Week 6, pt.1 - Take Me Away ... In Search of Original Dwelling

‘Take Me Away … In Search of Original Dwelling’ by Engles-Swartzpaul and Wikitera is bringing light to the poor and unethical employment that Westerners are giving Maori and Samoan people. The resorts that make up majority of what tourists see when they stay in the Pacific Islands are owned by Europeans, but made and maintained by locals who aren’t getting what they should be when it comes to wage and treatment. They are hired to sell an ideal, western tourists have a “desire to experience authenticity, to escape to Paradise” (Engles-Swartzpaul and Wikitera, interstices 10) which in reality isn’t all that. In the process of trying to please white men, culture has become disconnected from its roots due to the commercialized history and origins of the Islands.

Works Cited:

Engels-Schwarzpaul, A.-Chr., and Keri-Anne Wikitera. 'Take me away ... In search of original dwelling.' A Journal of Architecture and Related Arts, vol. 10, 2010, pp. 42-54.