Indigenous tourism is the topic of the moment thanks to an innovative and fun ‘unconference’ that is taking place around the globe as part of Indigenous People’s Week, from August 8 to 12, 2011.

As the founder of Planeta.com, I’m co-hosting the event with Sweden’s Nutti Sámi Siida. Their Anders Kärrstedt tweeted more than a year ago asking why there is no global week dedicated to Indigenous Peoples. Thanks to a slow conversation, we decided to host this week ourselves.

Themes for discussion include biodiversity conservation, crafts, cultural heritage, food and literacy (both traditional reading and writing and digital literacy – the emerging read-write culture). August 8, after all, is World Literacy Day, so why not learn how to read and write tweets? Why not encourage online learning in the Zapotec or Sami or Maori languages? This is a great way to lead in to celebration of August 9, the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

Why it’s important to me
While I am from Indiana (USA) – ‘Land of Indians’ – I am not indigenous myself. My ancestors hail from northern Europe, not the Americas.

My parents, however, were keen on their children learning about and respecting other cultures. During summer vacations we criss-crossed the United States and visited museums and parks and paid attention to indigenous peoples. We attended powwows and visited the homes of the artisans from whom my parents bought jewelry.

In Australia, Planeta.com collaborated with Aboriginal Tourism Australia in developing marketing strategies for Aboriginal tour operators. We participated in the 2007 Business Development Symposium, a powerful capacity building training seminar.

For the past 10 years I have lived in Oaxaca, Mexico, which boasts 16 ethnic groups and 100 distinct languages. “Every day is indigenous tourism day in Oaxaca,” I tell friends. I see travelers arriving every day seeking contact with indigenous culture. The big question for most visitors is how to do so in a respectful manner. It’s complicated further when visitors do not speak Spanish… or Zapotec, Chinantec, Mixtec or Ayuuk or the other languages.

Indigenous People’s Week
I see Indigenous People’s Week as a wonderful mixing of cultures – indigenous and non-indigenous – as well as cyber-savvy and friends who simply don’t want a smartphone. We don’t all have to do the same thing or have the same background to contribute to a win-win effort.

The work I’ve done in Oaxaca is a good example of how to collaborate. For my part, the online promotion of Oaxacans markets, indigenous foods and language has been compensated and then some for this decade-plus conversation that has deepened my understanding and appreciation of ‘foreign’ cultures.

I nod in agreement with my friend Deborah McLaren‘s assessment that “To learn about the world through first-hand, one-on-one meetings with people from around the world is a valuable human experience. We discover universal themes of human culture. We become more aware that no matter where we live we are all confronting similar situations as we ultimately become a global community.”

Deborah McLaren's 'Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel' is a considered meditation on how to restructure (or at least rethink) tourism so that it benefits local people and their environments.

How you can participate
We are calling for recommendations of educational and engaging videos, podcasts, websites and online resources.

Please start adding links or questions now to the event pages on Facebook and Linkedin. When you are tweeting about this topic please include the hashtags #indigenous and #ipw.

To learn more about Indigenous People’s Week, check out the event presentation on Slideshare, the YouTube conversation and the IPW wiki on Planeta.com.