11 Juli 2023
WTID will be holding a webinar on indigenous tourism, so we wanted to highlight some great work done by indigenous women in the tourism sector. In particular, a project designed by and for indigenous women in Latin America to improve their economy through local tourism. The Project, Weaving the Recovery, teaches indigenous women how to make and sell textile fabrics through fair and ethical trade. The project was selected as one of the most promising projects of the Paris Peace Forum, so in 2021, project specialist Maria Hernandez-Perez was invited to pitch the project in a webinar for the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). Maria explained the ways the project empowers indigenous women to create ethical business partnerships to sell their textiles, on their own terms.
Fighting Discrimination Through Education: Indigenous Women Become the Holders of Their Own Destiny
Maria started the webinar by highlighting that the need for the project is born out of historical struggle of indigenous people to access their rights. This has affected women through discrimination of their ethnic origin, gender and socio-economic condition. Maria explains that tourism is well-placed to combat these issues, by providing employment opportunities and improving the indigenous economy. Significantly, she mentions the fair trade will mean indigenous women get fair re-attribution for the ancient knowledge and sophisticated techniques that go in into making their textiles. There are three elements of the project that will address these problems.
Capacity Building
First, Maria talks about capacity building which builds the women skills in business and textiles. This element aims to move the women away from the traditional role of passive information receivers to active trainers and mentors. Through encounters with other communities, they can share their knowledge of tourism and working with textiles, while learning from others as well. They can also get advice for problems they may be having with fair trade.
Market Access
After this, the next element builds the women’s knowledge on fair trade guidelines and gives them knowledge of the benefits of socially responsible practises. The participants can then apply their new knowledge when they meet with partners from the private sector, to define the terms and conditions of their business agreement. This is the basis for which the use and sharing of the textiles is fully controlled by the indigenous woman making them. Through the partnerships with indigenous communities, partners from the private sector can appreciate the indigenous knowledge that is used to make the textiles, and have further respect for the indigenous culture.
Mentorship Building
Maria explained the mentorship building element, which will help the women apply their knowledge and skills after finishing the project, through local initiatives and business partners. Through these channels, the women can still have guidance on ways to implement their knowledge and can co-design strategies with their business partners to boost long-term results.
Empower Indigenous Women to Empower the Community
Maria ended the webinar by speaking about the benefits from the program’s ability to be replicated. Even after the participants have finished the program they can use the skills they’ve learnt to educate other indigenous people and local communities. This takes on a ripple effect to position indigenous people and women as the drivers of change to progress their community and economy forward. By enhancing the indigenous economy, people’s ability to be paid fairly means they can contribute and enrich the indigenous economy, and therefore, the community as a whole. Through this ripple effect the program will benefit over 700 indigenous families and 150 women who will participate in the project.
Written by: Emily O’Dwyer
Artikel ini dipublikasikan pada laman womentourism.id | 11 Juli 2023