Tourism Reinvention to Replace Exploitative Tourism
The Kecak dance, invented 90 years ago, is an example of exploitative tourism.
The vibrant and healthy lifestyle practices of indigenous cultures are a resource drawn upon by its people for wellbeing and harmony. They can be shared with the tourist if there is intent as a sojourner for a lasting purpose for personal harmony, health and enlightenment.
The tourism model should be reinvented to avoid its numerous forms of exploitation. Entertainment is the primary purpose of a Caribbean or Mediterranean cruise (when they resume post-Covid) with onboard showrooms, endless restaurant & bar options, and shore excursions to briefly explore shopping, local color and perhaps antiquity. On shore the beach T-shirt shop owner's purpose is personal economy. For those with no connection to the Cruise Economy's floating resorts one's indigenous culture can be disturbed in multiple ways.
The Sustainable Tourism movement has correctly instigated a welcomed reinvention of many forms of tourism. Regrettably some examples have retained exploitative tourism on the beach (rainforest river dock, canopy tour, savanna safari camp, and elsewhere).
The Kecak is a Balinese dance fashioned to evoke particular themes of the BalineseRamakavaca, a version of one of the largest ancient epics in world literature. The 1930 collaboration of Indonesian dancer Wayan Limbak and German artist Walter Spies choreographed the Kecakperformance specifically for tourists, first in Bali then as a global traveling show.
Lost In Translation
The Kecak is sometimes called "Ramayana monkey dance". Its purpose is entertainment and personal economy. Its derivation is actually over 2500 years old evoking lessons for life distilled for the attention span of the foreign tourist.
It is a strong example of the “Bali Syndrome”, the condition documented by Claudio Minca [note 1] when the villager’s culture is manipulated for tourist consumption and for the promoter’s profit at the expense of the indigenous culture. Sadly, the local culture exploits its own culture as a form of reverse “cultural appropriation”. Countless examples exist, such as the Hawaiian hula dinner show, and the audience-participation Filipino Tinikling bamboo stick dance.
Another form of exploitation is Creative Tourism observed by Manuela Blapp in 2015, were tourists in Bali briefly try out a few roles and tasks of a Balinese villager, such as plowing the field behind a water buffalo, make baskets, weave, or cook traditional foods as activities to sample village life while “home stay” clients of village residents [note 2]. She observed it as a combination of Community-based Tourism [documented by Tolkach in 2013, note 3], and Creative-based Tourism [documented by Richard in 2011, note 4].
The Harmony Project reinvents tourism with its model that recognizes and rejects the Bali Syndrome and Creative Tourism. Embracing a term it has coined as a Resource for Life, where the sojourner is not a tourist, but a traveller pursing personal health and harmony, drawing upon the lessons sourced within indigenous culture. The elders, healers, and parents of a region are teachers of wisdom, each a resource for life.
“The sincerely seeking sojourner is one who ventures out to find and embrace that which brings lasting happiness, health, and inspiration knowing that it is really an inner journey homeward to the heart.”
Ramakavaca involves lessons which holds that everyone should adhere to Hinduism’s Four Goals of Life necessary and sufficient for a fulfilling and happy life: kama (pleasure), artha (wealth), dharma (duty) and moksha (liberation).
If the Kecak were to be reformed it would emphasize such lessons for the dancers and tourists. Reading most any successful novel or literary piece pertaining to indigenous Balinese illustrates the noteworthy convergence of entertainment and personal enlightenment.
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NOTES
Note 1: “The Bali Syndrome: the explosion and implosion of ‘exotic’ tourist spaces”, Claudio Minca, Tourism Geographies 2(4), 2000, 389–403
Note 2: “Creative Tourism in Bali’s Rural Communities”, Manuela Blapp, master’s dissertation for NHTV University, 2015.
Note 3: “An Attribute-Based Approach to Classifying Community-Based Tourism Networks”, Tolkach, D., King, B., & Pearlman, M., Tourism Planning & Development, 10(3), 319-337
Note 4: “Creativity and Tourism – The State of the Art”, Richards, Annals of Tourism Research, 2011, 38 (4), 1225-1253.