Sinai: Tourism, Colonialism, and Sea

This video article examines the author’s embodied research in the Sinai region of the Egyptian Red Sea. It asks how embodied research can interrupt touristic and capitalistic frameworks of experiencing land and seascapes to better understand our collective responsibility to the indigenous humans and wildlife who’s habitats are claimed by tourism. It considers the ways in which embodied research is uniquely suited to support postcolonial ecological inquiry. Arguing against environmental discourse which separates land and animal conservation from the indigenous humans who have lived among them for centuries, this video article considers the multiple losses suffered by the Bedouin peoples of the Sinai- from the annexation of Bedouin lands by nation states including Egypt and Israel, to neoliberal development schemes which displace them and their ancestral nomadic routes. This video article considers devastation to the environment from the countries, colonization and institutions directly affecting their food sources, homes and livelihoods. The author joins a legacy of artists of color examining the touristic within their own countries. Blending critical race theory and environmental criticism by scholars of color, the author rethinks the normalizing of extractive underwater practices and reflects on the ways in which tourism, scuba diving and commercial fishing extend colonial structures of invasion. Conducted between 2013 and 2016, this research took place just before new massive touristic development began in the area. This video article looks across political, historical and environmental landscapes to reflect on life and loss within Sinai’s interspecies communities. Problematizing embodied practices and methodologies which invisibilize the lived experiences of BIPOC peoples, the author proposes a more politically integrated somatics through which to re-sense human bodies as extensions of our earth. This article reflects on possibilities for using embodied research for more sustainable futures. 202