Native Nations - a novel tourism initiative

Drawing from scholarship on justice tourism, Indigenous tourism and regenerative tourism, the research extends the body of critical tourism scholarship by demonstrating how Indigenous-led justice tourism offers far more than commercial returns. While justice tourism is often built on an understanding that those visited are the ones seeking justice, in the case of Native Nations, the young Indigenous tourists are themselves the ones seeking justice.

The research finds that Native Nations achieve wide-ranging benefits such as building solidarity, uplifting youths, reconnecting youths to sources of their strength and identity, and healing injustice. More broadly, this study is helping to reshape and enlarge understandings of ‘the tourist’ and of what tourism can, and should, contribute to development.

Regina is a Professor of International Development at Massey University. Her research focuses on tourism as a tool for poverty alleviation, empowerment, sustainable development and emancipation, with fieldwork conducted across Oceania. Regina has been principal investigator on two Marsden-funded research projects, and for 2022-2023 was awarded a James Cook Research Fellowship by the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

All warmly welcome!