A placement that made me feel like I belonged

By Henok Alemneh, 1st year MDP student

As part of the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA) broader advocacy strategy to promote research and development projects that emphasize the rights of Indigenous peoples in tourism, one of my roles involved planning and organizing a seminar on ‘Tourism Industry Engagement with Indigenous Peoples as Rights-Holders’. 

The seminar aimed at raising the profile of WINTA and its Indigenous Tourism Engagement Framework (ITEF) to a diverse audience that was comprised of people from academia, tourism bodies, NGOs and government. The project was realised through collaboration among WINTA, Victoria University of Wellington and Kapiti Island Nature Tours. Victoria University collaborated by hosting me as a visiting master’s scholar and by integrating our seminar into the University’s School of Management Seminar Series. Dr. Christian Schott, a Senior Lecturer at the University, contributed by coordinating these and serving as a chair for the seminar. Mr. John Barrett, who is the Managing Director and Founder of Kapiti Island Nature Tours, collaborated by presenting on the seminar and sharing practical information on an earlier WINTA facilitated project that involved his community.   

Part of the organizing team:
L-R: Dr. Christian Schott, Henok & Johnny Edmonds

My work on the project started by putting together a project outline following initial meeting we had with the organizing team and continued through regular consultation with my supervisor Johnny Edmonds, Director, WINTA. Being given the responsibility to coordinate the seminar taught me how to perform such tasks independently and at the same time make effective use of the team environment and support system available. The knowledge and experience I obtained from my studies and lessons I learned from our previous Kapiti Island project was very helpful in planning and organizing the seminar.

The planning activities for the seminar involved designing the presentations in a way that respects and integrates Maori/Indigenous protocols, methodologies and literature. The presentations were also designed to encourage active engagement of seminar participants through sharing of practical information, a handout provided with key information, use of relevant pictures and diagrams, posters, and through a discussion and Q&A session. Arranging venue & date, writing the seminar abstract, project report & evaluation, organizing promotion, invitation & webinar delivery options, preparing forms, slides, notes & other documents, and presenting on the seminar are also among the activities that provided me with tremendous learning, networking and professional development opportunities. Through these experiences, I was able to improve my research and project management skills and learned how things happen in the real world of development work.

Henok presenting on WINTA's ITEF

One of the major tasks during the planning phase of the project was building on WINTA’s concept of ITEF, a roadmap being developed to enhance respectful engagements between Indigenous communities and all other key players in Indigenous tourism based on the Larrakia principles of respect, consultation, empowerment, partnership, community benefit and protection. A diagram was designed to illustrate the key foundational components of the engagement framework and a paper describing the concepts was written with the information being made available for potential use and improvements.   This task required a review of literature and identifying issues and gaps as it relates to rights-based Indigenous tourism. I also did a review of WINTA’s documents that are of relevance to the particular focus of the seminar. These tasks taught me different set of skills for engagement in research activities.

Seminar participants

Overall, the projects I have been engaged in are vital in providing roadmaps and strengthening the foundational work which will be built on through subsequent projects in various parts of the world through WINTA’s team and global network. One of the initial steps we have taken for the purpose of a wider promotion and feedback on WINTA’s rights-based approach to tourism was to create a webinar video of the seminar presentation. This is expected to be shared through WINTA’s global network. I obtained great experiences from the planning and implementation of this seminar project. Moreover, the core values of the organization and the responsibilities I was entrusted with made me feel I belonged. I am very grateful for the incredible support of WINTA and its director, University of Winnipeg, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship, Victoria University of Wellington and all individuals and organizations that I haven’t mentioned by name.

Enriching placement experience in Aoteareo, Land of the Long White Cloud

By Henok Alemneh, 1st year MDP student

For my international placement, I reached out to and arranged to work with World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA), under the direct supervision of Johnny Edmonds, the Director of WINTA.  This 3-month placement based in Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand allowed me  an incredible opportunity to learn both about the Maori people, their culture, and WINTA. WINTA has a mandate to engage in Indigenous tourism advocacy, facilitation and networking activities as recognised by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in its endorsement of the 2012 Larrakia Declaration.  I was tasked to work on three major projects: Facilitating Kapiti Island Community Workshop, organizing a Seminar on WINTA’s rights-based Indigenous Tourism Engagement Framework (ITEF) & Reviewing WINTA’s Training Collateral.

Henok and Johnny Edmonds at work workshop planning

The Kapiti Island whanau (family) workshop was titled: The practices we want tour/travel operators to follow when engaging with us.  The workshop aimed at creating a platform that could enable the whanau to collectively share and discuss their expectations of the practices tour and travel operators need to follow when engaging with them. In preparing for the workshop one thing stood out to me was the process of framing and positioning the workshop in a way that affirms the communities’ engagement right from the outset. As my supervisor says “we are not selling something to them. It is the communities’ workshop. WINTA’s role is to facilitate.” We aimed to make sure all activities, presentations and forms align with what the whanau was looking for and we provided progress updates. I found the whole process an exemplary approach by an international organization who considers its obligation to allow the community to guide all elements of the project.

Kapiti Island is about 5km off the west coast of the southern part of the North Island of New Zealand. Part of this Island is a government natural reserve and “of the total 1965 hectares, the local tangata whenua (Maori people of the land) together kept 13 hectares around Waiorua Bay, and this is where the Lodge is today” (https://www.kapitiisland.com). Our team was privileged to visit the island and the lodge. In order to minimise the risk of insects like Argentine ants and pests spreading to Kapiti island, the whanau does biosecurity checks before boarding the boat to the island. Everyone, including whanau members, are required to clean footwear to remove soil, seeds and diseases.  This is an exemplary practice of communities safeguarding the land.  All are required to respect the protocols, including what to bring and not to bring to the Island.

Henok on Kapiti Island

Being part of this project I learned some Maori cultural protocols, including Mihi Whakatau. A mihi whakatau, according to my host supervisor, is a speech of welcome performed by the Kaumātua or kaiārahi to the visiting group and is sometimes followed by a waiata (song). It can be responded to from someone in the visiting group in the appropriate manner, but does not necessarily need to be responded to. Before we entered the lodge, the whanau performed the mihi whakatau followed by waiata . As we  faced each other (visitors on one side and the whanau on opposite), a beautiful Maori song was sung. Another person and I responded from the visitors’ side. I responded in my first language (Afaan Oromoo), starting with a greeting, then acknowledged the Mana Whenua (people of the land), the E Nga Mate (Ancestors) and the Papatuanuku (mother earth) and finally I expressed my gratitude for being there. I wore my own cultural dress and shared a little bit of my culture. I also sang a waiata, that I practiced beforehand, with the rest of our visitor group. 

On completion of our whaikōrero (speech) and waiata, we went around and did the Hongi / Harirū. It is the act of pressing noses, sniffing and shaking hands. My supervisor taught me that it brings both visitor and host together as one. It is so powerful in making one feel welcome. What I felt after that was really like being with family, and among people who love you and care for you. It gave me closeness and openness with many of them afterwards. I think the whole welcoming process created a relationship among all of us that made the workshop very engaging. For me personally, it also connected me to the Maori culture and tradition.

Henok facilitating Kapiti Island Whanau Workshop

The workshop project was very important not only because of its potential value for the whanau, but also because WINTA wishes to create opportunities to further improve future delivery to other Indigenous communities and tourism businesses. Analysis and interpretation of participants’ feedback was undertaken from evaluation forms and through the traditional poroporoaki protocol where anyone can speak at the end of the workshop. It is the communities’ way of stating how the gathering went. The evaluation process helped knowing what we could have done better, both for the whanau and WINTA’s benefit. 

Johnny Edmonds

I believe the workshop indeed provided WINTA an opportunity to test the engagement framework it has been developing and inform improvements for future facilitation of such projects with other Indigenous communities involved in tourism activities. Such projects are also essential steps towards enhancement of rights-based Indigenous tourism engagement. Every task in this project taught me a lot about community workshop planning, facilitation, project evaluation and report writing, and also skills and ways of doing these along with the community and under the guidance of their culture. I clearly understood how important it is to build respectful relationships when engaging in community projects. We couldn’t have achieved positive outcomes through this project, both for the Kapiti whanau and for WINTA, without the connections we built and strengthened through the Indigenous values of kinship, reciprocity, respect, partnership and sharing. Through these values, we acknowledged that we are all related, that we are part of everything around us, that we are interdependent, that we respectfully do our homework before we engage with other parties, that we engage in a mutually beneficial partnership, and that we share information and understanding rather than telling them what to do. 

These lessons have been carried on for the other major seminar project I took part in and I invite you to read my second blog titled ‘A placement that made me feel like I belonged’.