Engaging with indigenous peoples

As discussed earlier in the context of Borneo Adventure, a growing trend is for tourists to want to engage authentically with indigenous peoples. This gives another opportunity for sustainable and responsible travel, often very small scale. At the larger scale, though, Australia’s tourism website highlights the importance of seeking out Aboriginal experiences by identifying their key role in environmental stewardship and their culture of storytelling. Similarly, New Zealand explains the importance of understanding Māori culture and emphasizes that tourists should seek out opportunities to expand their range of knowledge as this will enable them to see the world differently. Beyond this, though, indigenous communities are also working, at a small scale, with tourism on their own terms.

The Akwesasne Mohawk community in the USA and Canada recently opened a forest trail both for local people and tourists. It advertises this on its tourist website. You can see the 3 minute video about its opening here on YouTube - Grand Opening of the Kahrhaká:ion Walking Trail [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] and the commentary makes clear how important it is to the tribe that this has happened. The Akawesasne Travel website (https://akwesasne.travel/ about-us/) gives more ideas about what tourists can do to have authentic experiences in their territory including loom beading and basket weaving. Withrow (2025) mentions the Hualapai Nation reservation, which has built a glass arch ‘skywalk’ over the Grand Canyon for visitors and has opened trails and activities, including along the Colorado River. It has developed an app that provides information about the history and culture of the Hualapai as well as about what tourists can see and do in the area. This is small scale community tourism but it is responsible and sustainable as well as being authentic.

Another way to engage responsibly with indigenous people is to seek out social enterprises that support them or look for indigenous-owned enterprises. This might encourage tourists to identify activities they can do on their travels such as taking cooking courses in Belize (Central America) or finding shops selling indigenous handicrafts in Auckland (New Zealand) just as the women in KAFRED were selling crafts and peanut butter in their own visitor centre.