Journal of Sustainable Tourism Understanding local ...

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Understanding local power and interactional processes in sustainable tourism: exploring village-tour operator relations on the Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea

Stephen Leslie Wearing a; Michael Wearing b; Matthew McDonald c a School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Faculty of Business, University of Technology Sydney, New South Wales, Australia b School of Social Sciences and International Studies, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia c School of Management, Faculty of Business, University of Technology Sydney, Haymarkets, Australia First published on: 23 July 2009 To cite this Article Wearing, Stephen Leslie, Wearing, Michael and McDonald, Matthew(2010) 'Understanding local power

and interactional processes in sustainable tourism: exploring village-tour operator relations on the Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea', Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18: 1, 61 — 76, First published on: 23 July 2009 (iFirst) To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/09669580903071995 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669580903071995

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Journal of Sustainable Tourism Vol. 18, No. 1, January 2010, 61–76

Understanding local power and interactional processes in sustainable tourism: exploring village–tour operator relations on the Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea Stephen Leslie Wearinga∗ , Michael Wearingb and Matthew McDonaldc a

Downloaded By: [University of Technology, Sydney] At: 20:37 13 February 2010

School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Faculty of Business, University of Technology Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; b School of Social Sciences and International Studies, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia; c School of Management, Faculty of Business, University of Technology Sydney, Haymarkets, Australia (Received 17 September 2008; final version received 13 May 2009) This paper explores the power relations in and between local villages and outside tourism operators on the Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea (PNG). The analysis of power focuses on the contingencies of agency in the interactional order allowing greater participatory approaches to sustainable tourism. The notion of power applied in this case study is derived from Michel Foucault’s concept of power relations. It is argued that local power and ensuing interactions are neither a zero sum gain or over-determined structurally, but a symbiotic process. By applying Foucault’s concepts to the preparation of the Ecotrekking Strategy developed by the villages on the Kokoda Track, we illustrate how power is exercised through dominance, negotiation, rationalities and resistance, all of which are interwoven into day-to-day social interactions between tourism operators and local villages. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of this analysis for sustainable tourism development. Keywords: power relations; social interactions; ecotrekking strategy; Kokoda Track; Papua New Guinea; Foucault; villages; tourism operators

Introduction Sustainable tourism development (STD) has moved away the general thinking on tourism from grand systems and functionalist theories that regard social phenomena as patterned by macro-structures, towards agency-oriented views where realities are contested by stakeholders. One manifestation of this trend is a group of studies called alternative tourism development (e.g. Cohen, 1987; Dernoi, 1981, 1988; Sindiga, 1999). Within this framework our focus in this paper is on the social interactions between local people and tourism operators and how best to render development using tourism that is more participatory, self-reliant, equitable and process-orientated. In less developed countries Liu (2003) describes how poverty and social desperation necessitate a need for local communities to benefit from tourism development. However, too often the inability of the local population to fully understand and participate in the development process results in the lion’s share of tourism income being taken away or leaked out from the destination. This paper addresses this issue through Michel Foucault’s concept of power relations capitalising on this orientation to regard transformative potential

∗

Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

ISSN 0966-9582 print / ISSN 1747-7646 online C 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/09669580903071995 http://www.informaworld.com


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as inherent in day-to-day social interactions. Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was one of the twentieth century’s leading philosophers, historians and sociologists, with key works on modern medical and social scientific disciplines, raising fundamental questions about the nature of human knowledge and its relationship to power structures (Gutting, 2003). Elements of Foucault’s conceptual perspective are illustrated through a case study based on the preparation of an ecotrekking strategy for the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This case study is based on field research in the form of workshops conducted by the lead author in PNG from 2003 to 2006. The purpose of the workshops was to initiate stakeholder participation as a part of the planning process within the ecotrekking strategy while progressing earlier work on issues of power relationships in STD (Wearing & McDonald, 2002). By presenting a recent case study of the Kokoda Track in PNG we illustrate that community consultation and engagement with tour operators and other stakeholders creates the basis for a more sustainable tourism venture, one that is based on mutually beneficial relationships between landowners, operators, government authorities and trekkers. Power relations in STD: a Foucauldian perspective Tourism in developing countries is often proposed as a tool for poverty alleviation, development and the protection of natural resources. The conception of STD adopted in this paper is based on Butler’s (1999, 2003) following five principles: (1) It must take a long-term view, (2) place an emphasis on local benefits (environmental, economic, social), (3) minimise negative impacts, (4) operate within the limits of the environment, and (5) apply equity on both intra- and intergenerational basis. If these outcomes are to be achieved then tourism planning has to acknowledge the fundamental relationship between local people and tourism operators. Inherent in these relationships are power dynamics that have become the topic for a number of critiques of tourism (Bramwell & Meyer, 2007; Cheong & Miller, 2000; Dredge, 2004; Hollinshead, 2000; Kirstges, 2003; Mowforth & Munt, 2008; Telfer, 2003; Tribe, 2005; Wearing & McDonald, 2002). We will use the orientations provided by Foucault on the microphysics of power as they effect relationships and interactions between operators and villages, and among villages along the Kokoda Track. Power relationships are reflected not just in contrasting developed and developing world regimes of truth but are also embedded in communities themselves (Foucault, 1980). The benefits that the development of sustainable tourism may bring to local communities are easier to promote on paper than they are to put into practice, as the conflicting interests of local people, operators and other stakeholders have the potential to arise in the process. Applying an over-deterministic view of dominance and subordination in power relations between the various stakeholders in tourism development can often be misleading, particularly in cases where power is viewed as something to be possessed (e.g. by the state, classes or individuals), or that power flows from a centralised source, from top to bottom (Olssen, 1999). As the specific cultural example of authority and resource-sharing in Melanesian society illustrates, relationships between actors are never settled or fixed in a top down fashion, and neither are local people necessarily victims. The application of Foucault’s concepts is used here to provide insight into the dynamics of social change and power that tourism may bring to local and indigenous communities. Foucault’s concepts of power relations, discourse, subjectivity and resistance around disciplinary power (Foucault, 1980, p. 105) allow us to explore some of the issues that arise in developing tourism in these communities. Foucault argues that power is exercised through



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concrete mechanisms and practices (Foucault, 1983), explaining that “the problem is to both distinguish the events, differentiate the networks and levels to which they belong, and to reconstitute the threads which connect them and make them give rise to one another” (Foucault, 1979, p. 33). Adopting Foucault’s insights would bring together the interactional actors and their different worldviews as stakeholders, and incorporate different regimes of truth, those of the local communities and of the liberal rational western models brought to the process by Western tour operators (see Wearing & McDonald, 2002). STD can be considered a complex and discursive field and the opportunity exists to develop a more integrated approach to theory and practice that allows for local-level understanding. However, communities do not passively accept top-down direction (Wearing & McDonald, 2002). Rather they assimilate knowledge into day-to-day negotiations, resistances and interpretations of the existing social order. From this perspective STD can turn the language of critique into a language of possibility where greater attention is paid to the actualities of the everyday struggles of people (Fagan, 1999, p. 180). Although tour operators are among the key players in influencing the effects of tourism (Budeanu, 2005; Kernel, 2005; Kozak, 2004), they do not dominate every aspect of the process. The unresolved domination/transformation dualism in STD is not explained by assuming that the tour operator, as the symbol of the tourism industry, is dominant in these circumstances. What is critical for the success of STD is an approach that adopts an analytical framework that suggests emancipation is inherent in spontaneously governed daily power struggles, rather than simply standing in opposition to oppression. Foucauldian explanations of power suggest that society is not neatly grouped into the powerful and the powerless, thus rejecting the binary opposition between oppression and resistance. Cheong and Miller (2000) investigated the micro interactions of brokers, local communities and tourists as a part of the tourism system. Significant in these interactions are the fields of knowledge, formulated and created by each party. Hollinshead’s (2000) analysis places an emphasis not only on the responsibility of the tour operators but on each of the actors within the system. It is the power/knowledge sharing between stakeholders that is significant in the formation of new knowledge, which leads to changes in practice and the empowerment of local communities. In adopting a Foucauldian approach, Masaki (2006) argues that disciplinary power not only constrains individuals’ thoughts and actions but also provides a common frame of reference that serves as a medium through which different actors negotiate their interpretations of reality. This is because different actors, who attribute varying meanings to particular situations, constantly struggle with one another over the definition of societal norms. What renders power contestation in STD even more dynamic is the provisional and contingent nature of sociocultural and individual identities, which are constantly being readjusted and modified through social interactions occurring through tourism. Given such non-static characteristics of people’s subjectivities, the way that particular actors (village members, guides, porters, tourists) react to disciplinary power cannot be deduced a priori from their presumably given interests, as these are diverse and change over time, making it difficult to move beyond ad hoc approaches to planning. In situations where disciplinary power is in operation, “a whole field of responses, reactions, results and possible inventions may open up” (Foucault, 1983, p. 220). Such interactions require in-depth social analysis and empirical research. In a theory-based paper, such as this one, we can only suggest the beginnings of a research programme in STD using the chosen approach. The starting point for STD is how different actors resist disciplinary power. One can then examine the micro-power exercised by different individuals and groups, and then try to reveal a more general, overarching power

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dynamic that takes into account the range of players in STD. STD brings a dynamic to the process that sees a breaking down of traditional roles that reshape the way communities work allowing their creative input into the process.


The Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea The Kokoda Track (or Kokoda Trail, as it is otherwise known) came into existence in 1904, when it was established by the administration of what was then British New Guinea (Figures 1 and 2). The track was the official overland mail route linking Port Moresby with the northern goldfields beyond the village of Kokoda. Prior to that time, all that existed was a series of disconnected forest pads (cleared areas in the rainforest used for village settlement) between the scattered communities along the otherwise impenetrable Owen Stanley Range. In 1942, at the height of the Second World War, the Japanese selected the Kokoda Track as the axis for their advance on Port Moresby from Buna and Gona. A small band (approximately 400 in number) of poorly equipped and inexperienced Australian soldiers (later reinforced by veterans who had served with the British Army in North Africa) were sent over the track to Kokoda, where they faced a force of 10,000 well-equipped Japanese troops trained and experienced in jungle warfare. After many months of bitter fighting and horrific casualties, and aided by the legendary Papua New Guinean carriers, or Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels as they were fondly known, the Australian army succeeded in preventing the fall of Port Moresby. Thus the Kokoda Track was the scene of some of the most heroic deeds in the Pacific theatre, and the name became synonymous in Australia with the noblest of human qualities: courage, sacrifice, mateship, and endurance. As a result, the Kokoda Track gained iconic status in the Australian psyche. In more recent times the track has experienced a growing interest from people who would like to walk it. In the space of just eight years

Figure 1. Papua New Guinea. Source: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pp.html.



Figure 2. The Kokoda Track. Source: http://www.kokodawalkway.com.au/pdf/map bw.pdf

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registered trekking numbers on the Kokoda Track have risen from 76 in 2001 to over 6000 in 2008 (for further information on the Kokoda Track, see www.kokodatrail.com.au).

The development of the ecotrekking strategy The Orokaiva and Koiari people who live along the track still lead an essentially subsistence livelihood, clearing land to grow crops and raising animals for consumption. Their only source of income, apart from tourism, is from the limited sale of produce to markets in Port Moresby. This livelihood, already under threat from a shortage of labour, is not necessarily one that the younger generation wishes to pursue in the future. Tourism-related employment can, therefore, help stem the outflow of young people and, with vocational training, increase their future earning capacity. In 2003 trekking along the Kokoda Track was identified as the highest priority for the Kokoda region by the PNG Government. It would provide a process to ensure that the primary source of income from trekking is able to support the planned socio-economic initiatives for villages along the track. The Kokoda Track Foundation (an Australianbased NGO, www.kokodatrackfoundation.org) successfully lobbied the PNG Government to establish a Kokoda Track Special Purpose Authority (KTA) with representation from clan leaders, landowners, representatives from each village along the track, provincial and local-level government authorities, the Tourism Promotion Authority, the National Cultural Commission, community organisations and tour operators. On 11 June 2003 KTA was proclaimed by the PNG Government as a statutory body of the Koiari and Kokoda locallevel governments. This body consisted of a management team of four PNG nationals and one Australian manager (Kokoda Track Foundation, 2006). The first task of the KTA was to prepare a community development action plan which took the form of an ecotrekking strategy (see Kokoda Track Foundation, 2006) designed to empower the local people to optimise the benefits from tourism and enable them to take a leading role in their own development. Through a strong partnership with local government representatives, the intention was to allow the KTA to take control of planning decisions and funding allocations to the local villages, which was not carried out in any systematic manner and relies on handouts from tour operators. Through the coordination of the KTA, communities along the track developed an ecotrekking strategy. The aim of the strategy was to enable villages to become self-sufficient through revenues generated from trekking fees, accommodation, food production and associated activities. In order to mobilise the ecotrekking strategy, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was used as a framework to guide the initial research process (Wearing, Grabowski, Chatterton, & Ponting, in press). PRA encourages local communities to engage their own knowledge and ideas in the management of their resources. The philosophy of PRA requires the researcher to acknowledge and appreciate that communities have the necessary knowledge and skills to be partners in the research process (Chambers, 1983; Rifkin, 1996). The PRA approach was used to facilitate an understanding of the lifestyle and activities of communities on the Kokoda Track, their expectations of trekking and what changes could be made to enable them to benefit more fully from the tourism industry. The ecotrekking strategy (Kokoda Track Foundation, 2006) was developed via a series of five workshops run from 2003 to 2005 that involved all the stakeholders on the Kokoda Track with a particular emphasis on the local community’s interest in tourism and their expectations from it. The strategy and its process was funded by the Kokoda Track Foundation (see www.kokodatrackfoundation.org). Once the strategy was complete, it was handed over



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to the KTA to implement and supervise its maintenance (see Kokoda Track Foundation, 2006). The first task in directly engaging with communities in the PRA process was to bring the villages together. The community engagement was a facilitated process achieved mainly through three workshops in the villages of Efogi, Kokoda and Port Moresby. The workshops were designed to engage stakeholders and the communities collectively in the planning process. They also provided an incentive to encourage the development of small businesses as a spin-off from tourism. The main technique employed in the workshops was “social mapping” (Figure 3), which was used to facilitate communication across clans, cultures, languages and education levels. Social mapping allows participants to visually record villages and social amenities like roads, schools and health facilities, and then to draw onto this planned activities such as new guest houses, camping areas or rural electrification schemes (see Maalim, 2006). Participants from each village were asked to draw maps of their village showing what they thought was relevant for tourists in their communities and what services the village could provide towards tourist activities. Participants were separated into groups by village and a separate workshop was held at the request of the Efogi women to ensure their voices were heard. Participants were also asked to prepare oneand five-year plans outlining some of the changes they wished to see in their communities

Figure 3. Social mapping, Efogi Workshop, April 2004.

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Figure 4. Kokoda timeline, Efogi Workshop, April 2004.

as a result of hosting trekking activities. The maps created by each village were collated and key themes were drawn out by the villagers and researchers (Figure 4). The lead author was the facilitator of each workshop relying on a translator to assist in communication. The translator also documented each of the workshops along with their outcomes. Languages spoken at the workshops included English, Tok Pisin (Pigeon English) and Hiri Motu. The following analysis of the interactional processes between the stakeholders is based on these documents (see Kokoda Track Foundation, 2006) along with analysis of some of the events that took place prior and after the ecotrekking strategy was


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developed. From these analyses, the following three main themes emerged: (1) village–tour operator relations, (2) land ownership and (3) gender relations. Village–tour operator relations Land use in Melanesian society is based on both individual and group rights, and reciprocal obligations which co-exist in careful balance (Fingleton, 2004, p. 97). These arrangements include providing labour as a form of payment for goods and rendered services. These traditions cut across class and other sectional interests in terms of capital–labour relations and may in certain instances support management and owners or, in the more likely scenario, community and tribal interests (e.g. Imbun, 2006; Tonks, 2004). Big men in PNG villages earn their status (as opposed to achieving it through hereditary means) through their ability to provide their villagers with services, products and cash. Much of their power is exercised through their largesse and generosity, which provide the means to influence, control and manipulate fellow villagers. Foucault’s (1991) work provides the basis to suggest that conceptions of power as a capacity to govern are too reductionist and simplistic in their understanding of STD and, in particular, the impact of tourism on village life in developing countries (e.g. Wearing & Wearing, 2006). For example, community organising processes around conservation in other areas of PNG have required considerable reframing, negotiation and skill in order to successfully ensure village participation (Tonks, 2004). In a study on conservation and development in PNG, Anderson (2005) found that disciplined facilitation, refusing to make ultimate decisions for communities and leveraging the high value placed on relationships at the local level to form structured social organisations led to community empowerment. This example supports arguments for power from below and the potency of countervailing local knowledge when organising stakeholder processes. Other interpretations of this process draw upon macro structural concerns and interests to the detriment and invisibility of village-level voices (e.g. Imbun, 2006). Land tenure along the Kokoda Track rests with each of the villages who carry out work on the track where it passes through their land to ensure it remains open. Individual villages have established bridges, crossings, campsites and other infrastructure to support trekking. These communities have also managed to ensure, through the establishment of the KTA and the development of the ecotrekking strategy, that they are represented in a collective way to outside organisations. Prior to the process of developing the ecotrekking strategy, the Kokoda communities struggled to make progress due to internal conflict. This led to individual negotiations with tour operators and sometimes to the closure of the track by individual villages who felt they were not getting a fair return from trekking. Communities saw what they considered were well-off tourists spending very little in their villages. What had occurred was a highly skewed distribution of wealth where operators, and those fortunate enough to have arrangements with them, organised porters and accommodation for the trekkers thereby increasing the wealth of only those with connections and in a position to negotiate, while leaving many others on the track to miss out. The introduction of the KTA and the process of producing an ecotrekking strategy saw a breakdown in the usual dominance of tourism operators in this situation where operators oscillated between the utilisation and avoidance of village participation accoding to their convenience. Underlying such dynamic reshaping of power relations was the continual remoulding of the normative order at the village level through the renegotiation of the traditional labour system amongst those who attached different meanings to this tradition (including males


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and females in the communities, tourism operators, trekkers and government officials). At the time of the commencement of the development of the ecotrekking strategy, which commenced when the KTA was set up in 2003, there existed a growing resentment among many of the villagers that the normative culture and labouring tradition were unfairly manipulated. This is in line with Foucault’s (1983) assertion that taken-for-granted norms are being ceaselessly readjusted. On the Kokoda Track tourism has led to readjustments in various communities depending upon the relationships they have with operators in terms of supplying porters, accommodation and use of campsites. The ecotrekking strategy attempted to counter this sense of unfairness perceived by different communities by negotiating agreements with local leaders and various operators, whereby porters would be employed from all villages on the Kokoda Track on a shared basis. Furthermore, the KTA would use a portion of the trekking fees they had raised to buy and pay for labour in each village along the track to maintain and repair it. This measure was intended to contain the increasing discontent with the labouring traditions by highlighting the villages’ interests, i.e. the Kokoda Track was able to benefit all the villages and that agreements and standards could be universally applied and returns from trekking could be equally distributed. The introduced trekking fee was paid by trekkers to the tour operator and then to the KTA, which was then distributed and accessed by all the villages on the Kokoda Track so that all labour in the villages was valued in the support of trekking. In effect local power relations had been renegotiated resulting in a new ethics and norms in a range of areas, such as labour obligations. In another example of local power resisting external and global actors was the community-led village closure of the track in 2000. This example offers insights into how the power asymmetry changes where villages exercise power at local sites. At various times different villages have attempted to close the track to trekking, or demand individual fees from trekkers to pass, and enforcing all this with implied threats. For some villagers the labour obligation was not viewed as a burden; instead it presented newfound opportunities to increase income. These instances were usually negotiated by tour operators; however, in one case a provincial governor (along with a clan leader) decided to close the track, lasting for 18 months, and tried to get three million kina (US$1.12 million) from the trekking industry. He used the ill feelings prevalent among some of the villages, both on the track and in nearby areas, who were not receiving any income. Pressure was applied by tour operators on the PNG Government, who realised the threat to its fledgling tourism industry. The PNG Government resolved the situation by imprisoning the provincial governor, which led to the reopening of the track. Local closures of the Kokoda Track by individual villages were tolerated and the communities who were in a deprived position were able to renegotiate their socio-economic standing. However, when another government-level stakeholder escalated this opportunity to a degree where it became a threat to all the villages along the track, the local governor sought to resolve the impasse by urging tour operators to pressure the PNG Government for intervention. In this example, power was exercised to such an extent that the majority of the villages’ demands on the track were aligned with that of tour operators (Rouse, 2003, p. 111). Another crucial point is that different facets of village power contestation are interwoven to forge multifaceted and often inconsistent identities of actors. For instance, the penetration of different operators into the communities has seen an operator being given onwnership of a house in one village, while others have not even been allowed to stay at village campgrounds. The contest interplay between operators is often mediated by the communities who decide particular operator’s stay in the village or nearby campground. In this way one can see the empowerment of the village in an industry that often maintains an inequitable social



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order to perpetuate its advantages to profit from trekking. The multiple contingent nature of individual and group identities result in different groups aligning in different ways according to circumstances. As described above, and in line with Foucault’s (1975) assertion that disciplinary power is constantly remoulded, mobilisation of different villages to accommodate operators and their trekkers led to changes in the relationships between villages and operators who began to align with each other out of shared interests. Similarly, the mobilisation of female groups has seen changes that women obtain from trekking in return. They now receive direct remuneration from operators and trekkers rather than relying on money paid to village chiefs or clan leaders. When the track was closed with attempts by some clan leaders and the governor of the province to extort money, other villages and the operators got together to challenge the traditionally accepted practice. The trekking industry thus provided the villages, in alignment with trekking operators, the leverage to resist authority. The ecotrekking strategy has undermined techniques of a normalising judgement (Foucault, 1975, p. 184), where discipline was typically imposed on villagers through labouring norms set by village chiefs and clan leaders. As Foucault (1983, p. 224) has mentioned, power relations are rooted in the system of social networks. The reconstitution of power in this case was achieved through social relations and collective action by different groups challenging traditional norms in PNG society. Many villagers drew on the trekking industry and the newly created KTA to ensure they would have a role in decision-making processes in relation to trekking on the track. With this newly formed collective and alignment of common interests, villagers are now in a position to dictate terms, in conjunction with operators, to the traditional forms of authority. For example, the payment of trekking fees now goes to the KTA who then equitably disburse it amongst various villages and villagers along the track. Trekking operators on the track are now attempting to form their own collective in order to renegotiate their position in an industry that is constantly remoulding itself. The support the Kokoda villages felt in the early stages of the ecotrekking strategy encouraged them in the first workshop, held in Efogi village, to develop a one-year selfsustaining action plan and to combine their individual efforts into collective approaches through the KTA. This resulted in a changed labour tradition that had been established between independent village clan leaders and individual operators. The process of preparing the ecotrekking strategy allowed different actors on the Kokoda Track to resist exploitative sociocultural norms. Villagers, instead of acquiescing to tourism operators and traditional form of authority, were able to renegotiate their position within the system by establishing new social networks. Land ownership along the Kokoda Track Understanding power relations along the Kokoda Track involves broad issues of land ownership and local economy. Relationships with the land are at the very core of the identity and cultural values of the people of PNG. Over 97% of the country’s land area is under customary tenure, which is subject to ongoing relationships and negotiations between different groups. Boundaries can, therefore, be redrawn to reflect changes in power and authority. For operators, dealing with current landowners is very important, and often difficult. Land issues are a common source of tension among the villages along the track, and negotiations can be long and complicated. It is, therefore, vital that effective mechanisms be established for negotiation and dispute resolution of land ownership issues is to be solved in the pursuit of STD.

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Following Dredge (2004, p. 273), there is a need to theorise relations between actors and agency on the track where power relations have been embedded in discourse. Recent interactions between stakeholders and landowners on the Kokoda Track illustrate this conception. Stakeholder processes are often intrinsically motivated by economic and political concerns. A recent example demonstrates collusion between landowners and mining exploration companies in the Mt. Kodu area:


The Kokoda Track has been closed at Naoro for the past couple of weeks by landowners of the Mt Kodu area in regard to frustrations over the delays experienced by the Australian exploration company, Frontier Resources Pty Ltd, being granted a renewal of their Exploration Licence, which expired over 18 months ago. (Kokoda Track Authority, 2008)

The Australian in its 8 February 2008 issue claimed that this closure was stage-managed by Frontier Resources to force the renewal of the lease under banners provided for the protesters that supported mining and tourism in the area (Roberts, 2008). During this protest a range of people were claimed to have supported this policy based on the landowners’ wishes in the area. However, it appeared that many of the landowners in the area did not agree. Kokoda landowner and tour operator Phillip Batia said most landowners opposed the mine. “People worry about the environmental damage and what it will be like in 15 or 20 years”, he said. “Most of the villages want the tourism and trekkers, not the mine”. (Roberts, 2008)

These multiple, often competing, viewpoints illustrate the complexities of STD along the Kokoda Track. If empowerment is to occur amongst local landowners and communities then the reordering of priorities is necessary that takes participation and consultation with villages as cornerstones of the empowerment process. The current and previous government in Australia opposed mining in this area because of its efforts to obtain World Heritage listing for the Kokoda Track and the Owen Stanley Ranges. As with issues of mining rights and mining on Aboriginal land in central and northern Australia (e.g. Wearing & Huskins, 2001), questions of how ownership is exercised in political and economic terms are being raised. Protests by a number of villages and their leaders in 2007 and 2008 have resulted in the periodic closure of the Kokoda Track and questions have been raised about mining rights in the area. These illustrate that negotiation processes amongst stakeholders are fraught and depend on a complex working of local power and effective local politics that include some international interventions. Capitalism is at work in the profit orientation of mining companies and government’s eagerness to gain economic and political benefits from such resources. The working of power also illustrates that the forces behind the billion dollar profits to be made from copper and gold mining in the area can override the weaker levels of resistance to mining incursions into these village areas. The involvement of the PNG Government is thus not unexpected considering the profit motive behind key actors’ intentions and the significant amount of money being involved. This policy of PNG Government was in conflict with Australian Government’s policy, which was based on the long-term value of conserving the Kokoda Track and Owen Stanley Ranges as opposed to mining and other extractive industries where, in some cases, impacts have been catastrophic. As the result of a rapidly developing tourism industry along the track, villages now have a greater choice as to how they use their natural resources to earn more income. This has led to a situation where villages, and the NGOs that support them, are in a position to exercise power relations in support of their own interests. In order to take advantage of this shift in power relations and to continue the process of successful community development, villages


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and clan leaders will be needed to exercise administrative responsibility, accountability and transparency in monetary transactions through the KTA. Gender relations For the first time in living memory, the two ecotrekking strategy workshops held in the village of Efogi got together representatives from all the villages on the Kokoda Track. Planes were used to fly in participants for the three-day workshops. Given the dominance of males in these workshops, the Efogi women called for a single workshop of their own. This had the effect of changing some of the existing social order. The women who attended the Efogi workshop manoeuvred themselves into a position where they could access information outside the accepted traditions of their culture, which they achieved through the process of ecotrekking strategy. In effect the women were renegotiating their social position, vis-`a-vis men in their culture and the tourism industry, by seeking a separate all-women workshop that was run in conjunction with the main workshop. The manner in which the women sought to bypass men’s influence and lack of understanding of their needs was accordingly influenced by gender power struggles within their culture, such as not being able to talk or spend time with trekkers or tourism operators to obtain information. The women were able to renegotiate their positions as a result of their widening social networks. Most male advisors had focused their groups’ discussions on what would advantage them without considering that the trekking industry was fundamentally supported and run within communities, with major labour roles being played by women. But males accounted for nearly all the participants representing the villages. Due to their disfavoured position, women were precluded from deciding their involvement and discussing what they might need to assist them in gaining from the trekking industry and the wider strategy. The paternalistic attitude prevailing among the men created a situation where the women in the community engaged in a separate process that allowed them to clearly enunciate what they would like to see happen in the future within tourism. In this way, women subtly and unobtrusively used their own position within the traditional labouring discourse to earn an income where ordinarily such opportunities would not exist. Opportunities for social interaction for women were widened as a result of trekking; this increased their social networks and provided opportunities to renegotiate their disadvantaged status in a male-dominated village culture where inherent, longstanding, inequitable practices existed. In the women-only Efogi workshop the participants were able to enunciate their interest in what they could sell to the trekkers, and armed with this information (e.g. the types of food trekkers might buy) they taught themselves how to prepare this food which is now been sold along the length of the Kokoda Track. Operators had not encouraged this earlier, as they had been supplying their own rations to trekkers. From this set of actions the village women managed to redress inequitable returns from their traditional labour to grow and prepare food in support of tourism where they were able to source a direct income. As a result of various workshops, different aspects of village politics were given expression to bring about intricate and dynamic changes in power relations. It thereby became increasingly unfeasible to put labour traditions into action without being entangled in power relations rooted in newly widened social networks. Conclusion: theorising interactional actors as stakeholders It is only natural that broad-based participation through the mobilisation of villages and other stakeholders, as originally conceived by the ecotrekking strategy, was more difficult


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to attain than originally planned. Nevertheless the development of the ecotrekking strategy highlighted the significance of the workshops and their outcomes, which initiated changes in some of the power dynamics between villages, tour operators and other stakeholders. There were also a number of unexpected outcomes that resulted from the various processes associated with sustainable tourism development on the Kokoda Track. These included the institution of a voluntary code of practice setting standard rates of payment and weights to be carried by porters on the track, and in October 2007 the Australian government pledged AU$15.9 million to conserve the Kokoda Track and pursue World Heritage listing (Australian Associated Press, 2007). The implications of the ecotrekking strategy and the Foucauldian analysis used to interpret it highlight local power relations and the interactional processes that occur when tourism is used as tool for sustainable development. The analysis conducted in this paper progresses previous research (Wearing & McDonald, 2002) building on an understanding of the functioning of disciplinary power and the subjectivities it imposes in order to maintain social norms. It is argued that a Foucauldian analysis allows local actors – villages, villagers, trekkers and effected industries (mining, logging, tour operators) to move beyond the positions ascribed by more traditional views and approaches to tourism as exemplified by Butcher (2003, 2005, 2006). This understanding of power relations has several implications for STD:

r A bottom-up approach to power relations and local actor processes that model stronger participatory and consultative programmes for community and economic development in disadvantaged and underprivileged regions such as PNG. r The need for democratic approaches in STD that allow for alternative voices, opinion, action and interpretations amongst key stakeholders. r A highlighting of interactional actors whose shared interests allow alliances to be constituted and where power relations can be exercised in support of equitable development goals. r This approach provides a fresh understanding of how labour is used and negotiated by villages as collective agency that challenges cultural and normative order in power relations with outside stakeholders. In conclusion, acknowledging power from below as resistance and renegotiation allows for the potential emancipation of underprivileged actors such as developing country destination communities. These underprivileged actors, including village communities, can then be considered a normal part of the daily flow of interactions, rather than standing in opposition to oppression exerted by the tourism industry. It provides a means to analyse power contestation in which dominance and resistance are interwoven into daily interactions, and where the ongoing cultural and social order is continually readjusted to create a hybrid future for both villages and operators.

Notes on contributors Dr. Stephen Wearing is Associate Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). He has received the Frank Steward Award for contributions to the parks and leisure industry, and an award from the Costa Rican Government for services to youth, conservation and community. He has also been awarded a National Australian Teaching and Learning Council Teaching Award and the UTS Excellence in Teaching Award. He is Editor of the Journal of International Volunteer Tourism and Social Development.


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Dr. Michael Wearing is a Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He has published and taught in health sociology, development studies and in social work studies. His most recent co-authored book is Organization and Management in Social Work. His research interests are in non-government organizations, poverty and social exclusion and human rights practice. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of International Volunteer Tourism and Social Development. Dr. Matthew McDonald is a Visiting Lecturer and Research Associate at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. He has held lecturing posts at Assumption University, Bangkok; Roehampton University, London; and Goldsmith’s College, University of London.


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