Planeta.com, Nutti Sami Siida and friends hosted Indigenous Peoples Week (August 8-12, 2011). This online unconference focused on Indigenous Peoples and tourism. Themes include biodiversity conservation, crafts, cultural heritage, food and literacy (traditional reading and writing and digital literacy -- the emerging read write culture).

Indigenous Peoples Week highlights examples where tourism has helped the indigenous culture to prosper. Featured are participants in the Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award.

"The objective of Indigenous Peoples Week is to embed responsible indigenous tourism into the bigger picture," said Planeta.com founder Ron Mader. There are plenty of great examples of thriving indigenous cultures around the world, people who are eager to share stories and engage with visitors. Web 2.0 is being used by indigenous peoples and visitors alike and we invite friends to share stories that inspire and educate us all."

Outcomes of the event were a series of zipcasts of the slideshare presentation, 84 people registering on Facebook and numerous tweets and retweets among the participants.

FUTURE PLANS

Planeta.com and Nutti Sami Siida are scheduling the next Indigenous Peoples Week August 6-10, 2012.

We continue our call for educational and engaging videos, podcasts, websites and online resources.

Those interested in partnering are asked to contact Planeta.com Founder Ron Mader.

OBJECTIVES

Improve digital literacy.
Create innovative grassroots events locally around the world.
Bridge natural and virtual worlds with an engaging unconference.
Embed responsible indigenous tourism into the bigger picture.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Seek out and patronize indigenous businesses where you live.
Make a poster or foamboard
Learn new words in an indigenous language.
Organize a local walk focusing on indigenous culture
Use Web 2.0 - Blogs, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Gowalla, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia - to learn about indigenous culture.
Blog: Blog about indigenous culture
Flickr: Add photos of indigenous crafts with the name of the artisan to the World Crafts Group
Twitter: Tweet about indigenous culture
YouTube: Videos please! Why not make a short video or playlist to document indigenous culture and traditional knowledge?