Five Anti-Colonial Travel Narratives You Should Read Before Your Next Trip

I am on a personal campaign to give the travel sphere something no one asked for but definitely, and desperately, needs, an Indigenous perspective. Whether European newcomers know it or not, tribal peoples of the Western Hemisphere have been voyaging, sharing, trading, and connecting with the world around them for centuries. And we are still doing so.

Though most of my Native peers have traveled both nationally and internationally quite extensively, no one outside our communities talks to us about our experiences. But in my opinion, we have some of the most interesting stories. More importantly, we have a lot to teach our fellow travelers about respect, reciprocity, and relationships.

Though there are currently less than a handful of Native American/Indigenous travel-focused books out there (including my own forthcoming book I Love You So Many: A Memoir of Adventure, Culture, and Family), there are fortunately several anticolonial travel narratives that already exist on which we can stack some building blocks. Here are five of my personal favorite picks:

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An Indian among los Indigenas: A Native Travel Memoir by Ursula Pike

A lot of well-meaning people might follow the notion of helping folks in developing nations to avert feeling like they are participating in global gentrification by simply being tourists. But to that, my response would be to pose the question that I heard a guidance counselor ask when I was an undergrad at Humboldt State University: “Do you want to help? Or do you want to take a trip?” Furthermore, I would refer these same folks to the book An Indian among los Indigenas. Set in 1990s Bolivia, when author, Ursula Pike of Northern California’s Karuk Tribe was serving in the Peace Corps, it takes a critical look at themes including voluntourism, internalized colonization, and Indigenous identity.

The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America by Ernesto Che Guevara

If you have already seen the movie, that’s ok. The book offers a completely different experience. (And both are excellent.) Where the film adaptation leans a lot on the scenic aspect of Ernesto Che Guevarra’s 5,000-mile journey across South America with his friend, Alberto Granado, the book illuminates what the journey physically entailed. Most associate Guevarra with an image of revolutionary strength in the face of imperialism, but what many don’t know is that he was a severe asthmatic. This condition caused the two travelers to have to stop several times along the trip for him to recover. Quests are physical, and this book highlights that fact without glamorizing adventure at all.

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

This little 90-page book is a kick in the chest even for those of us who believe we are most woke and respectful travelers. Some folks just don’t want us around because history has shown that we are most often more trouble than we’re worth. And from someone whose homelands have been, are currently, and are perpetually being occupied I don’t blame Jamaica Kincaid and her fellow Antiguans at all. Thanks, colonialism, for ruining things for the rest of us.

Spirit Run: A 6,000 Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez

A lot of us who come from tribal communities are very familiar with the Peace & Dignity Journeys. It’s a ceremonial run that occurs every four years where participant travelers from various tribal nations traverse across North America from Alaska to Panama and meet up with runners who make the trek from Alaska to Panama. Along the way, they offer prayers for the greater good of the world. But there is more beneath the surface. Noé Álvarez’s memoir Spirit Run gives a real insider’s perspective on the internal politics, alpha male dynamics, and extreme physical demands that the journey entails all while the author lays out how he attempted to spiritually connect and find himself.

An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie

This memoir covers a journey that spanned nearly a lifetime. This author starts at adolescence in the world he was born into, a small village in the tiny country of Togo in Africa, with coconut trees, venomous reptiles, and tribal healers, to a place that could seemingly not be more different, to the icy terrain of Greenland, part of the vast Arctic Circle homelands of the Inuit people. In between journeys to these tribal lands in opposite hemispheres, he also makes his way through the European world picking up new friends and family along his quest.

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I Love You So Many: A Native Memoir of Adventure, Culture, and Family by Terria Smith is available from Heyday Books.