Conflict and Control in Indigenous Tourism - Essay Example

Tourism and Indigenous Peoples Journal entries (Institution) (Course) (Name) (Instructors name) Date of submission Topic 9- conflict and control in indigenous tourism In October last year, I had the opportunity to visit Kenya in a view to witness the eighth wonder of the world in the wildebeest migration. In one of the many detours, I visited a private game ranch some few hundred miles away from the world famous Maasai Mara game reserve. The ranch, located in the heartland of Maasai land is privately operated and charges premium entry and lodging fees. At the time of my visit, the region had a mild drought though the area is generally hot and dry with savannah vegetation. So with the low rainfall, the savannah grasslands had little pasture shared between wild animals and the Maasai cattle. Interestingly, the ranch had plenty of pasture for the wild animals and was fenced off to keep wild animals in and the neighbouring local Maasai cattle out. Beyond the fence, the ground was almost bare with no pasture at all. The Maasai cattle looked thin and unhealthy. This was a huge contrast to the more than enough pasture in the ranch, with gazelles, zebras and a range of other wild animals having more than they needed. I was told there are two separate incidents where the owner of this game ranch, a foreigner, has shot dead two local Maasai men for trespassing in his ranch. These two men were only guilty of grazing their starving animals in the ranch. After being arrested and charged in court on murder, the owner was acquitted from one case while he received just an eight month sentence for the alleged manslaughter on grounds of self defence. There were wide allegations of corruption by the locals over the lenient sentence. As a result, there remains high tension and mistrust between the ranch owner the indigenous Maasai. A brief history of the area shows that the land predominantly belonged to the Maasai community which they faithfully shared with wild animals before British colonialists arrived in the country. The Maasais’ rights to control the land were lost once the colonial government took over and apportioned huge tracts of land to willing white settlers. The government is slow in returning such lands to communities as they are more economically viable as private game ranches than community pasture land. The Maasai have been denied their way of life and pasture for their animals. Similar cases of conflict in control of resources are reported around the world. Tourism concern (2011), notes a few cases of scarcity of water attributed to tourism. In 2008 local indigenous people of a villager in one of the island towns in Costa Rica staged demonstrations to express their opposition to the construction of a water pipeline meant to draw water from their local aquifer supply to supply water tourist resorts at the coast. In Zanzibar also, the indigenous people are also concerned at the rate at which fresh water resources are depleting blaming it on increasing number of luxury tourist hotels. Tourists allegedly consume 15 times more water than the locals on a daily basis. On water again, The Botswana government has supported the construction of a luxury tourist lodge in the central Kalahari Reserve that has drilled a borehole in the area to obtain water for use by the lodge which also happen to have a huge swimming pool. To ensure the lodge’s borehole supplies enough water to the lodge, the government closed a nearby community borehole forcing the indigenous communities to trek over 300 km in search of water (Tourism concern 2011). This is in sharp contrast to what Krippendorf (1987) envisions tourism. He writes that modern tourism should provide “a means of human enrichment, a stimulus for a better reality and a better society” (p. 530). Unfortunately, there is a clash of interest in the mentioned cases and thus to the affected indigenous communities, tourism is a curse unto them. Similar cases exist in Australia where control of resources is a problem. The indigenous communities generally have more than economic value to some of these resources to include sentimental, religious and cultural value as opposed to economic value argued by tourism operators and developers. The indigenous rights act seeks to protect the indigenous communities from harassment and intimidation by these forces. The indigenous people have the natural right to these resources have any infringement on the right to control and own these resources should be mutually agreed and compensated (class notes, lecture 9). Governments benefit immensely from tourism activities and little if any for indigenous peoples activities. Therefore, governments, both the Kenyan and Australian are bound by economic pressures to side with investors to exploit resources which would otherwise have little value economically. Unfortunately, the indigenous people do not enjoy the economic benefits. Take the Kenyan case, only a handful of Maasai people are employed in the private game ranch while the ranch makes millions and does not really support the affected Maasai community. In Australia, numerous Aboriginal crafts and artworks are displayed in national museums as part of indigenous tourism. However, very little of proceeds from these museums are enjoyed by the Aboriginal people. Topic 11- Indigenous rights and tourism The terms indigenous people or aboriginal people are widely used in Australia to refer to the original inhabitants of the land before occupation by British colonialists. Botswana has some of the world’s largest diamond mines and a relatively small population. Large proportion the country’s vast grasslands are communally owned by the indigenous people. These communities have struggled to hold on to these lands as tourism increases in the country. Hotels and lodgings have sprouted in the region due to increased popularity in combining business and leisure tourism as investors flock to the region to have a share of the diamond reserves and also enjoy game drives. This influx in tourism infringes on the indigenous rights. The government is bent on convincing the local communities to do away with pastoralism which requires large tracts of land. The UN declaration on indigenous rights however protects these rights. As a member of the UN and a signatory to the declaration, the government ought to be at the forefront in protecting the rights of these indigenous communities. Australia on the other hand, alongside New Zealand, US and Canada voted against the UN declaration on indigenous rights. I believe that all these countries that opposed this declaration have motives to deny their indigenous communities what is naturally theirs. These may include things such as land, religious practices among others. Given the opportunity therefore, Australia would oppose any claims to indigenous things. This is strongly rooted in the country’s history after the British colonialists declared Australia terra nullius, implying that the land belonged to no one before settlers arrived. However, the British acknowledged meeting the aboriginal people in Australia yet the British government went ahead and declared the land terra nullius making it free for occupation by anyone. As such, I feel that indigenous rights in Australia will infringed as along as the constitution does not forthrightly recognises that Australia was not terra nullius. From there on, native titles and indigenous rights will become legally acceptable. Nonetheless, a number of court rulings such as the Mabo case have challenged the concept of terra nullius (Banner 2007). In short if the constitution recognises that Australia has indigenous inhabitants, then enforcing indigenous rights and tourism will become a straightforward issue. Topic 6- Marketing and Indigenous Tourism Marketing and Indigenous Tourism What makes tourism marketing interesting thing is that it has to be consumed at the point of production, i.e. experienced in person. However, there are certain elements of tourism that can be marketed same way as ordinary products; merchandise. Indigenous imagery brands and cultural items dominate this area of tourism marketing. I have acknowledged indigenous marketing and tourism as a very wide and high value aspect in Australian tourism. The red checked shuka is identifiable as the Maasai dress code all over the world. During my trip to Kenya, I noticed that the Maasai shuka was the most popular indigenous tourist item with tourists who had experienced Maasai culture. This implies that tourists are even more wiling to spend more on indigenous tourism merchandise so long as they understand the cultural significance behind such items and merchandise. What I find most fulfilling about indigenous tourism is the fact that it provides a gap and platform for understanding the various indigenous cultures around the world which have been mistake for primitiveness. Take for instance the idea of Aboriginals not wearing modern clothes at the time the first British expedition landed at the shores of Australia. Some of the personal accounts made by the first people are appalling to say the least. Banner (2007) cites a few of this from personal notes. George Thompson, a marine in the early expeditions perceived them as “a lazy, indolent people, and of no ingenuity” just because they did not farm which reads rear domestic animals and cultivate crops in farms. William Damper, a settler who docked on the Australian shores in 1688 described them as the “miserablest people in the world… setting aside their humane shape, they differ but little from brutes” (p. 20). These men’s perception of the Aboriginal people was based purely on cultural misunderstanding. They did not understand why these people did not live in buildings or cultivate crops and wear clothes. In modern times, indigenous tourism marketers are not keen on allowing tourists to experiment and understand some of these issues but are only interested in selling the idea. Instead, they have commodified indigenous culture as a sub branch of mainstream tourism to a niche market often creating stereotypes that only create more problems (Page& Connell 2006; class notes lecture 11.). Pitcher et al.(1997) research in ATSI tourism showed that Australians are less interested in indigenous tourism in Northern territory than foreigners. However, it not because they do not appreciate it, but they experience it in does in other ways. As such, I tend to think that indigenous tourism marketer should consider the issue of cultural distance in marketing Australia as an indigenous tourist destination. This I have personally noted in comparing my enthusiasm towards indigenous tourism in Kenya versus Australia. I was more fascinated with the Maasai culture than I am with Aboriginal culture because I have become familiar with basics of Aboriginal culture than the Maasai culture. References Banner, S, (2007). Possessing the Pacific: Land, Settlers, and Indigenous People from Australia. New York: Harvard University Press Krippendorf, J. (1987). The holiday makers: Understanding the impact of leisure and travel. Oxford: Butterworth- Heinemann Ltd. Page, S. & Connell, J. (2006). Tourism: a modern synthesis. Sage: London Pitcher, M., van Oosterzee, P. & Palmer, L., (1999). Choice and Control': The Development of Indigineous Tourism in Australia, Darwin, Centre for Indigenous Natural & Cultural Resource Management, 51. Tourism concern (2011). The problem, Tourism: a thirsty business http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/index.php?page=the-problem Read More