2009 WINNERS
JURY AWARD - Guurrbi
Tours (Australia) is run by Nugal-warra story-keeper Willie
Gordon who keeps his ancestral rock art alive by sharing its
stories with guests near Cooktown, Queensland.
Highlights on the website are features on Aboriginal
Art Conservation and the Bama
Way Map.
Guurrbi also uses a variety of Web 2.0 tools to communicate
with a wide audience, including potential visitors and local
Aboriginal youth who otherwise had not come across Willie's
work. Highlights include videos
on YouTube and a Facebook
account which connect Willie to potential clients and to
local Aboriginal youth.
Comments:
The site is tastefully simple, informative and easy to navigate.
I enjoyed the Guurrbi News blog updates, photo galleries, and
videos - to learn about Willie and the people he touches. I
thought that these tools are being used effectively on the Guurrbi
website to share Willie's storytelling experience online.
Guurrbi tours is unique in the world. Willie promotes greater
understanding of Traditional indigenous australia in a special
way, that goes beyond the surface, resulting in 'guests' examining
their own lives and relationships with their fellow humans.
POPULAR COUNT - Indigenous
Trails (New Zealand) holds strategic alliances with other
Maori tourism operators, providing cultural travel experiences
that are out of reach for most visitors to Aotearoa.
Highlights on the website include the company's policy promoting
sustainability,
responsible
travel and a review of Maori
Legends.
Web 2.0 highlights include videos
on YouTube and a gallery
of photos on Flickr.
Comments:
Indigenous Trails ... embodies the Indigenous values and create
connections between the Indigenous people of NZ and all their
clients. I still live on these personal interactions and experiences.
Another fact that I think really speaks for Indigenous Trails
is there Volunteer program. Through this program many young
people get an unique insight on how the indigenous people in
NZ live and work.
Indigenous Trails ... The design of web page seems represent
well the Maori spiritual and earthy lifestyle projected as part
of their tour. Our touring experience with this group was a
learning experience with very positive results. Hence this website
reminds us of the extra steps taken by this group to make our
visit to New Zealand a special and memorable one.
2009 APPLICANTS
Bookabee Tours (Australia)
is a family owned and operated business specializing in authentic
Aboriginal experiences in Adelaide, South Australia and through
the outback.
Chalalán Ecolodge
(Bolivia) is located in a tropical Andean hotspot, the site
hosts 45,000 different plant species and more than 1,000 tropical
bird species.
Great Spirit Circle Trail
(Canada) encompasses
eight First Nation communities on Manitoulin Island and the
Sagamok region in Northeastern Ontario, Canada.
Guurrbi Tours (Australia)
is run by Nugal-warra story-keeper Willie Gordon who keeps his
ancestral rock art alive by sharing its stories with guests
near Cooktown, Queensland.
Huit Huit Tours
(Canada) offers a variety of eco-culture trips in Cape Dorset
and the south Baffin region. Inuit art and culture are a focus
of town tours.
Indigenous Trails
(New Zealand) holds strategic alliances with other Maori tourism
operators, providing cultural travel experiences that are out
of reach for most visitors to Aotearoa.
It's Wild! Bush
Camps (Zambia) is owned by the Mwanya and Chifunda communities
in Zambia's Luangwa Valley through a program called Community
Markets for Conservation (COMACO).
Kapawi Amazon Ecolodge (Ecuador)
is located in one of the most remote and well protected parts
of the Amazon deep in the nearly two million acres of the Achuar
people's territory.
Magic Mara Safaris
(Kenya) is named
for the Maasai tribespeople and the Mara River which divides
it in the Masai Mara, a large park reserve.
Nguna - Pele
Marine Protected Area (Vanuatu) is an indigenous, organization
made up of sixteen communities on two islands dedicated to the
sustainable use and long-term existence of marine and terrestrial
resources.
Ricancie (Ecuador)
is an organization of nine Quichua-Communities in the Sumaco
Biosphere Reserve on the Upper Río Napo offering an eco-tourism
program and possibilities for cultural exchange.
Sani Lodge (Ecuador)
is owned and operated by Sani Isla Kichwa community in Ecuador's
Amazon.
Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre
(Canada) shares the cultural practices of coastal and interior
salish peoples. The center offers personalized guided cultural
tours, indigenous performance arts and language programming,
ethnobotanical walks and indigenous culinary tastings.
TIME Unlimited NZ
Tours and Travel
(New Zealand) provides unique and high quality Maori Cultural
Tours.
Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Park (Australia) is located
in Queensland.
2009 JURORS
Lois Peeler is an Aboriginal woman from Australia's Yorta
Yorta tribe. Lois lives in Melbourne.
Her involvement in the Australian Indigenous tourism industry
spans more than fifteen years and she is co-author of the Respecting
Our Culture Indigenous Tourism Certification Program.
Sylvie Blangy is
a European scholar who has worked with Canadian Inuit and Cree
communities. She completed her PhD on Ecotourism, indigenous
communities, land management and conservation of biodiversity
and has published a guide book on Indigenous tourism in French.
Deborah McLaren
is a sustainable tourism consultant based in Minnesota
where she assisted the start-up of a Journeys with First Nations
Green Route initiative with tribal communities. She is the former
director of Indigenous Tourism Rights International (ITRI),
has served as a consultant with the UNDP, Government of Bhutan
and several foundations.
John Scott is a descendant of the Iningai people of central
Queensland,
Australia (Barcaldine area) and since 2004 has served as the
Programme Officer for Traditional Knowledge for the United Nations
Convention on Biological Diversity.
CRITERIA
The Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award represents
an opportunity for indigenous people and communities to improve
their websites. Among the criteria for selection, the website
should ...
* be regularly updated
* link to other relevant sites
* reflect indigenous ownership, authenticity and heritage
* encourage sustainable livelihoods, respect of life on earth
* be user-friendly
* be trustworthy
* provide clear contextual information
* have text in English
Bonus points to applicants making the most of Web
2.0 channels, including Blogs, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
SURVEY
Respondents were asked to rate how user-friendly the site appeared.
They were also asked to evaluate how well the site reflects
indigenous ownership, authenticity and heritage, how well the
site encourages respect of life on earth.
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