"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 homes on reserves in Canada don’t even have drinking water, and people on reserves lack access to hospitals and medical care (not to mention social workers and help dealing mentally with the inter generational trauma families still suffer from due to the residential school system). And even if he does know all this, does he realize that many of his white tourist customers probably don’t know and that dressing up in feathers really isn’t helping.
Okay. So I’m also not sure how great his English language skills are and my Thai is stuck at "hello" and "thank you" so how do I tell him all of this and try to make him change? I think I may need to try and talk to him, maybe write him a letter or email with links to some information that is easy to understand about Indigenous education and understanding. As well I think a well thought out trip advisor review explaining to tourists why it is wrong to support this place as it is.
Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. This one is really bugging me. I just don’t know. I do not know the answers for sure, but my gut says it’s very wrong what he's doing. Perpetuating stereotypes for personal profit is never okay.
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 homes on reserves in Canada don’t even have drinking water, and people on reserves lack access to hospitals and medical care (not to mention social workers and help dealing mentally with the inter generational trauma families still suffer from due to the residential school system). And even if he does know all this, does he realize that many of his white tourist customers probably don’t know and that dressing up in feathers really isn’t helping.
Okay. So I’m also not sure how great his English language skills are and my Thai is stuck at "hello" and "thank you" so how do I tell him all of this and try to make him change? I think I may need to try and talk to him, maybe write him a letter or email with links to some information that is easy to understand about Indigenous education and understanding. As well I think a well thought out trip advisor review explaining to tourists why it is wrong to support this place as it is.
Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. This one is really bugging me. I just don’t know. I do not know the answers for sure, but my gut says it’s very wrong what he's doing. Perpetuating stereotypes for personal profit is never okay.
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