But what happens when a guidebook leads you into colonialist apologetics? 

Vernadette Gonzalez and Hokulani K. Aikau are historians at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. They’ve noticed that guidebooks, while maintaining the tourist economy of a region, also tell stories from the perspective of a conqueror. They’ve set off to write  Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawaii . The book engages tourism through a critical, equitable lens. Their proposal states “ Detours  offers alternative itineraries and ways of ‘visiting’ the islands as well as concrete examples of how we can move from metaphors of decolonization to material practices and everyday acts of resistance that bring about real change in the lives of everyday people.” 

Gonzalez will present her decolonial guidebook ideas at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois on February 20th and 22nd, respectively.