Becoming common plantain: metaphor, settler responsibility, and decolonizing tourism

Abstract

As tourism scholars have turned to matters of reflexivity, epistemology, and ethics in research and practice, questions have been raised about how those in positions of privilege ought to situate their knowledge/power and take responsibility for enacting justice. In this article, we convey and engage the merits of becoming common plantain (i.e., Plantago major)—a familiar, low-lying plant species that has become “naturalized” to North America—as a metaphor that positions Settlers as constructive participants in decolonizing tourism and tourism research. By working through experiential, imaginative, and narrative moments associated with our tourism research on Indigenous-Settler relations in Canada, we illuminate how becoming common plantain works to foster Settler accountability for colonization and colonial complicity; place Settlers in relation (e.g., to land, identity, Indigeneity); and augment conceptualizations of justice as healing. The article contributes to theoretical and methodological discussions on the power of metaphor in sustainable tourism worldmaking and the relationships between tourism, justice, and Settler (de)colonization.