Intangible Cultural Heritage of Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Tourism: Development Opportunity or Cultural Appropriation?

Abstract

Tourism is sometimes viewed as a means of sustaining both tangible and intangible aspects of Indigenous cultural heritage, such as languages, stories, music, art, dance, hunting and fishing techniques, rituals, and customs. While cultural heritage products designed for tourism offer numerous socioeconomic benefits for the Indigenous communities, Indigenous cultural product and identity self-management can be problematic, making tourism a challenge. An urgent and comprehensive assessment of the relationship between cultural heritage and Indigenous tourism is imperative, given the critical role that culture plays in maintaining the sustainability of Indigenous tourism products.
The expansion of ethnographic tourism in Russia has emerges as a prominent pursuit, particularly in the Indigenous People’s homelands in the Russian North. The aim of this form tourism is to acquaint tourists with the customary practices, rituals, culture, daily way of life and economic activities that are unique to the Indigenous communities. We can find examples of ethnographic tourism in different territories such as the Republics of Buryatia, Tyva, and of Sakha (Yakutia), as well as Magadan regions and Kamchatka Krai. In many regions traditional celebrations have attained official holiday status.
This paper examines case studies of ethnographic tourism in Arctic Russia, and evaluates their impacts on local Indigenous communities, in respect to engagement, recognition, ownership, benefit sharing and cultural appropriation. In particular we focus on Even festival “Bakyldydyak” in Magadan Region, “Den’ Olenevoda” celebration in the Republic of Sahka and Kamchatka Territory, Itelmen holiday “Alkhalalalai,” the Koryak Festival “Khololo”, and Even New Year “Nurgenek” in Kamchatka.