Indigenous Tourism Australia to highlight vast wellness opportunities

Professor Gerry Bodeker

World expert talks to Vision about his contribution to the upcoming Pacific-Asia Indigenous Tourism Conference.

Valere Tjolle: How do you characterize indigenous people’s contribution to alternative medicine?
Professor Gerry Bodeker: Well, first we let’s look at the big picture. Article 24 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) states that:  “Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals”.

From this perspective, the contribution of indigenous peoples to healthcare is the preservation of thousands of years of generational knowledge about plants & other natural ingredients that are useful in promoting human health and combatting illness. In this sense the 350 million indigenous peoples of the world are heirs to a shared history of health wisdom that is continuous and that is biodiversity specific – i.e. reflecting the plants & climatic zones of their regions.

Their health philosophies have a great deal in common with one another. Before the wellness movement was born, indigenous health systems had the concept of balance at their core – linking health, healing, humanity and Nature together in a seamless world view. At heart of this worldview is balance – balance within the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual realms of human experience. And balance between humans and Nature.

Accompanying this is a rich understanding of, & respect for Nature. This includes knowledge of which plants can heal, which plants can harm, and how best to combine & prepare these to promote human health & well being.

VT: What are the implications for tourism?
GB: Already, indigenous communities around the world have begun sharing aspects of their traditional knowledge about the healing power of Nature. Such wellness destination resorts as Daintree Eco Lodge in Cairns, Australia, Gibbs Farm in the Masai area of northern Tanzania, and a number of native American inspired wellness centers in North America all offer indigenous healing treatments. Spa Finder has identified indigenous therapies as a leading trend in spa & wellness development around the world. These offerings serve as windows to indigenous culture. Some visitors want to know more – to learn about other aspects of traditional culture, art and beliefs. And want to know how they can contribute in meaningful ways to preserve and promote such rich traditions

VT: What benefits will tourists gain from a higher input from indigenous peoples?
GB: Stepping outside of one’s conventional mindset & opening to new ways of seeing, understanding & experiencing is an authentic way of experiencing a meaningful personal journey – which is often an underlying impulse for destination tourism. Indigenous contributions to this shift of world view are profound in that they represent an intimate and profound linkage to Nature, landscape, human experience, and transcendence.

VT: Could this be characterized as ‘wellness tourism’?
GB: In the deepest sense of the world “well”, which comes from the old Saxon word “hal”, meaning “whole”.

VT: Could a relationship between indigenous practices in Australia and tourism become a practice that could be replicated?
GB: Indigenous Australians have a 40,000 year history to draw on and share. Very little research has been done into their healing traditions, healing plants and healing therapies. Bringing out those aspects of this knowledge that can be made public, sharing it with visitors, gaining scientific understanding, and beginning to apply the benefits of this knowledge to the wider world – all of these hold rich potential for creating a unique model for new directions in Natural healthcare.

VT: Can you give examples of relevant traditional medicine practices around the world?
GB: In indigenous communities in Asia, there is a tradition of bone setting. Recent research has found that the use of flexible bamboo splinting allows fractures to heal faster than with conventional fixed splinting. This is aided by the application of herbal oils that promote bone repair and reduce pain. In Africa, food traditions have been found to draw on certain local herbs as the rainy season approaches. On analysis, these cooking herbs have been found to have antimalarial properties, offering protection through diet against a serious disease. The Australian smoke bush, long a medicine of indigenous Australians, is now well known to have anti-cancer and anti-viral effects; while the Kakadu plum or gubinge (terminalia ferdinandiana), a traditional source of nutrition in northern Australia, is now ranked as the world's richest fruit source for essential vitamins.

VT: What take up potential can you see from the global travel industry?
GB: There is huge global interest in indigenous knowledge and traditions. Coupled with original and ancient health practices and products, there is a large market of tourists from across the income and geographic spectrum who would be fascinated to learn and experience more. The travel industry is already aware of this interest and there is an entire specialty of wellness tourism directed at non-Western contexts, particularly indigenous settings.

 VT: Have you got a vision for tourism that embraces traditional and other alternative practices, what form would this take?
GB: Tourism that offers a unique personal journey, personal discovery, connection with humanity’s most ancient traditions of living close to Nature, the healing potential of Nature in all its diversity, the wisdom of ancient cultures in harnessing this – these are all core elements of a new direction of tourism. Such a journey can help unite cultures and create connections that are transformative.

VT: Could you give some idea as to what you will talk about in Darwin?
GB: All of the above! Plus insights into the global wellness market and the trends that drive it.

Prof. Gerry Bodeker, works internationally in the wellness and complementary medicine fields.
He is an Australian, whose doctoral studies were at Harvard. He is a senior faculty member in public health in the University of Oxford Medical School and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University, New York, and is an Associate of the Oxford Dept for International Development, where he supervises doctoral students.

He has been Chair of the Commonwealth Working Group on Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine and has done work on traditional medicine and medicinal plant conservation for a number of United Nations agencies, for which he has produced two UN books.

The Pacific-Asia Indigenous Tourism Conference is to be held on 29-30 March in Darwin. See: www.paitc.com/
See also: www.travelmole.com/stories/1147667.php

Valere Tjolle
Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite – special offers HERE