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As a prominent Indigenous Canadian activist, artist and content creator, as well as the host of various television shows, Sarain Fox is a tireless champion of her community’s fight for social justice. Aiming to raise awareness of the Indigenous experience worldwide, she is TreadRight Foundation’s newest partner, and ambassador to the Manitobah Mukluks Storyboot School – a TreadRight project based in Toronto, Canada. How did your partnership with the TreadRight Foundation evolve?
The TreadRight Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation created as a joint initiative between The Travel Corporation’s family of brands, which include well-known travel companies such as Contiki, Luxury Gold, Insight Vacations, Trafalgar, and Uniworld Boutique River Cruise.
The foundation has three pillars to ‘make travel matter’: people, planet and wildlife. I work with them on their ‘people pillar’, which is committed to encouraging the cultures, traditions and arts of the communities where their travellers visit. The foundation enables local communities to see a real benefit from tourism – through economic and social empowerment.
My partnership with TreadRight evolved from a project they support in Toronto called The Manitobah Mukluks Storyboot School. I’m an ambassador for the Indigenous-artistled initiative and micro-enterprise they support to encourage Indigenous education and tourism. We are now taking some of the learnings from that successful programme to our Indigenous brothers and sisters in Australia, to see how it could benefit their communities.
How does the TreadRight Foundation reflect your own passion and interests?
Wherever I travel, I always seek out Indigenous knowledge and people. I really love raising up the voices of the people who know the truth about the land and history I’m visiting. I am a dancer by training and some of the most meaningful connections I have found are in the arts. Dance provides an easy and fun way to connect … in any language. I always try to support local artists, so I try to bring authentic gifts home with me when I travel too. TreadRight’s programmes help enable travellers to support local, authentic arts programmes around the world, instead of just buying cheap trinkets.
What does your role with the organisation involve?
I’m a storyteller. We work together to raise up the voices of Indigenous people around the world. As I’m an ambassador for the Storyboot Project with TreadRight, TreadRight asked me to join them on a trip to Australia with Contiki Cares, to bring some of the learnings from that successful programme to our Indigenous brothers and sisters here with the KARI Foundation.
Tell us about the new project with the KARI Foundation.
Under the ‘people’ pillar of TreadRight’s ethos, the KARI Foundation provides vital cultural preservation support – and it is on the front lines of Indigenous service providers in Australia. By way of partnership, The KARI Foundation has a real opportunity to impact the way in which travellers (such as those on Trafalgar, AAT Kings and Insight Vacations trips that visit Sydney) see and interact with the local Indigenous population. They are creating a vital programme where local artisans and cultural practitioners can share their own stories and art forms, while also creating economic freedom with the sale of the traditional pieces.
Why is raising awareness of the Indigenous experience so important to you?
I believe in storytelling. Indigenous people have amazing stories to share with visitors. I also believe in opening doors for education and training for Indigenous people. I would love to see more Indigenous-led and culturally relevant programming in tourism.
Australia, much like Canada, should encourage proper Indigenous representation on all levels of tourism. Stop selling and buying ‘Indigenousstyle’ souvenirs that aren’t actually benefiting Indigenous peoples.
As the original caretakers of the land, world views and arts need to be part of the living narrative that we share with the world – not just seen as little trinkets or treated as some novelty of the past. treadright.org