Photography by Rita McNiell, words by Ellen Tirant.
Be curious, explore, experience and appreciate. A big part of the Dorsu Way is expanding our knowledge and appreciation for the world we live in, meeting new people, trying new things and being open to new ideas.
Travelling can do wonders for an individual. It can show you things you never knew existed, open your eyes to a whole new world and sometimes even give you a little bit of perspective. People travel for many reasons; to meet new people, experience different cultures and to see the wonders of mother nature. People dream, plan and work towards the goals of discovering something new. Travel is something a lot of people dream about. You don’t have to have money or the means to dream about seeing the world.
Today, we are are a world full of explorers. In Australia alone, 9.7 million residents departed the country short term from June 2015-16. That’s a fair chunk of the population with a jet-setting mindset.
Beyond the delicious food, the sunsets and the momentous souvenirs, when we set foot in a foreign country we are essentially breaking down the barriers between ‘us and them’. We break down social barriers and we connect with people from other countries, with different lifestyles.
For us, ‘travelling often’ means seeking information, learning and understanding. It’s not about staying in a resort on the beach, eating at global restaurant chains, cramming in all the tourist sites in a day or spending a week in an orphanage. We believe that if we travel to bridge a gap between our perception (or lack thereof) of a place and it’s people, we can then start to see how our actions in our own countries can impact people in other countries.
Actually meeting people who work in garment factories, seeing the conditions in which they work puts a face to that mysterious’ other’ that sewed your t-shirt. It forces you to see beyond the t-shirt stacked up nice and tidy on the shelf in a clothing store. It forces you to understand that there really is a person in the field harvesting the cotton that makes your t-shirt and that somebody’s life really is affected by the price you pay for your clothing.
In the words of Aziz Abu Sarah of Rythm Travels, the future of travel is “not a photo profile for your Facebook, [it] is not disaster tourism...”. The future of travel can be a sustainable way of connecting with each other, of shedding the ignorance we sometimes have of another place and the people in it.
We want to see the recognition that our actions at home are actually affecting the people we get on plane to go and admire from behind a camera lense. We encourage everyone to use their adventurous spirit to meet these people and to take what they find back into their everyday actions.
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