EMBERA DRUA: THE IMPACT OF TOURISM ON INDIGENOUS VILLAGE LIFE IN PANAMA AMY LETHBRIDGE A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change Program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September, 2016 This is to certify that the Dissertation entitled: EMBERA DRUA: THE IMPACT OF TOURISM ON INDIGENOUS VILLAGE LIFE IN PANAMA prepared by Amy Lethbridge is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership and Change. Approved by: Laurien Alexandre, Ph.D., Chair date Jon Wergin, Ph.D., Committee Member date Aqeel Tirmizi, Ph.D., Committee Member date Cem Basman, Ph.D., Committee Member date Copyright 2016 Amy Virginia Lethbridge All rights reserved Acknowledgements As I come to the end of this particular phase of my life, this five years during which I struggled to transition from practitioner to scholar, I want to pause and say thank you to the many on whom I leaned and whose support carried me through. • First and always are “my guys,” my husband Bob and my son Spencer. They are the center and the light of my life and their encouragement, pride and support fuel my ability to live the life that I choose to live. To Bob especially, who meets every plane with a hug and a cold beverage, who listens long after I should have stopped talking, who read every draft of every paper. He makes me think, he makes me laugh and he never hesitates to say the magic words that this woman loves to hear, “you should go for it honey.” • To my chair, Dr. Laurien Alexandre, for her guidance, support and understanding. Truly a partner and mentor, I appreciate the time and commitment she showed to me and to this work. • To my committee, Dr. Jon Wergin, Dr. Aqeel Tirmizi and Dr. Cem Basman for the encouragement, expertise, and guidedance you brought to working with me on my research. • To the faculty and staff of the Leadership and Change program. I may not have said a word in your classes but I absorbed your wisdom and appreciate so much both your content expertise and your facilitation of my learning. • To Dr. Carolyn Kenny and Dr. Amanda Stronza for their good work which inspired me and their guidance at key points in my scholarship and with the development of my work. i • To all of my C10 colleagues, especially Ed, HP, Kim, Jerrid, and Rodney—for your friendship through out this journey and forever more. • To the Antioch Los Angeles community who encouraged me to do this and supported me in so many ways. A special thank you to Dr. Cynthia McDermott for being a source of friendship and aid above and beyond what I might have expected. • For 27 years I have worked for the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. My colleagues are passionate public servants, dedicated to preserving open space for future generations, to providing nature and outdoor recreation to underserved audiences and to make communities healthier, more beautiful and safer. They work hard, they demonstrate everyday leadership in all that they do and I am proud to work by their sides. My boss and friend, Executive Director Joseph T. Edmiston, has supported me every step of the way in tangible and intangible ways. • I also want to thank the global community of heritage interpreters who have taught me so much and are so dedicated to telling the stories of the earth and her peoples in ways that are respectful and relevant. • To the Panamanian tour guide community which has been a source of information, inspiration and kinship for a dozen years. Within this larger group is my Panamanian “family”, Rick Morales, Bea Schmitt, Christian Gernez, Mica Gernez-Schmidt, Beny Wilson Altamiranda and Alvaro Perez. So much laughter, conversation and good food over the years, aand lots of couch surfing on my part during my visits to the land between the seas. I love you guys. • To the community of Embera Drua, who opened their village and their homes to me, answered my questions and shared their stories. I hope that this study honors and ii respects your history and that the experience of the last 20 plus years in tourism informs other community Indigenous tourism projects. iii Dedication I am my mother’s daughter. She was the person who introduced me to atticus Finch and Clarence Darrow and whose fierce sense of justice made her never hesitate to stand up for those who had no voice. She taught me to question everything, to be a team player, to hit a softball and to sing campfire songs. She taught me to love books and learning, raised me to believed there is nothing I cannot do and never hesitated to let me know when, in her words, “my head was getting to big to fit through the door.” From her I learned to be strong, to do what is right and the power of laughter. She was my greatest critic and biggest fan. I dedicate this work, and my doctorate, to Francesca Dufficy Lethbridge (1941–2007). iv Abstract This case study examines the experience of residents of the Indigenous village of Embera Drua, Panama with 20 years of tourism. It addresses the lack of Indigenous voices in tourism literature by telling the story of Embera Drua through the lens of the villagers themselves. The study uses a mix of ethnographic observation and narrative inquiry and finds that the experience of Embera Drua mirrors the experience of other Indigenous villages offering tourism around the globe, particularly the impact of lack of community capacity on management and growth of such tourism initiatives. Findings of this study are relevant to the international discourse on tourism as a development tool. This dissertation is available in open-access at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd and AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ i Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... iv Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ ix List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ x Chapter I: Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................................. 4 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................... 5 Background and Definitions ................................................................................................. 7 Embera Drua and the Embera Drua Project. .................................................................. 7 Geography ...................................................................................................................... 9 Indigenous Definitions ................................................................................................. 11 Tourism Research: Evolution of the Four Research Platforms .................................... 12 Research Design ................................................................................................................. 16 Primary Research Questions. ........................................................................................ 17 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................................... 20 Tourism Impacts. .......................................................................................................... 20 Positionality. ................................................................................................................. 22 Overview of Dissertation .................................................................................................... 24 Chapter II: Critical Review of the Theory, Research, and Practice ............................................ 26 Tourism Research: The Field ............................................................................................. 26 Platform Model of Tourism ................................................................................................ 27 Jafari’s Advocacy Platform. ......................................................................................... 28 The Cautionary Platform. ............................................................................................. 28 The Adaptancy Platform. .............................................................................................. 29 Knowledge-Based Platform and Other Suggested Platforms. ...................................... 30 Indigenous People and Tourism ......................................................................................... 31 Negative Impacts. ......................................................................................................... 33 Representations and Portrayal: The Image of Indigeneity. .......................................... 36 Beneficial Impacts of Indigenous Tourism .................................................................