Call for papers: Indigenous perspectives of outdoor recreation/leisure; ANZALS University of Otago December 2011

 

Convenor: Dr Anna Thompson (Department of Tourism; Centre for Recreation Research, University of Otago) (Nga Puhi, Ngati Ruanui)

 

Many indigenous peoples have collective and personal identities that are intertwined with their values for natural areas. Indigenous customary rights and cultural relationships to landscapes and waterways have of course affected the management of outdoor recreation/nature based tourism undertaken in areas increasingly known by visitors as having cultural values for ‘place’. From a tourism or commercial recreation context indigenous peoples may actively manage and provide experiences or, if not empowered, find themselves to have been ‘Other-ed’ (as an ‘additional attraction’ for visitors or recreationists).  Indigenous perspectives on, and involvement in, outdoor leisure activities appear to have not been a focus for researchers as noted by the lack of published information concerning the participation of Maori, Pacific Island and other indigenous peoples in outdoor recreation (Lomax, 1988; Shaull and Gramann 1998; Rehmann 2002; Hokowhitu 2007; Reis, Thompson et al. 2010; Booth and Lynch 2010). This appears to also be true when considering indigenous peoples as visitors (or customers) when holidaying at commercialised outdoor recreation/nature based tourism venues or places (Carr 2004). Yet understanding cultural values for the outdoors is key for assisting management in product development and resource management (Carr 2004; Amoamo 2009; Amoamo and Thompson 2010)..  This session will enable researchers to present findings or theoretical considerations about a variety of themes including (but not limited to)  (a) indigenous perspectives of outdoor recreation/leisure environments (b) cultural landscapes as leisure environments (c) barriers and constraints to participation in such leisure environments and (d) participation of indigenous peoples in outdoor recreation/nature based tourism activities as visitors, entrepreneurs, tourism providers and ‘local/ community members.

 

 

Abstracts (limited to 250 words) should be sent to Anna Thompson (anna.thompson@otago.ac.nz), by 16^th of May, 2011. Authors will be notified of acceptance of their abstract for presentation at the conference by 10^th of June.

 

Please ensure that abstracts include all author names, institutions and an email contact for the lead author. Any special presentation equipment (e.g. slide projector) required should be noted in the email in which the abstract is submitted.