Becoming common plantain: metaphor, settler responsibility, and decolonizing tourism

Abstract

As tourism scholars have turned to matters of reflexivity, epistemology, and ethics in research and practice, questions have been raised about how those in positions of privilege ought to situate their knowledge/power and take responsibility for enacting justice. In this article, we convey and engage the merits of becoming common plantain (i.e., Plantago major)—a familiar, low-lying plant species that has become “naturalized” to North America—as a metaphor that positions Settlers as constructive participants in decolonizing tourism and tourism research. By working through experiential, imaginative, and narrative moments associated with our tourism research on Indigenous-Settler relations in Canada, we illuminate how becoming common plantain works to foster Settler accountability for colonization and colonial complicity; place Settlers in relation (e.g., to land, identity, Indigeneity); and augment conceptualizations of justice as healing. The article contributes to theoretical and methodological discussions on the power of metaphor in sustainable tourism worldmaking and the relationships between tourism, justice, and Settler (de)colonization.

Keywords:

• Colonialism
• decolonization
• indigenous-settler relations
• metaphor
• reflexivity
• worldmaking

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Lowman and Barker (2015) position Settler identity as a situated, place-based, and processed-based identity that connects a common group of people and practices. Identifying as Settlers, they argue, is a choice to “foreground issues of agency, responsibility, and accountability with respect to Indigenous nations” through a relational, embodied analysis (Lowman & Barker, p. 14). Although Whiteness is not a universal aspect of Settler identity, we understand it as a crucial system of value that consistently intersects with settler colonialism through eliminatory, extractive, and genocidal means (Yusoff, 2018).

2 Indigenous peoples in Canada include diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. Recognizing identities as fluid and hybrid, our aim is to respect those individuals and communities that self-identify as “Indigenous”, especially in and where Indigenous identities mean “being oppositional to colonization” (Lowman & Barker, 2015, p. 14).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science [Early Researcher Award, project number ER15-11-182].

Notes on contributors

Michela J. Stinson

Michela J. Stinson is Settler Canadian and a PhD student in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Her research focuses on the affective, narrative, and social-material relations that configure and constitute tourism places.

Bryan S. R. Grimwood

Bryan S. R. Grimwood is Settler Canadian and an Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada. His research analyzes human-nature relationships and advocates social justice and sustainability in contexts of tourism, leisure, and livelihoods.

Kellee Caton

Kellee Caton is Professor of Tourism Studies at Thompson Rivers University and co-chair of the Critical Tourism Studies international network. Her work explores how we come to know tourism as a sociocultural phenomenon, and how we come to know and reshape the world through tourism.