"The Indian" I don’t even know where to begin
So, there’s this really well reviewed place on TripAdvisor called "The Indian", on the beach in Koh Lanta, Thailand. It’s full of First Nations photos and wood carvings of men in headdresses, and lots of drawings and letters from guests and kids with some very stereotypical images of First Nations peoples. The owners name is Pas and he’s a very nice man, who wears feathers and a headband AND well is Thai. As soon as we met him Mark just had to ask, “so where you from?” And he quite honestly replied just over on the main land not to far. He’s lived on Koh Lanta 20 years though and had the bar 10 years. Sadly, it appears he's been exploiting and perpetuating stereotypes for profit and the tourists love it. So, what to do? Does he know that First Nations people are real and they are not just some made up fantasy? Does he know about residential schools and boarding schools, about systematic racism and underfunding of Indigenous schools? Does he know that many ho...
