Gift shop owners’ perception of authenticity of Canadian indigenous souvenirs
Souvenirs are objects that evoke memories of a tourist experience.They are universally
associated with tourism as a commercially-produced and purchased object to remind tourists of
the experience (Swanson and Horridge, 2006). Gift shop owners are playing an important role in
transferring the authentic souvenirs from artisans to tourists since they have connections with
both the demand side and the supply side. This study is one of the very few studies applying a
constructivist grounded theory to the study souvenirs in tourism. While a number of studies are
conducted in Australia, New Zealand and Mexico about indigenous souvenirs (Asplet and
Cooper, 2000; Kim and Littrell, 2001; Popelka and Littrell, 1991; Ryan, 2005), there is little
known research about the authenticity of Canadian indigenous souvenirs.
This research aims to study perception of authenticity of Canadian indigenous souvenirs
from the gift shop owners’ point of view. Research questions guiding this study are as follow:
(1) What do gift shop owners describe as the qualities of indigenous souvenirs?
(2) How does the location of manufacturing affect the gift shop owners’ perception of
souvenir authenticity?
(3) What is the connection between the artisan and authenticity of a souvenir?
Methodology
This study uses constructivist grounded theory as its methodological basis. Constructivist
grounded theory researchers try to learn how participants construct their experience through their
actions, intentions, beliefs and feelings (Charmaz, 1995). Data for this study were collected
through semi-structured interviews with four gift shop owners from Southern Ontario who
owned and ran gift shops in Toronto, Stratford, and St. Jacob’s.
Findings and Key Arguments
The following five themes emerged as gift shop owners talked about the authenticity of
the indigenous souvenirs of Canada:
(1) Being handmade
Gift shop owners expressed the significance of having handmade souvenirs as opposed to
those that are mass produced. As Swanson and Timothy (2012) argued, souvenirs that are mass
produced objects are often made by people who have little understanding or training in
traditional artisan skills. Tom thinks indigenous souvenirs in Canada should be handmade
because it can create jobs and that way the work is “real Canadian”.
(2) Indicating the story behind the souvenir and enabling tourists to learn about the indigenous
souvenirs
It is not only the genuine materials used in a souvenir that makes it authentic, but also
knowing about the artisan who made it and the story behind it. Gift shop owners played an
important role in building the relationship between the artisans and tourists through providing the
tourists with information about the artist and the meaning behind the souvenirs. As Salamone
(1997) argued, constructivist authenticity may depend on the context in which the souvenir was
made. When describing a deer leather purse, Cindy mentioned it is made by Corrine Hunt who is
First Nations from the West and designed the 2010 Olympic medals. She also mentioned
whenevershe tells her customers that the artist of the souvenir they are buying is in the store,
theyare willing to talk to him or her because knowing the story behind a piece they are buying,
makes it very authentic to them.
(3) Being locally sourced by indigenous artisans
Gift shop owners think an indigenous Canadian souvenir should be made inside Canada
by indigenous artisans. Sharpley (1994) argued if something is made, produced or enacted by
local people according to customs or tradition, then it is considered authentic. Through this
theme, gift shop owners answered the second question and discussed the importance of the place
of production of a souvenir to make it authentic. They elaborated that in order for a souvenir to
be authentic it needs to be locally produced by indigenous artisans.
(4) Being more expensive
Price was one of the issues gift shop owners talked about. Tom described indigenous
Canadian souvenirs are handmade and more expensive and the price goes up if you want to buy
the genuine done by the Inuit.
(5) Featuring uniqueness
Gift shop owners also discussed the issue of ‘uniqueness’. Tom believes Canada possess
unique indigenous souvenirs and artwork that cannot be found anywhere else. He elaborated the
uniqueness in west coast as having wood carving because they have a lot of woods out there and
also mentioned how Inuit art is unique because the artisans use ivory or bones for carving which
makes their art recognizable.