IS HOME TO MANY, DISTINCT HILL TRIBES
Native narratives In some countries the prevalent culture is not the indigenous one, but visiting these communities to learn about their history and way of life makes for a more enriching holiday, says Lizzie Young
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A DREAM CATCHER
TRADITIONAL WEAVING, PERU
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CHARITABLE TRAVELLER
Forget five-star accommodation, here I welcome you to my fivethousand-star hotel,” says our Aboriginal guide, Bill, with a proud, expansive gesture and eyes turned skyward. We look up and try to take in the vastness of the clear dark sky stretching in every direction over our netted hammocks. Above us is the most spectacular star-studded skyscape we’ve ever seen. The air is thick with the evocative evening call of the cicadas and the heady scent of eucalyptus. We are settled in for the night, deep in the Australian outback, outside Katherine in the Northern Territory. I sip bush tea cooked in a battered Billy-can as Bill’s damper (a bush bread) and his bush tucker stew cook on the campfire. All day he has been sharing the DreamTime stories of his ancestral lands, walking us through the dusty, dry outback, pointing out nutricious delicacies and medicinal musthaves; ancient art sites and natural geographic features full of legend and deep meaning. It’s an adventure of the most authentic and educational kind. He shows us carefully and quietly that there is so much more to
the outback than the ‘empty’ landscapes our western eyes see without his expert tuition. And we also learn that the opportunity to share culture and sacred stories is an empowering experience for his people too.
History lesson
The stories of indigenous people all over the world are increasingly making their way into tourism, whether in tours and museums, or events and art, but it is important to embark on any quest for an indigenous experience with some sensitivity and understanding. Tribal dress, ceremonial rituals, dance, music and sacred places have an intrigue and magnetic appeal to the outsider but should represent live cultural values, not just tourist show pieces, and it is important to check the credentials of an interaction before you book. In many parts of the world the back stories of these communities are neither poetic or pretty but rather a harrowing catalogue of wrongs done to indigenous groups in the name of progress - as outsiders arrived, settled and tried to change their traditional ways. Explorers from afar often brought diseases which killed many
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