Engaging Two-Eyed Seeing to enhance regenerative tourism

Recent critiques in the regenerative tourism scholarship have pointed to the limited engagement with Indigenous ways of being, recognizing that Western paradigms alone may be incongruent with advancing regenerative outcomes. As such, a response has been called to intentionally engage with Indigenous Worldviews and Knowledge Systems. With participants ranging in age from 9 to 92, the Grand River Community Play Project (GRCPP) invites communities along the river to refamiliarize themselves with diverse and complex histories of place through art and storytelling. The aim of this intrinsic case study is to illuminate how the GRCPP engages with Indigenous Knowledge Systems and thus responds to recent calls to address the gaps in regenerative tourism scholarship. Guided by Etuaptmumk or Two-Eyed Seeing and inspired by Creative Analytic Practice, the authors share two vignettes to illustrate how the GRCPP incorporates transformative learning (knowing), experiencing place (being), and regenerative action (doing) in its praxis.