Culture As a Commodity? the Cultural Dynamics of Indigenous Tourism in the Far North East of Queensland, Australia

Culture as a commodity? The cultural dynamics of Indigenous tourism in the Far North East of Queensland, Australia

Della-ria Jay Middleton

MA, MSc

A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy at

The University of Queensland in 2018

School of Social Sciences Abstract

Indigenous tourism in Australia has been cited as a potential economic development tool by the Council of Australian Government’s (COAG’s) ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) policy. This focus on improving the economic circumstances of Indigenous people through tourism does not take into consideration the cultural dimensions and the cultural distinctiveness of Indigenous tourism. Building on the findings of anthropology and tourism studies literature, this thesis highlights the need for a comprehensive understanding of the effects Indigenous tourism has on Indigenous culture.

This thesis examines the cultural dynamics of Indigenous tourism for those participating in this study that is situated in Far North East of Queensland, centred around Cairns. This thesis asks: How is Indigenous participation in tourism enterprises affecting Indigenous culture and what are the cultural dynamics of Indigenous tourism businesses? The key conceptual focus of the thesis relates to the question of commodification. Is Indigenous culture being commodified by Aboriginal participation in tourism? How is Indigenous participation in tourism affecting Aboriginal perceptions of cultural authenticity? What do non-Indigenous tourists view as authentic Aboriginal culture?

This thesis draws on data collected during fieldwork in Far North East Queensland between September-November 2016 encompassing 49 interviews conducted with a mix of Indigenous research participants involved in tourism and non-Indigenous domestic and international tourists.

The results reveal that cultural aspirations are as important as economic gains for those Indigenous people involved in tourism enterprise. Marketplace expectations held by tourist information centre employees, as well as these employees cultural/unconscious biases, can influence the success of an Indigenous tourism business. Touristic perceptions of Indigenous authenticity and the portrayal of Indigenous culture can affect the sense of agency of Indigenous people involved in tourism, as culture is commodified in its use as an economic development tool. These conclusions indicate that policy-makers need to take into consideration a larger range of issues than just economic gain in relation to Indigenous involvement in tourism.

Declaration by author

This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis.

I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, financial support and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my higher degree by research candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award.

I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School.

I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis and have sought permission from co-authors for any jointly authored works included in the thesis.

Publications included in this thesis

“No publications included”.

Submitted manuscripts included in this thesis

“No manuscripts submitted for publication”.

Other publications during candidature

“No other publications”.

Contributions by others to the thesis

“No contributions by others”.

Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree

“No works submitted towards another degree have been included in this thesis”.

Research Involving Human or Animal Subjects

The Bellberry Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approval for ‘Culture as a commodity? The cultural dynamics of Indigenous tourism in the Far North East of Queensland, Australia’. Approval No: 2016-06-516 (see Appendix 1).

Acknowledgments

Firstly, I would like to thank the members of the Kuku Yalanji, Djabugay and Nugal- warra Aboriginal family groups. Without the overwhelming generosity of their time and comments about traditional storytelling and answers to my many questions, the completion of this thesis would not have been possible. One of my Indigenous research participants passed away while I was writing up this thesis and I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with her. My heartfelt wishes go out to all of her family members.

I would also like to thank my sister Janice Bryant-Arthur for her unwavering support throughout the whole process from the start to the finish of this project and David Arthur for his initial proofreading of first and then subsequent drafts. My thanks must also go to Jim Vallely and Marilyn Vallely for providing guidance in the final processes of this study.

The thesis benefited from comments made by Sally Babidge and Kim de Rijke. I am very grateful to Geoff Buchanan for his mentoring at the beginning of this project and Arnar Arnarson and Rob Wishart for their continued guidance throughout.

The gratitude I feel towards my supervisors David Trigger and Richard Martin is boundless and difficult to express, as they offered their support both pastorally and academically while I navigated some very personal trials during this research study project.

Financial support

This research was supported by the School of Social Science Research Higher Degree Fieldwork Bursary.

Keywords

Australia, anthropology, business, commodity, culture, development, economic, Indigenous tourism.

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC)

ANZSRC code: 160104, Social and Cultural Anthropology, 100%

Fields of Research (FoR) Classification

FoR code: 1601, Anthropology, 100%

Table of Contents

Abstract ...... 1 Financial support ...... 5 Keywords ...... 5 Table of contents……………………………………………………………………… ...... 6 List of Maps ...... 8 List of Photographs ...... 8 Abbreviations ...... 9 Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………………...12 Thesis outline ...... 13 Conceptual framework and literature review ...... 15 Methods and Methodology ...... 18 Data Collection ...... 18 Limitations of this research ...... 22 Chapter Two: More than money: the cultural dimensions of Indigenous tourism businesses ...... 24 All the Government sees are the Dollar Signs ...... 26 From the Rainforest to Bricks and Mortar ...... 29 It’s Not All About Money, Culture Matters Too ...... 37 Relatedness in Indigenous Tourism ...... 40 Steady Income, Home Ownership, Cultural Significance and Living in a Modern Economy…………..46 Chapter Three: Marketplace Expectations ...... 48 The Anthropology of the Indigenous Tourism Marketplace ...... 49 What is it that Tourists Want? ...... 55 Do the Items for Sale meet Marketplace Expectations? ...... 62 Cultural Awareness, Marketplace Expectations and the Success of Indigenous Tourism Enterprises ...... 65 Chapter Four: Believing Really is in the Seeing: Perceptions of Authenticity and Performance ...... 68 More Than One Side to a Story…………………………………………………………………………………………………….70 What You See is What You Get? ...... 76 Jumping Through Hoops to Get a Point Across…………………………………………………………………………….80 Authenticity, Performance and Indigeneity for Sale: On Their Own Terms ...... 86

Chapter Five: Walking Our Own Path ...... 88 Chapter Six: Conclusion ...... 102

References…………………………………………………………………………….….106

Appendices…………………………………….……………………………………….....116

List of Maps

Figure l: Map of Far North East Queensland showing the study region

Figure ll: Map of detailed area from Cairns to Cooktown

List of Photographs

1: Dancers at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park

2: Welcome to Country smoking ceremony

3: Tour guide and firestick

4: Billboard advertising the Mossman Gorge Centre

5: Rock art in Cooktown, Queensland

6: Art gallery at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park

7: Tour guide showing Indigenous wayfinding markers in the Daintree Rainforest

8: Soap making in Cooktown, Queensland

9: Performer at Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park

10: Ceremonial clothing worn during performances

11: Museum at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park

12: Tour guide at the Mossman Gorge Centre

Abbreviations

COAG-Council of Australian Governments

ICCPR-International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ICSECR-International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights

IEDS-Indigenous Economic Development Strategy

ILSC-Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation

NFP-Not-for-profit

QTIC-Queensland Tourism Industry Council

TAFE-Technical and Further Education

UMI-You an me

WAITOC-Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council

Conventions

Throughout this thesis, data referenced using the acronym FB, e.g., (FB October 2016), denotes information collected during the fieldwork that was written in my field book. Other references, e.g., (audio recording October 2016), relate to direct recordings of interviews and informal conversations I had with research participants during cultural habitat tours, tours through Indigenous cultural villages, phone calls and discussions in cafes. Dialogue noted in the audio recordings is written verbatim. The photographs used were taken and reproduced with the permission of all research participants.

The terms Indigenous, Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal in the following pages, varies as to which group of people the research discusses. Using these different terminologies stems from a local preference given by the research participants comprising an emic approach to how the language was used.

Figure I: Map of Far North East Queensland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_York_Peninsula#/media/File:A2015_Cape_York_ Peninsula_map.svg)

Figure II: Map of Cairns to Cooktown (http://www.tourismcapeyork.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/05/Map-4-Full-page-map-Cairns-to-Cooktown1.jpg)

Chapter One: Introduction

Indigenous tourism in Australia has been cited as a potential economic development tool by the Council of Australian Government’s (COAG’s) ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) policy. This policy highlights Indigenous disadvantages in life expectancy, child mortality, education and employment compared to other Australians which may be addressed through involvement in tourism. However, this focus on improving the economic circumstances of Indigenous people through tourism, does not take into consideration the cultural dimensions and the cultural distinctiveness of Indigenous tourism participants, and the impacts that involvement in tourism has on Indigenous people and culture. This thesis examines these questions about culture, asking: can Indigenous culture be commodified as something available for sale to tourists? What happens to Indigenous ‘culture’ when this occurs? Anthropology and tourism studies literature highlights the need for a comprehensive understanding of the effects Indigenous tourism has on Indigenous culture.

There is a public debate (see, e.g., Pearson 2011, Collins, Morrison, Krivokapic- Skoko, Butler & Basu 2016) about selling an aspect of Indigenous culture as a means of decreasing the economic disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people as noted in the COAG’s policy ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007). However, there is a gap in the literature that discusses this topic. Altman and Finlayson noted in 2003 the impacts of participation in Australian Indigenous tourism are under-researched; fifteen years later this lacuna still exists.

The research study area is in the Far North East of Queensland situated in and around the Cairns region and 330 kilometres north to Cooktown. This field site was chosen as it incorporates two World Heritage listed areas that attract high numbers of both international and domestic tourists. This research area allowed ethnographic participant observation techniques to be utilised with 49 interviewees. These geographic areas also provided access to a variety of tours, including what I term ‘natural tours’, referring to tours that were conducted outside either along rocky escarpments and into caves or walks along the beach and through the rainforests of the Daintree. Additionally, this region encompasses a variety of Indigenous cultural parks and centres, which I term ‘cultural villages’ following the common usage of

12 research participants in this study. This thesis presents an ethnographic study using participant observation with participants employed across natural tours and cultural villages, as well as people in various associated roles in art galleries and tourist information centres. I have interviewed both domestic and international tourists of a range of ages.

In this thesis the terms Indigenous tourism and cultural tourism are used synonymously. This is in part due to how the research participants referred to their involvement in Indigenous tourism, while also noting how Indigenous tourism is described by Tourism Australia throughout the websites and information available from tourist information centres and the way cultural tourism in the Australian context tends to presuppose an Indigenous aspect.

The different terminologies used to describe the research participants e.g., Indigenous, Aboriginal or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, stems from how they regarded themselves. Some participants used the term Indigenous and others used Aboriginals, while others said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. There was no consistency between family groups in relation to how they referred to themselves. However, I did notice the older (50 + years) Indigenous research participants regardless of their family group used the term Aboriginal.

The key conceptual focus of the thesis relates to the question of commodification. Is Indigenous culture being commodified by Indigenous participation in tourism? How is Indigenous participation in tourism affecting Indigenous perceptions of cultural authenticity? And what do non-Indigenous tourists view as authentic Indigenous Australian culture? These questions lead to the overall query of this thesis: How is Indigenous participation in tourism enterprises affecting Indigenous culture and what are the cultural dynamics of Indigenous tourism businesses?

Thesis outline

At the beginning of each chapter I address the relevant literature and then discuss my own findings.

Chapter Two begins with a brief discussion of the history of Indigenous tourism. The chapter is written in three sections as I consider the economic and cultural aspirations of Indigenous people involved in tourism. Firstly, the economic aspirations of

Indigenous tourism participants are discussed, which highlights the importance the research participants placed on having what was referred to by one participant as a ‘steady income’. In the second part of the chapter consideration is given to the cultural objectives of Indigenous tourism participants. The last section discusses the relevance of communicating a perception of Indigenous culture to ‘other’ cultures. Therefore, this chapter mainly focuses on Indigenous perspectives. The chapter opens with the conceptual question of what the economic and cultural aspirations are of Indigenous participants in tourism enterprise. Consideration is given to the link between employment, education and home ownership, while recognising the importance of passing on Indigenous cultural heritage to both Indigenous children and ‘others’ and self-reliance and relatedness in Indigenous society.

In Chapter Three I analyse the effects of marketplace expectations on Indigenous tourism participants as I examine what tourists want from their Indigenous tourism experiences. Therefore, I predominantly use the lens of non-Indigenous participants. This chapter finds that non-Indigenous people’s cultural biases affect economic outcomes for Indigenous people involved in tourism, and I note how this troubles straightforward conceptions of agency on the part of Indigenous tourism participants.

Throughout Chapter Four, I contemplate the question of what does it mean to be authentic for Indigenous tourism participants, and how does the perception of authenticity affect Indigenous agency? I argue in that chapter that the perceptions of authenticity are relational and subjective in the context of Indigenous cultural performance, while the perception of authenticity and the portrayal of Indigenous culture can affect the agency of Indigenous people as consideration is given to the commodification of Indigenous culture by tourists, as they take part in Indigenous tourism, and by Indigenous people as they commodify their culture as a means to be used as an economic development tool, as noted in the ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) policy. This chapter will incorporate both Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous comments drawn from my fieldwork.

These lines of enquiry converge on the scrutiny of how the perception of authenticity affects Indigenous people in tourism enterprise. Authenticity is a rich term in anthropology which has a myriad of meanings. I approach this term by contemplating the question: what does it mean to be authentic for Indigenous tourism participants?

This chapter will be broken into four sub-headings. The first will address the complexity of the concept of authenticity, and the tensions that are linked to Chapter Three’s theme of marketplace expectations. I argue that perceptions of authenticity are relational and subjective in the context of Indigenous cultural performances. An Aboriginal research participant made a comment which will be developed in this chapter, ‘authenticity is in the story telling’. That is, some Aboriginal research participants believe that performance is an integral aspect of Indigenous culture, and that performances by Indigenous people are by their nature always authentic.

In Chapter Five I focus on the agency which Aboriginal participants have when placing themselves in situations where they are portraying a version of their indigeneity, and what the ramifications are of this portrayal for Indigenous participants involved in commodifying Indigenous culture to achieve the economic and cultural aspirations noted in Chapter Two.

Chapter Six offers a conclusion to the thesis.

Conceptual framework and literature review

In the following chapters I will be discussing the supportive data of the economic potential of the inclusion of the development of tourism enterprise by Indigenous people which has been commented on by academic researchers in both anthropology and tourism studies (see e.g., Higgins-Desbiolles 2006, Whitford & Ruhanen 2010, Cowlishaw 2010, Brennan 2015, Whitford & Ruhanen 2016). Studies conducted in Canada (see e.g., Brown & Pyke 2005) discuss the way tourism can benefit Indigenous people’s employment opportunities. Comments made by all these authors mirror what the government COAG’s policy, ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) and the Indigenous Economic Development Strategy (2011-2018) (IEDS) maintain are priorities to be utilised to redress the imbalance between Indigenous and non- Indigenous economic situations, while generally ignoring the relationship between the economic and the social. Framing the social, or as this thesis will describe ‘the cultural’, highlights the importance which Indigenous research participants involved in this study place on the sharing of Indigenous experiences as part of the rationale for becoming involved in tourism.

My emphasis on ‘the cultural’ expectations of Indigenous participants in tourism raises the need to simultaneously address the marketplace expectations of tourists as part of the inquiry about what happens to indigeneity as it is produced as a commodity for the consumption of tourists. Previously tourism studies literature in Australia has concentrated on imagery and branding (Higgins-Desbiolles 2006) of the natural beauty of white sandy beaches, crystal-clear blue water of its oceans, the rainforests of Kakadu and the sandstone monolith of Uluru, all-natural geographical features, rather than the ethnographic study of tourism encounters with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. In contrast, work carried out in Canada (see e.g., Bunten 2008, Cassel & Maureira 2017) provides an analysis of how images of Indigenous people are used to create an interest in heritage sites, providing an important point-of- departure for my analysis of the Australian setting of tropical north Queensland.

Bird-David (1993) offers a nuanced perspective on relatedness in Indigenous cultures. Her discussion about the human-nature dichotomy offers a variation on the engagement with the natural environment. A consideration of how this concept is manifested by my research participants is discussed in Chapter Two and offers a different perspective on the classic hunter-gatherer engagement with the environment. I will note how this approach is used in an Indigenous tourism framework.

According to Abascal, Fluker & Jiang (2016) international tourists to Australia far outweigh the number of domestic tourists who become involved in Australian Indigenous tourism. Discussion of these variances will be noted in Chapter Three as I consider how these marketplace expectations connect to the overall economic aspirations of those Indigenous people who participate in tourism enterprises.

More recent Australian work has begun to address the market for Australian Indigenous tourism, for example, Langton (2018) published a travel guide to Indigenous Australia ‘Welcome to Country’, this book offers its readers a clear and succinct account of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customs and history. Langton (2018:27) provides her readers with information about how to determine the authenticity of a tourism product available for purchase, outlining websites that tourists can utilise to verify what is most authentic. The preconceived notions of indigeneity and authenticity that some tourists may have when travelling to Australia can be reduced substantially by reading Langton’s work. These preconceived notions which

16 can affect not only the economic situation of Indigenous people but also the cultural dynamics of that portrayal (see e.g., Conklin 1997, Ballengee-Morris 2002, Graburn 2013). Authenticity in Indigenous tourism is complex, relational and subjective. These ideas will be discussed in the following pages of the thesis.

Langton’s work highlights how the portrayal of authenticity in performance can lead tourists to wonder if they are being shown a true representation of indigeneity, or something which has been faked for their consumption. This dilemma has been addressed in the Australian context by a number of authors including Cowlishaw (1988), Henry (1999), and Parsons (2002). These scholars’ findings show how Indigenous people involved in tourism are expected to meet impossible and inherently contradictory demands. That is, they must offer the tourists a portrayal of indigeneity to fulfil touristic demands while also adhering to their own cultural beliefs about the portrayal of their ancestral stories. These performances have an added challenge for Indigenous individuals as they operate under Goffman’s (1959) concept of ‘front and back’ stage. Goffman’s concept describes two differing actions of how humans project themselves. There is a ‘front’ stage where performance of the self takes place, in full view of those observing their actions, and a ‘back’ stage where humans hide and protect their ‘self’. Presenting the self in these ways allows a barrier between the two actions. Goffman’s ideas show how this barrier is constructed to preserve the vulnerability of acting ‘back’ stage while at the same time allowing for authenticity in a ‘front’ stage performance.

It is in the telling of these stories that the concept of agency can be manifested for Indigenous people participating in tourism. It could be argued that this is so far more than for their parents and grandparents who were moved onto missions (see e.g., Swain & Rose 1988, Wolfe 1994) and this theme is further discussed in Chapter Two. How Indigenous culture is portrayed enables Indigenous people to have agency over their lives (see e.g., Comaroff & Comaroff 2009, Bunten 2010,). They choose how stories will be told, in what setting and whether areas are able to be accessed as I will comment on in Chapter Five.

This brief literature review highlights some academic work that will be discussed in depth at the beginning of each chapter.

Methods and Methodology Data Collection

This research study is informed by participant observation using an ‘ethnographic approach’ (Bernard 2006) to conduct research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people involved in Australian tourism. An ethnographic approach to research incudes identifying a cultural or social group, carrying out interviews and conducting participant observation, interpreting the findings through the analysis and the identification of themes and then describing the behaviours and results. Empirical evidence was gathered as I conducted semi-structured interviews with research participants, which included tourists and tour guides, and others who are noted in tables in the following paragraphs. The research participants directly involved in an employment capacity were selected by two means. The first was done by searching Aboriginal owned and operated tourism businesses in the research study area, utilising the internet. Some of these businesses were sought via the information given on the Tourism Australian website, while others were selected after I had read of their existence while conducting the literature review. I contacted these business owners by email and through phone communications. The second method of determining who would participate in this research study was under the direct guidance of the gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are people who stand between a data collector and the respondents and will guide the researcher to meet contacts for interviewing, as they control who is accessible and at what times, of tourism enterprises that are not owned by individual entrepreneurs. Throughout my fieldwork, I specifically sought tours which were operated by Aboriginal-owned business entrepreneurs when choosing the tours that I would participate in from the Tourism Australia website. Email communication with those owners and the cultural village management gatekeepers who worked at the cultural villages enabled a streamlined process in terms of organising which tours I would participate in and at what times. Some of these pre-arranged interviews took place after the performances of the research participants and others took place throughout the scheduled work period. I also contacted a not-for-profit Indigenous organisation called UMI (pronounced you an me), which has an Indigenous Board of Directors. This organisation has an art gallery and music studio and has a remit of participating in the maintenance, preservation, and protection of cultural identity.

I participated in five cultural tours run by Indigenous people. Three tours who were owner operated and two which were co-operative owned. Using participant observation techniques, two days and an evening were spent in two cultural villages, the Mossman Gorge Centre, an Indigenous eco-tourism development owned by the Commonwealth entity the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation’s (ILSC) subsidiary Voyagers Indigenous Tourism Australia which has a training facility on site, and the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, which is a co-operative owned business in corporation with the Djabugay Tribal Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous Business Australia and some non-Indigenous investors. I also went to five retail outlets selling Aboriginal souvenirs. This research area allowed ethnographic participant observation techniques to be utilised with 49 interviewees. Interviews took place from September to November in 2016 and were conducted with 49 individuals who were involved in Indigenous tourism including both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Twenty-six of the interviewees were international or domestic tourists (see table 1 in the Appendices), these research participants were selected in varying ways once I had arrived at the research study area. On the guided tours I gained the permission of the tour guide to approach the tourists and outline the reason I was participating in the tour and asked if anyone would be interested in being interviewed either during the tour or after it had finished. Each of the tourists who gave their consent were given both the participant information sheet and a consent form. Twenty three interviewees were a combination of both non-Indigenous and Indigenous tourism workers; these included tour guides, performers, cultural village managers, gatekeepers, art gallery managers and tourist information centre employees. Other research participants included though were not limited to, (see table 3 in the Appendices) Indigenous business owners, non-Indigenous tourists, artists, and participants involved in tourism and hospitality training schemes, with an almost even mix of female and male research participants of varying ages between 22-65 years. The tourists I interviewed were an equal mix of female and male, though there was a higher proponent of international tourists to domestic tourists. As I built a rapport with some of the tourism employees, I was given phone numbers of other people who they thought may also be interested in the research study. Again using a semi-structured and open-ended approach to my questions I interviewed these research participants, some in cafes and others over the phone. I will not directly discuss these interviewees

19 names or genders, or they will be switched around to ensure their anonymity is protected. Three tables showing the participant demographics is included in the appendices and also appears here. This highlights tourists in one table, and all others who are involved in tourism enterprises in this study in the others. Table 1 This table demonstrates a breakdown of tourist research participants.

Female Male Domestic International Age 14 12 5 21 22-55 Total 26

Table 2

This table indicates the demographics of those research participants involved in tourism enterprises overall.

Female Male Indigenous Non- Owner- Co- Age Indigenous operated operative owned 12 11 12 11 3 2 30-65 Total 23

Table 3

This table shows research participants which include tour operators, performers, cultural heritage managers, artists, gatekeepers, and community workers. Some of the research participants conducted their participation in tourism enterprises which involved more than one aspect, for example in some instances they were both tour guides and performers.

Tour Performers Cultural Artists Gatekeepers Community operators/ heritage workers/ tour guides managers tourist centre employees 6 5 3 1 2 11

In the chapter relating to how marketplace expectations affect Indigenous tourism enterprises, I discuss my experience of visiting four tourist information centres. I entered two of these tourist information centres as a tourist and not an anthropologist. I did this covertly as I was interested to see what information an average tourist may receive when making enquiries about Indigenous tourism. The other two tourist information centres I visited involved semi-structured interviews with research participants comprised of open-ended questions, which highlighted varying results. The tourists I interviewed were an equal mix of female and male, though there was a higher proponent of international tourists to domestic tourists. The cultural tours I participated in included The Mossman Gorge Centre day tour, which featured a traditional smoking ceremony, stories of the Kuku Yalanji culture and traditions, a visit to a sacred site in the Daintree rainforest, an ochre paint making demonstration and bush tea and damper for $75 AUD per adult. I also visited and participated in tours at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, which offers half day and full day admissions as well as an evening package that incorporates dinner. Some highlights of the cultural park in the day package include a greeting for tourists of a creation story by the Djabagay. The tourists are shown and asked to participate in an Aboriginal dance performance, given bush foods to eat and taught about traditional medicines, demonstrations on how to throw spears and boomerangs, and were also able watch the didgeridoo being played for $62 AUD. The full day package includes all the components of the half day package as well as traditional jewellery making, painting boomerangs and learning the art of weaving for $108 AUD. The Night Fire package included canapes on arrival, a night fire ceremonial dance, a fire making ceremony, buffet dinner and a fireside farewell for $123 AUD per adult. The cultural habitat tour in the Mossman area started with a drive to the local beaches and fishing for shellfish and mud crabs in amongst the mangrove trees, there was a trip up through the Mossman Gorge and morning tea and lunch were provided for $209 AUD. The rock art tour in the Cooktown area was conducted by an Elder from the Nugal-warra family which comprised an approximate 5 kilometre walk through the bush and down onto some rock escarpments to see the birthing cave of the guide’s mother, this was a four-hour adventure for $135 AUD.

Field notes were transcribed onto an electronic device each day to facilitate development of themes from the fieldwork. I utilised both audio recordings and written

21 field notes, these notes were written up daily to keep the context of conversations fresh and clarity enriched. While analysing the data, investigations of the key concepts have been made through a process of coding and theme identification that have been organised and categorised, even though this process was then completed at the stage of writing up. As I attempted to categorise the transcripts of the interviews with the research participants involving both the audio recordings and my field book notes, I determined whether the answers to my questions were related to either an economic or cultural aspect of their involvement in Indigenous tourism, and then extrapolated that information accordingly. Therefore, I am aware of how the sorting and coding occurred as I transcribed daily notes in the field and that using a systematic approach to the analysing and interpretation of the data has allowed for order in the process.

Limitations of this research

To attempt to understand where I was placed as an ‘at home’ (see, e.g., Greenhouse 1985) anthropologist who is not Indigenous, it was paramount that throughout the fieldwork and indeed as I compiled my findings, that I used the reflexive approach to ethnography as described by Davies (1999).

Although I interviewed 49 research participants for this research, I am aware that this was quite a small sample when attempting to gauge the cultural dynamics of those who participate in Indigenous tourism. Therefore, the conclusions I present are limited by the constraints in participant numbers, in that the breakdown of Indigenous tour guides and tour enterprise workers compared to tourists are almost the same. As is a normative feature of ethnographic studies I needed to be mindful that participants can offer answers to questions which may come from an emotional base, as each participants’ personal views and comments may have determined how they responded to my queries. The qualitative method used for this thesis has determined how I present the interviewees comments. Unless otherwise stated, for example, when I describe my reflexive thought process, the conversations and dialogue with the research participants are based on their thoughts, beliefs and feelings relating to the questions I put toward them. I ask the reader to also consider at times some of the research participants may have answered my questions based on what they thought I

22 was interested in hearing about, which I would argue can be a challenge of all ethnographic studies.

Chapter Two: More than money: the cultural dimensions of Indigenous tourism businesses

This chapter offers a brief discussion of a history of Aboriginal tourism in Australia and then analyses the question: what are the economic and cultural aspirations of Aboriginal people involved in tourism in Australia? Economic aspirations refers to the financial benefits for Indigenous Australians anticipated by government policy, since these may differ markedly from intangible cultural aspirations of those involved in Indigenous tourism.

In considering this question, it is fruitful to examine the differences between ‘economic’ and ‘cultural’ aspirations of Indigenous people. I argue that while government policies like ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007:48) and strategies such as the Indigenous Economic Development Strategy (IEDS) (2011-2018:12), stress the importance of potential economic gains for Indigenous people involved in tourism, these policies and strategies do not consider the cultural distinctiveness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. That is, there are a larger range of issues involved in Indigenous tourism businesses than simply economic gain, and the focus on business development and employment misses the important and distinctive matter of Australian Indigenous culture. My research highlights the notion that the aspirations of Indigenous people involved in tourism can have as much to do with ‘cultural’ aspirations as economic gains.

Questions of the economic and cultural aspirations of Indigenous people involved in tourism enterprise in this chapter are discussed in three sections.

In section one, the economic aspirations of those involved in Indigenous tourism enterprise are discussed, including the importance of securing a steady income through either being an owner or an employee of a tourism enterprise. According to some of the research participants there is a link between education, employment and the opportunity to secure a steady income which in turn enables, for example, the goal of home ownership. There is a lack of available knowledge related to starting an Indigenous business for new business entrepreneurs and problems occur when expectations do not meet the reality of becoming an Indigenous business owner, although as is discussed below, there is help provided in a programme by a Not for

Profit (NFP) organisation entitled the Tourism Indigenous Employment Champions Network. This is further discussed in the following paragraphs.

Section two of this chapter considers the cultural objectives of those involved in Indigenous tourism. Given the lack of focus of government policy on culture, while focusing on the economic benefits of Indigenous involvement in tourism, it is imperative we consider the importance placed on passing on Indigenous culture by those Indigenous people involved in tourism. Therefore, this section considers how important it is for the inclusion of Indigenous people to be employed in cultural villages. Passing on ancestral knowledge is a notable method by which Indigenous culture can be kept alive with the transmission of stories of culture to non-Indigenous tourists, and also maintains non-Indigenous interest in Indigenous tourism.

Section three, considers the relevance of passing on a perception of Indigenous culture to ‘other’ cultures, while involving younger generations. Making sure that cultural presentations are relevant to tourists and reflecting realities about Indigenous people’s histories and lives is commented on below, while also noting the challenge faced by one participant with the reconciliation of his Christian religious beliefs with his cultural heritage. In this section I will consider the conceptual questions of self-reliance and relatedness in Indigenous society while noting the political tensions that can arise within community interactions between those who work in the tourism industry and those who do not. I also consider the way Indigenous people involved in tourism navigate cultural change as they adopt the skills necessary to succeed in tourism enterprises.

As evidenced by the strategy demonstrated in the following paragraphs, government policy focuses on the economic outcomes of Aboriginal involvement in tourism using the same methods as they do for non-Indigenous Australians. What needs to be considered however, is that the economic aspirations of Indigenous people have a distinctive cultural dimension.

All the Government sees are the Dollar Signs

The literature discussed in the following pages includes both academic works done by anthropologists and research carried out by academics in the field of tourism. This chapter mainly focuses on Indigenous research participants, as it concentrates on the economic and cultural aspirations of those involved in Indigenous tourism.

Australian government policies have tended to focus on the economic gains associated with involvement in tourism enterprises and other kinds of business development. For example, the IEDS (2011-2018) has five priorities which include:

1) strengthen foundations to create an environment that supports economic development 2) invest in education 3) encourage participation and improve access to skills development and jobs 4) support the growth of Indigenous business and entrepreneurship 5) assist individuals and communities to achieve financial security and independence by increasing their ability to identify, build and make the most of economic assets

Under the heading of Indigenous Affairs on the Australian Governments’ Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinets’ website (https://www.pmc.gov.au/indigenous- affairs), those people interested in initiatives and programmes being implemented relating to the ‘culture and capability’ of Indigenous Australians, are made aware of what the government is currently trying to achieve. These goals are separate from the five priorities discussed above, as they are based on economic development and it is interesting to note cultural considerations are not incorporated into these points. The potential economic gains are considered in depth in this strategy with clear objectives noted for each point, although the myriad of cultural considerations is not prominent in this document.

This aporia is evident in the academic literature. For example, A History of Indigenous tourism in Australia by Whitford and Ruhanen (2016) offers a view of tourism from the 1800s up until the present day. According to Whitford and Ruhanen (2016) Aboriginal Australians have been involved in tourism since the 1800s, stating that visitors could ‘experience cultural ceremonies called corroborees’ (Whitford & Ruhanen 2016:1080).

These authors comment that government policy documents and reports after the 1980s note it was imperative that Indigenous people were ‘integrated into the tourism industry’ (Whitford & Ruhanen 2016:1081) stating that governmental policy was underpinned by a common objective to have Indigenous tourism used as a development tool (see e.g., Whitford & Ruhanen 2010) .

Whitford and Ruhanen (2016) also consider what the future of Indigenous tourism in Australia may look like and whether it is sustainable in relation to business profits. However, their article does not consider the intergenerational sustainability of the workforce. One of the research participants talked about some complications for Aboriginal business owners, which I will comment on in the following paragraphs as they are faced with trying to ensure they have adequate people to take over the business from them when they retire.

Interestingly, work done in (2007) by Schmiechen and Boyle discuss this lack of succession planning. These authors comment that ‘many Aboriginal tourism ventures started with the underlying premise that the youth would follow and take up the running of the business’ (Schmiechen & Boyle 2007:84). When in actuality this was often not the case as many businesses faltered and then closed. This was due to an inadequate amount of management succession and is also discussed by some of the research participants in Chapter Two.

Brown and Pyke (2005) note how Canadian First Nations people are involved in tourism. These authors make the statement that in Canada in the decade to 2005, Canadian Aboriginal communities ‘have developed a tourism structure to assist their communities in the development of their tourism product’ (Brown & Pyke 2005:2), with the eventual aim of creating jobs providing youth with a future and building local economies. Brown and Pyke write that ‘bringing people together to discuss common goals can be accomplished through the creation of an Aboriginal tourism organisation, or a sub-committee of the existing regional tourism industry’ (Brown & Pyke 2005:1). They do note however, that partnerships like these are not readily made. However, their article lacks any mention of what the effects would be of not taking into consideration the individual wants and needs of different family groups while working in these partnerships they consider.

Davies and Bansel (2007) discuss using a neoliberal ideology to ensure people are reconfigured as productive economic entrepreneurs. This article notes how this predominates in the education system, however, there is a clear link to how Indigenous business owners are expected to become their own agents of change. Such entrepreneurs are no longer the state’s responsibility but become autonomous citizens with responsibility for their own economic situation. Notably this is also the remit of the IEDS as it states ‘this Strategy supports Indigenous Australians to take responsibility for their own economic wellbeing and to lead independent and productive working lives’ (IEDS 2011:5).

Relatedly, research carried out by Stronza (2001) notes that there is a lack of understanding in relation as to why host communities become involved in tourism. This author states that tourism has been foisted on local communities and that ‘typically what we have assumed is that tourism has been imposed on locals, not sought, and not invited’ (Stronza 2001:262). The work carried out by Stronza is written primarily using a focus on the developed parts of the Western world as she notes that international tourism brings people from ‘highly disparate socioeconomic’ (Stronza 2001:263) backgrounds compared to Indigenous tourism industry participants. In their articles neither Davies and Bansel or Stronza discuss the distinctive cultural dimensions of Indigenous participants involved in tourism.

In Altman & Finlayson’s (2003) article it is made clear through case studies that sociocultural values are given precedence over economic or commercial considerations of those Indigenous people involved in tourism ventures.

Other than Altman and Finlayson’s (2003) work, as this literature review suggests, published literature seems to give little regard to the distinctive cultural dimensions of Indigenous tourism enterprises. Therefore, this chapter seeks to address the importance placed on the cultural aspects of tourism through the analysis of the data obtained from field work conducted in the Far North East of Queensland in 2016.

This chapter draws data from conversations conducted in the field mainly with Indigenous research participants. I have done this to inform a detailed analysis into their thoughts and views on the economic and cultural aspirations of Indigenous people involved in tourism enterprise in my study region.

Information from audio recordings with 6 Indigenous and 3 non-Indigenous people as well as notes written in my field book make up the basis of my data for this chapter. These 9 research participants were mainly involved one on one with the non- Indigenous tourists. These interviewees hold roles that include though are not limited to tour guides, rock art translators, cultural village managers, and community workers (noting that some participants perform in multiple roles). As well as using information gathered from the research participants’ interviews, I have commented on my thoughts and reflections to some of the comments of my interviewees’ conversations, drawn from field book entries written in 2016.

While talking with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants involved in tourism, I noticed a melding of the terms Indigenous tourism and cultural tourism. In a following chapter on authenticity I will be discussing tangible1 and intangible2 heritage and how these terms relate to cultural tourism. People I interviewed tended to comment that cultural tourism in Australia is related to Indigenous tourism. While this disregards many other cultures within Australia, these other cultures and their contribution are outside the scope of this study.

From the Rainforest to Bricks and Mortar

In this section, I consider the individual economic aspirations of Indigenous people involved in tourism which include having a regular and steady income, the pursuit of home ownership and how the research participants I interviewed note the connection to education to achieve these goals.

Economic aspirations vary amongst Indigenous people which can be distinguished by Indigenous participation in tourism either working as noted by Foley in ‘community- based businesses or stand-alone ventures’ (Foley 2006:03). Some variations of economic aspirations were highlighted during an interview with an Aboriginal tour guide. We were discussing the aspects of owning your own business and he talked about some Aboriginal people who were interested in starting their own tour guiding business in the region. My participant commented that there was a lack of understanding about how to go about marketing a tour guide enterprise. This

1 Tangible heritage includes physical spaces and places. 2 Intangible heritage relates to storytelling and interpretations of performance.

29 participant said they believed some people thought you just start up a business and tourists ‘fall into your lap’ (audio recording October 2016) and that these people had no concept of advertising, marketing or the work that goes into a new business.

I interviewed a non-Indigenous community worker who described many ways the Aboriginal people in my study region are attempting to become involved in tourism. This participant works with individuals who live in an Indigenous community. For example, some people are currently setting up a garden centre, aiming to provide fresh food for the community with a longer-term goal of turning it into a tourist destination that will provide a unique experience for tourists as they purchase fruit and vegetables. This would be the first of its kind in the region, a way to bring tourist dollars into the community and provide a reliable source of income for the inhabitants. Maintaining a lifestyle that generates a steady income is noted as an important part of some of the research participants’ lives.

However, more than just a ‘steady income’, the research participants emphasised the ancillary benefits of involvement in work. This was evidenced through conversations I had with an Indigenous tour guide when he commented that having employment helps with the social needs of Indigenous people. For him being able to talk to tourists about his culture bought him out of his ‘shell’ (audio recording September 2016) and gave him the confidence to talk to people from all walks of life, whether they were ‘tourists or tour operators’ (audio recording September 2016). This participant discussed the difficulties faced while trying to acquire the skills necessary to start up a tourism enterprise. This research participant was working part-time as a receptionist for a hotel chain, a position initially secured through a government ‘Work for the Dole’3 (https://www.jobs.gov.au/work-dole-information-job-seeker) programme. His duties in this role included taking bookings and interacting with tourists who wanted to experience an Indigenous-run tour. It was through this work that he became motivated to start his own Indigenous tourism business. The skills he gained while undertaking this part-time work allowed him to acquire the knowledge that was out of reach via the general mature age education route through Technical and Further Education (TAFE)

3 Government programme that encourages people to do some type work while they receive their financial benefit.

30 due to his growing family commitments4. However, he was determined to start his own business and this participant commented on the hope that he would be able to secure a regular income, while at the same time being able to share his culture with non- Indigenous tourists.

As well as these positive impacts of working, one of the other research participants noted the way the economic aspirations of Indigenous people becoming involved in tourism can create problems when expectations do not meet reality. He commented:

there’s a lack of education... sometimes we get too hot-headed and say yes we can run a business so we start one and we fail…in some work I did with someone else they found that in the history [this participant had written a book with an academic previously about tourism] all of these people had started and they failed, [he didn’t say what region this information was taken from or whether it was even done in Queensland] so they just gave up…because in their concept they wanted to make money quickly (audio recording October 2016).

Learning to work with others who have experience was something this participant, who has worked in the tourism industry for over 15 years, said some Indigenous people struggle with. As the lack of business knowledge required can hamper an individual’s confidence to approach those who have the necessary skills needed to run viable businesses. The Queensland Tourism Industry Council5 (QTIC) organisation works towards decreasing this challenge through its annual QTIC Tourism Indigenous Employment Forum. While writing up the results of my fieldwork I attended one of these employment forums in Brisbane. Many of the tourism business operators at the forum discussed the challenges they face connected with the fundamentals of beginning and then carrying on successful tourism enterprises. For one individual these challenges included operating a business that was not in a mainstream tourist area. This contrasts with the region in which I conducted my fieldwork, which had the

4 This participant was a newly married father who needed to provide an income that would sustain his family, this did not allow for any time to be spent gaining the necessary skills he would need to start his own tourism enterprise through TAFE. 5 A not-for-profit membership organisation that is a peak body representing tourism and hospitality and advocates its needs to government.

31 added draw of World Heritage-listed areas, and hence the support of Tourism Australia media coverage.

An interesting aspect of this individual’s concerns was how quickly some of the other business operators, who benefited from the proximity of their enterprise to the already captured tourist market, was the immediate responses from those business operators about how this individual could adapt and change their business plan to suit the market he was trying to break into. At least three other business operators, all of whom were arguably in direct competition with this individual, if not in terms of demographics certainly in terms of providing an Indigenous tourism experience, reached out to offer support and guidance about how this entrepreneur could overcome this challenge.

I note this as it highlighted the differences between blue chip corporate-run businesses, which purely focus on the bottom line profit result, Indigenous Land and Sea Corporations (ILSC) and the way they contribute to the success of some Indigenous tourism ventures like the Voyagers Indigenous Tourism Australia company and these businesses that were owner-operated tourism enterprises. From an outsider’s perspective, they appeared to be more interested with how to help this individual provide a viable and successfully-operated Indigenous tourism business.

One of the research participants, who is a small business owner and had previously worked as a health care provider in the Indigenous sector, asked me if I had ever heard the expression of a ‘gravy train’ I replied that I had. The term refers to people who can make money with little effort. This research participant made this comment:

gravy train drivers, and gravy train passengers. I see myself as passenger, as I work and pay my taxes, whereas the gravy train drivers do not contribute to the community or the economy (audio recording November 2016)

This participant stressed the importance of empowering the individual before building the business, and this can only happen when they take control of and be responsible for their own lives. Something an NFP organisation in Queensland offers as is noted below.

There is a programme in place known as the QTIC Tourism Indigenous Employment Champions Network6 which aspires to provide help to entrepreneurs in start-up businesses. QTIC is an NFP, private sector membership-based organisation working in partnership with government agencies and industry bodies at all levels of government. The economic aspirations of those involved in Indigenous tourism can be thwarted by the lack of follow up by government agencies after placing Indigenous people in employment in tourism businesses. A research participant discussed a circumstance that originated from an event involving an Indigenous person working on reef cruise boats on the Great Barrier Reef, in which an Indigenous person was selected to work on the cruise boats after being on Centrelink payments for 6 months and being unable to find employment. Training was offered to this individual, but no mentors were available. This participant noted the gap in mentoring availability meant some Indigenous employees did not return to their place of employment or ‘would simply send another family member in their place’ (FB October 2016). When I asked the participant what they thought about this type of behaviour, they commented that they believed the Indigenous employees were given jobs with some on the job training, though were not supplied with the coping mechanisms needed to operate in a structured employment capacity. The participant stated that this stemmed from the high turnover of Centrelink-employed case workers. This lack of continuity negated the chance for ongoing trusting relationships between case workers with some Indigenous employees. The lack of mentoring available for those Indigenous people who were placed in employment by Centrelink on the reef cruises, was markedly different to those employees in the two corporate run cultural villages of Mossman and Tjapukai and indeed in the owner operated tourism ventures, where the aim of those participants was to provide information and mentoring to ensure the businesses would be sustainable through ongoing and engaged employment.

As well as the QTIC Indigenous Employment Champions Network which operates in Queensland, other states in Australia, offer guidance for Indigenous tourism participants like the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council (WAITOC) which is also a not-for-profit organisation. The vision of this organisation according to its website is to:

6 See https://www.qtic.com.au/.

see the creation of a vibrant authentic Aboriginal tourism industry as an integral component of Australia’s tourism industry, for Western Australia to become the premier destination in Australia for authentic Aboriginal experiences. Our aim is to create a vibrant Aboriginal component of Western Australia’s tourism industry, raising the profile of Aboriginal tourism on a State, National and International level (https://www.waitoc.com/about-us/corporate/our-vision).

This organisation has a mission statement which notes that it wants to be a body that promotes Aboriginal advocacy and informs government and tourism industry on the business needs of Indigenous tourism participants and the tourism market. Through this, the organisation endeavours to provide progressive opportunities for the economic and social outcomes of its participants. An interesting point to note here is comments made in the website relating to the commercialisation of culture, which one of the research participants from my fieldwork in Queensland discusses and is highlighted in a following chapter.

Working in conjunction with these Indigenous not-for-profit tourism organisations allows some individuals the capacity to have different living arrangements than their grandparents had. Certainly, in the episode noted of one of my interviewees relating to the comments made about a move from the rainforest into mission housing then into privately owned houses, which had been made possible by the research participants’ involvement according to our conversations, in Indigenous tourism and will be discussed below.

A conversation I had with one of the research participants who was aged between 50- 60 years old, about moving from living on a mission to living in a privately rented home in Mossman involved education. In this participant’s view, education and home ownership were concomitant. This interlocutor stated:

you know my parents grew up in the rainforest and had no formal education, when my Dad got us all settled in the new house and we were leaving to go to school he said you are all going to have to work that’s the way it’s gonna go, the world is changing, well his world had changed, he had been taken out of the rainforest and taken away, then come back out on a mission and worked for nothing, then when he did get paid they weren’t paid very good anyway. But he drummed that into our brains, so today just speaking for my family, we all

work, I’ve worked since I was 17 years old. I haven’t stopped, it’s just part of me, it’s what I have been told to do. Now today we do alright for ourselves our family because of Mum and Dad. Now my sister’s kids are all in university and are in Melbourne and Sydney. It’s funny it’s different to how it was in my day, I was one of the only Aboriginal kids in my class that went to year 12, the rest of them mainly only went to year 10. Now you find a lot more Aboriginal kids going to further education (audio recording November 2016).

This participant believed his parents thought the only way they saw a future for their children was through education. He articulated that his father was adamant that he and his siblings would not work the sugar cane farms as full-time employment for the rest of their lives. They needed jobs that education (he was referring to gaining an education that could be classed as vocational, his examples included being a mechanic or a plumber) would provide to them, which would enable the dream of home ownership to become a reality.

A level of agency and autonomy was noted as an important aspect of this participant’s life. He offered a narration of a brief history of his life and as noted from an audio recording (November 2016) he discussed the way the great Australian Dream of home ownership enabled a measure of agency. He was relating a conversation he had with this father about home ownership and is noted through the following dialogue:

my Dad said in 1964 the government turned around and said you people are free now, you people don’t have to work for us anymore [this comment was made relating to the move from a mission north of Mossman to one that was at Mossman Gorge]… went on to say, but the cane farmer that was connected to the mission now had no one to cut his cane, so he turned around and said to my Dad and few other men if you stay here and cut my cane I will pay you with money [this participant said that previously the cane cutters had been paid with all the food basics like, sugar, flour, salt and butter]. So I asked my Dad why we stayed and how come we didn’t go with the other people to the new Mossman Gorge mission, and you know he said, well I didn’t want to live with the other people anymore, I wanted to save some money and rent a house in Mossman, which he did and then eventually went on to buy that house and you know one

of my brothers is still in that house today, we have Christmas there every year (audio recording November 2016).

My written field notes from that trip note how much pride this participant showed in being able to tell that story. This is evidenced by what I had reflected and commented on that evening after the tour in my field notes:

[This participant] not only exhibited a display of pride he seemed to show he had agency over his life. After we had the conversation about his mother and father moving from the rainforest onto the mission, he took us on a detour from our tour to show us his own house. The white picket fence and well-manicured lawns that surrounded a neat home were a clear indication that the goal his father had set for his own family of home ownership, had been passed onto to [him] (FB November 2016).

As other authors have noted (see, e.g., Moran, Memmott, Long, Stacy & Holt 2000) important aspects of Indigenous home ownership include being able to pass the home on to younger generations, pride in being a home owner, economic benefits of owning a home and control over their living arrangements.

This control over living arrangements is discussed in work conducted by Musharbash (2008). There are distinct similarities to comments made by one of my research participants and others that the author discusses throughout her book even though that work is carried out in remote Australia. The importance of having control of their sphere of influence is a main component related to home ownership and is a common thread with our participants. The similarities arose as I noted my research participants’ comments made by his father when he told my participant that he no longer wanted to live with others on a mission, he wanted the autonomy that comes along with one family living in one dwelling, while one of the participants Musharbash worked with, described what would be their ideal living arrangement, a home to themselves with doors that could be locked, therefore, allowing for a break from communal living and having the ability to choose who and when people may enter their home.

These instances highlight the differences between what the great Australian Dream of home ownership can mean to different people depending on whether they are from the post-settler society or they are Indigenous. While superficially like the reasons,

36 non-Indigenous Australians embrace home ownership, these points reflect distinctive Indigenous cultural traditions. The communal living arrangements of Aboriginal people while living in missions and on reserves disallows the inhabitants in these dwellings the space that is provided with individual home ownership. These reasons manifest the cultural dimensions of the effect of the Indigenous economic aspirations for involvement in tourism enterprises, in that they are in a financial position to choose where, with whom and how they share their living arrangements and I will be developing this point in the next section.

It’s Not All About Money, Culture Matters Too

Most of my informants stressed the need to pass on information about their cultural heritage to both domestic and international tourists. Interestingly this has been given as an overriding reason why First Nations people in Alberta, Canada become engaged in tourism. For example, the likely economic benefits of tourism may be the compelling reason behind the increasing involvement of Indigenous people in the tourism industry, however according to some of my research participants an involvement in tourism may also invigorate traditional cultures as Indigenous people share knowledge of their culture with tourists (see e.g., Hinch 1995). Echoing this sentiment is de Burlo (1996) who makes the argument that ‘Indigenous cultural values and sense of history may also play a significant role in the involvement of Indigenous people in ethnic tourism’ (de Burlo, 1996: 256) and that passing on the knowledge and a sense of history can be a driving force behind Indigenous involvement in tourism. These authors’ work, and my own field data, indicate that such involvement is regarded as an alternative to cultural values and traditional stories being lost, as those Indigenous individuals involved in tourism tours can relate their ancestral stories as they have been communicated to them.

Some of my research participants, who were aged between 30-50 years old from the Djabugay family group discussed how happy it made them feel that they were able to offer a glimpse of their lives to non-Indigenous tourists through their storytelling. These participants remarked that it was ‘keeping their culture alive’ as well as being able to pass on their culture to tourists from an Indigenous point of view. One of my research

37 participants, who has worked in the tourism industry for over 10 years, after having been a ranger for the Forestry Commission, and now working at the cultural village pointed out how strongly he felt about this by stating:

the younger generation here are proud of their culture and to showcase to an international audience is important to them… it’s about us passing down the baton of information to the tourists wherever they come from…we need to show others how things are for us and what our ancestors taught us about totems7 and such like (audio recording November 2016).

Photograph 1: Dancers at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park Photograph by author.

In a similar conversation with another tour guide from the cultural village, another participant told me they ‘like to learn about other cultures, you know people from overseas, and I like to be able to show them how my people lived’ (audio recording November 2016). This other research participant added that passing on their cultural information was more important than getting a steady income each week. One of the performers at a cultural village commented that the ‘performance is integral to the cultural maintenance of my people’ (FB November 2016). This performer told me he

7 Flora or fauna that is thought to have a spiritual connection with a particular family group.

38 is ‘transposed’ (FB November 2016) when he dances, and he thinks of his Elders and ancestors.

This connection to ancestors and wanting to keep culture alive was the driving force behind a local Aboriginal person at Mossman Gorge. This person became concerned about the amount of vehicular traffic that was heading into the Daintree Rainforest where his family group members had come from, before being moved on to the Mossman mission. He worked for a sugar cane farmer in that area near the mission where he lived, and after making this comment to the farmer he was offered a parcel of land. Money was obtained from the Indigenous Land Corporation and the Mossman Gorge Centre was built and opened. The Mossman Gorge Centre is situated on a World Heritage listed area in Mossman and features not only the natural wonders of the Rainforest and the Daintree River, also an art gallery comprising of Indigenous art work from individuals who live at the Mossman mission. There are over 1000 visitors a day who go through the gates into the Daintree Rainforest past the Mossman mission where the Kuku Yalanji people live. Local traffic is not charged an entry fee though anyone else who wants to travel up to the Rainforest pay $9.10 per adult which secures them transport on a shuttle bus. The centre employs 98% Indigenous people and they have a training centre on site, which other Aboriginal family groups outside of the area can come to study for hospitality and tourism education certificates. The dream of being able to share Indigenous culture with others in a sustainable manner has been achieved through the guided walks and welcome to country smoking ceremonies8 that are available for tourists entering the Daintree Rainforest.

8 Ceremonies that take place before going on a guided tour which see the tourist walk through the smoke of fires lit by the tour guide as they thank the ancestors for allowing the tourists to travel through their lands.

Photograph 2: Welcome to Country smoking ceremony. Photograph by author.

I interviewed the only female tour guide in the Mossman Gorge Centre and told me her parents were very hard workers as were her grandparents. Her parents had told her if she wanted something in life you have to work for it. This research participant said this message is always in the back of her mind as she goes about her daily work life. Her mother was the only female guide until passing on the mantle to her daughter, who told me she couldn’t imagine sitting around all day at home and not doing anything with her life. This research participant takes her niece along with her on guided walks to ensure some of the knowledge is passed down to the next generation and has been a tour guide for 12 years and the positions held by bus drivers and employees from the Mossman Gorge Centre are all inhabitants from the Mossman mission. There are around 50 houses on the mission and about 200 people living there. The Centre can provide employment for over 100 of those individuals. My participant told me this employment ensures the Kuku Yalanji people can make sure the stories that are told on the guided walks are stories that have been passed down from their ancestors to each generation (FB November 2016).

Relatedness in Indigenous Tourism

Four Indigenous tour guides I interviewed, two from cultural villages and two from cultural habitat tours, all stressed the importance they placed on passing information

40 about their culture on to others. All four of these research participants discussed the different ways they were trying to get younger Indigenous generations involved in tourism as they believed this was where the future lies in ensuring their culture was not lost to history. There was also equal importance placed upon educating the younger generations about ancestral knowledge and the formal knowledge to be gained through the governmental education system, which some of my research participants believed was necessary in order to grasp both educational methods. This would enable these younger people to gain the skills needed to take over the legacy of their relatives tourism business enterprises.

However, there were intrinsic challenges to be faced to achieve these goals. The Indigenous research participants emphasised the difficulty they have in keeping the younger generations off social media and trying to get them to interact with the environment around them. One of the guides told a story of taking his children camping for the weekend, they asked him if they could take their phones, and he said, ‘well you can though you won’t be able to charge them in the trees’ (audio recording October 2016). He expressed the difficulties encountered in the first few hours which proved challenging for all concerned, though they became engaged with their surroundings and he was able to pass on some traditional lore to them through fishing and plant collecting. We had a conversation about ‘Pokémon Go’ a game in which the aim was to capture virtual creatures from an application using mobile phones that seemed to rule the media with players giving the impression they were oblivious to their surroundings for some weeks in 2016. The game caused consternation among the parents of the Indigenous children my informant talked about, as it meant the environment or country the younger people were in was not being looked at through eyes that would really see and respect it. This participant commented that the:

younger generation has become so enmeshed with the technology available that without interference from their families, the knowledge that can be gained from going out on to country could be lost if we don’t pass our knowledge on to them (audio recording October 2016).

These four research participants believed passing on their cultural heritage started with the children, not only Indigenous children, but also to those directly involved in tourism enterprise and were clients on their tours. One of my Aboriginal research

41 participants had previously worked for the government, though in the early 2000s he decided he wanted to work for himself. Part of the reason for wanting to do this is covered in our conversation below in which he stated:

I wanted to try to work for myself and one of the ways to do that, was um sort of the things I figured out, was a lot of people were going out for, um looking at rock art…and what I found out, was a big market um there was a lot of tour guides, um so I didn’t wanna become a tour guide, I wanted a business so I can tell the stories that my father had left me…one of the things that was probably stopping me was my association with the church. Because um I’m a Christian and my religion was telling me that, no you can’t go that way cause it’s kind of classified as pagan religion. That was my first stumbling block, but when I got through there, I matched them up. Everything I was doing was kind of similar (audio recording October 2016).

After this research participant made sure I understood the reason for him becoming a rock art translator and not a tour guide, we talked about what culture was and how it is passed on. The following describes that conversation:

the word culture means you were doing things from way back and it became ah something that you do all the time, you culture yourself to do that…one of the reminders we have is that when our Aboriginal people lived out here, they had to have education to maintain that culture. And the education was to pass that culture on to our ahh young people... when I get a domestic tourist, you know like Australians, sometimes they haven’t even spoken to an Aboriginal person… because of the information they are getting about Aboriginal people sometimes they are afraid to even talk to them… from the media and stuff like that (audio recording October 2016).

This participant noted that due to Indigenous people being moved onto what he described as reserves, ceased the interactions between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people. He commented that this forced confinement meant Indigenous culture was not being dispersed to others because of the restrictions. The confinement he talked about was in direct confrontation with Indigenous relatedness to culture, their ancestors, the land and their responsibilities to others. The responsibility my participant spoke of was related to the communication of cultural information and, was

42 the driving force behind the establishment of the tourism business he operates. The story of his ancestors’ lives on the land in the area he conducts his tours would be lost, he believed, if he did not offer the opportunity for others to listen to the stories his father had passed on to him. At the time of my fieldwork this tourism business had been successfully operated for over 10 years. This participant stressed the importance Indigenous people placed on caring for country and those who would travel on it. He commented he had a responsibility to all those who were out on country where he had been born.

This relatedness in Indigenous society, (see, e.g., Bird-David 1993, James 1994) is embedded in Indigenous culture, as is evidenced by my research participants’ claims. Bird-David argues that the ‘human-nature relatedness is variously represented in terms of personal relatedness’ (Bird-David 1993:112). It is through this personal relatedness with the environment the research participants who offered cultural habitat tours, manifests the connection of the human-nature concept of hunter gathering to Indigenous tourism. This highlights an opposition to the demands placed on individuals by government bodies and is a larger issue than just being provided with economic stability. My research participants felt it was paramount that they care for the tourists overall well-being and provided safety for them while they were out on country. Therefore, the emphasis for this relatedness was just as important to them as the economic gains of an involvement in the tourism industry.

Photograph 3: Tour guide and firestick. Photograph by author.

After a discussion with a participant from a cultural village, a comment was made about the employment of Indigenous people in the modern economy. This comment notes how people’s aspirations for economic security and self-reliance exist in tension with community politics. This participant stated he refused to be ‘objectified as a recipient of welfare and that individuals need to take control of their situation’ (audio recording October 2016). This type of attitude caused some friction between those who participate in Indigenous tourism enterprise within this participant’s community, and those who, in his view, choose not to be in paid employment. The following quote describes this friction with this statement:

Aboriginal Australians spend their life either looking up or looking down, they look up to non-Indigenous Australians who told them what to do and when to do it and looking down at other Aboriginal people when someone has managed to step into the non-Indigenous world and get a job promotion or what appears to be a higher status role in the workplace (audio recording October 2016).

There are tensions between autonomy and relatedness in Indigenous business which echo tensions observed in classical Indigenous cultures around the continent (see, e.g., Myers 1986). Being Indigenous and rich or even moderately well-off provides

44 challenges within some of my research participants’ communities. One of my research participants discussed situations where these tensions between those who were generating an income and those who were not, were often only settled by the Elders. He noted various occasions where the Elders were the only ones able to reduce the tensions between these groups. He commented that ‘we listen to what the Elders say, even if people don’t agree with them, they still do what they are told. There is respect for the Elders that isn’t given to those who just work for the white man’ (audio recording October 2016).

It could prove fruitful to consider the potential pressures that can exist when comparing those who are working in an owner-operated Indigenous tourism venture, to those who work within a co-operative like the one noted above. The agency provided to owner- operated tour guides and tourism participants, who have complete control over how their business is run and deciding who they employ would vary from those who work in a collective. It would be fair to state that this is no different to any main stream business venture, however when an individual’s agency and autonomy and dare I say self-determination are involved, it would not be amiss to imagine that the stakes are higher for that small percentage of Australians who are classified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

It was commented on by one of the tour guides that learning how to operate in a modern economy is challenging. This was noted as we discussed what it meant to be involved in local and regional economies and how those demands had shifted through the generations. This participant’s grandparents worked the sugar cane and looked after vegetable gardens to participate in their local economy. His father had gone to work away in the mines in the Northern Territory, bringing his wages back monthly. This participant is a business entrepreneur and it was commented on that he did that without following a natural progression from what his parents and grandparents had done. He had achieved this with no role models. He told me he tries to take his children out on tour in between school demands, to create an interest so they will be able to take over the business from him in the future.

All the Aboriginal research participants I interviewed believed it is important to pass on the cultural lessons they had learned from their Elders. Inheriting these cultural ideas will increase the cultural awareness through tourism. Cultural exchange was an

45 important concept that was characterised by my research participants. What remains paramount however is reflected in Glowczewski and Henry’s (2007) statement that, ‘indigeneity is not an immutable essence but a relationship always in the process of becoming’ (Glowczewski & Henry 2007:247) as culture is not stagnant, and as noted above there is a cultural significance in the translation of Indigenous culture, as consideration is given to how each generation interprets their ancestors meaning of the stories passed down. This is highlighted by the example given above of one of the research participants who interpreted his own meanings of rock art translation from the stories his father had told him.

Steady Income, Home Ownership, Cultural Significance and Living in a Modern Economy

This chapter provided a brief history of Indigenous tourism in Australia and considered the economic aspirations of my research participants involved in Indigenous tourism. It firstly focused on the importance placed on having a steady income and the desire to become a home owner, while recognising there is a connection between these two things related to education. The analysis of the field work data showed a lack of knowledge available to those Indigenous people who want to start up a tourism venture while noting that the expectations of some Indigenous people do not meet the realities of business enterprise.

The importance of passing on cultural heritage was discussed by the research participants I interviewed, as was the significance to them of keeping culture alive and relevant as they present knowledge passed down from their ancestors to non- Indigenous tourists. The research participants in this study remarked on the imperative to include the younger generations to ensure their history is not lost in the annals of the dominant culture. Moreover, participants emphasised that there must be people to take on the mantle of business ownership when their parents and family members retire. The tensions that can arise within community politics of those people who desire aspirations of economic security and self-reliance were noted, and how this related to the classical tension of autonomy and relatedness in Indigenous culture. The challenge of these new business owners having no family role models has also been discussed.

In conclusion, I point to the gap in both the literature discussed and the policies and strategies of government bodies to take into consideration the importance of the larger range of issues of cultural aspirations of Indigenous people involved in tourism. I argue that given the distinct nature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture it should not be disregarded by those in the position of implementing economic policies, that will affect those people involved in Indigenous tourism by purely focusing on the economic gains that may be realised through tourism enterprise involvement.

Chapter Three: Marketplace Expectations

This chapter analyses the question: what are the effects of marketplace expectations on Indigenous tourism industry participants? Unpacking this question requires the examination of how cultural biases and cultural dynamics can affect economic outcomes for Indigenous people involved in tourism, while investigating what is it that tourists want from their Indigenous tourism experience and asking if the experience and the items for sale meet marketplace expectations.

The conceptual questions raised by this focus on marketplace expectations relate to what happens to indigeneity when it is produced as a commodity for consumption by (predominantly) non-Indigenous to Australia tourists. Within my data set on my fieldwork I did encounter one Indigenous First Nations person from Canada, who had their own expectations as to what they were hoping to learn from an Australian Indigenous experience. This involves some consideration of what an authentic Indigenous tourism product is, as well as the question of who determines what is authentic in this intercultural space. More broadly, this chapter asks what it means to be able to present indigeneity, and Indigenous people, as a commodity for sale, exploring the complexities and ambiguities of this ‘transaction’. I particularly focus on tourist information centre employees and tourists rather than Indigenous tourism participants in this chapter to gauge what the involvement of non-Indigenous people is in this intercultural exchange.

My focus on the way in which marketplace expectations are produced partly by non- Indigenous tourist centre employees and (predominantly) non-Indigenous tourists, highlights the challenges for Indigenous people involved in tourism. I particularly find that non-Indigenous tourist centre employees can influence tourists’ decisions as to what is worthy of consumption or purchase in the Indigenous tourism space. This finding troubles straightforward conceptions of agency on the part of Indigenous tourism participants, a point I elaborate in a subsequent chapter dealing more directly with Indigenous peoples.

If tourism is to be a valid option for reducing the statistical disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people as suggested in the Council of Australian Government’s (COAG’s) ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) policy, then the marketplace

48 expectations of tourists cannot be dismissed. And insofar as tourism centre employees being most often the first point of contact for both international and domestic tourists, therefore in a position of power in terms of guiding tourists to participate in an Indigenous tourism venture, presents a fruitful starting point for my discussion.

In the following paragraphs, I draw on my qualitative ethnographic research in the Far North East of Queensland. As discussed below, this research has been conducted using participant-observation focused on the Indigenous tourism industry.

I argue that there is a lack of research about the way in which marketplace expectations shape the Indigenous tourism industry, particularly research focused on the non-Indigenous people involved in packaging and selling Indigenous tourism. This includes the negative ramifications of non-Indigenous people potentially offering un consciously biased views about Indigenous tourism. The chapter is broken up into three sub-headings with a discussion relating to the perceptions and biases that affect non-Indigenous participants in tourism, both from employees of tourism information centres, and the tourists themselves. This data leads me to reflect on the question of what tourists want, and further how the experiences and the items for sale in Indigenous tourism meet marketplace expectations or fail to meet them.

The Anthropology of the Indigenous Tourism Marketplace

The literature used for this chapter incorporates anthropological discussions about Indigenous tourism as well as research by tourism management scholars. The literature under review concentrates on tourist information centre workers and tourists rather than the Indigenous participants involved in tourism enterprise, as the implications of marketplace expectations are investigated.

Tourism studies literature has tended to concentrate on imagery and ‘branding’ rather than the ethnographic study of actual touristic situations. For example, Higgins- Desbiolles (2006) discusses ‘Brand Australia’ and a marketing campaign carried out by Tourism Australia in 2006. The campaign used at that time entitled ‘So where the bloody hell are you?’, was shown overseas and saturated Australian mainstream media. As Higgins-Desbiolles argues, that marketing campaign envisaged an Australia of cool beverages, beaches and firework displays to lure international

49 tourists to Australia while making no mention of Indigenous Australia. While later advertising campaigns have incorporated imagery associated with Indigenous Australia, this earlier example of ‘Brand Australia’ neglected to include Indigenous themes.

In contrast, Cassel and Maureira (2017) consider the importance of branding and imagery in relation to marketing for tourism about Indigenous communities in Canada. They describe how images of Indigenous people are used to create interest in heritage sites and hence, create expectations for tourists. However, like Higgins-Desbiolles, their research does not engage with those who are responsible for selling tours and souvenirs to the tourists in actual touristic situations.

Research carried out by Bunten (2008), a Native American Yup’ik anthropologist in Alaska, offers a counter-example. Bunten’s work done as a tour guide introduces the important concept of a ‘commodified persona’, and the way this is produced to fulfil the expectations of tourists. She notes the ‘commodified persona’ is a construct of the ‘other’ to meet touristic desires through human interaction. This ‘commodified persona’ has a dual purpose, one which fulfils the need to offer an economic response as a service to tourists and one that is politically charged as the person who is using this ‘persona’ does so on their own terms. This enables the tour guides to have a sense of agency in their interactions with tourists. Bunten’s research recalls the importance placed on tour guides to portray the ‘other’ to meet the expectations of a stereotypical view of a Native American.

Conklin’s (1997) article about ‘body paint, feathers, and VCR’s: aesthetics and authenticity in Amazonian activism’ discusses the way politics have shaped the expectation of both the tourists and those who are portraying their culture in Brazil. I particularly want to note here Conklin’s use of the word ‘authentic’ in terms of what a tourist expects to see when participating in an Indigenous tourism experience. According to her article, the Indigenous person is placed in a duplicitous situation where they must adhere to the preconceived notion of how an Indigenous person should dress to fit the stereotype expected by tourists-a stereotyping that is both enabling and constraining for Indigenous people.

This representation of a cultural expectation that Conklin discusses is also commented on by Zeppel (2002) in work carried out for her article about a Canadian First Nations

50 village. This article compares a Canadian village with the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park in Australia and discusses tourist expectations relating to how they believed employees should dress to fulfil touristic notions. Which mirrors comments made by Stanton in 1989 from a study completed in Hawaii and this is discussed below.

Australian-focused research includes Schmiechen and Boyle’s (2007) chapter entitled ‘Aboriginal Tourism Research in Australia’. This article highlights three areas requiring further research, noting land ownership, business skills and understanding the market as necessary to ensure Indigenous tourism can be a viable option for economic and social change. Understanding the market aids in an awareness of marketplace expectations, however, Schmiechen and Boyle (2007) do not consider the influence of those who are responsible for selling an Indigenous tourism product, which itself highlights the importance of investigating the cultural dynamics involved in Indigenous tourism.

Environmental anthropologist Stronza (2001) provides a more productive and succinct analysis regarding tourism and the need to investigate the impacts on hosts and tourists. Her article discusses a range of different concepts and authors who have over the decades written about the topic of tourism. However, this article lacks information on the effects on Indigenous participation in tourism as it spotlights a deficit of information relating to the effects on the actual tourist.

Similarly, Notzke (2004) focuses on the interface between hosts and tourists in terms of the habitat where the tourism takes place, the heritage or traditions of Indigenous people that are presented, the history behind the spectre of acculturation, and the handicrafts made available for sale. Notzke reports work completed in Canada and notes the need for a connection between the tour guide operators and what she refers to as ‘travel trade operators’. However, Notzke does not give the reader a clear explanation of who is encompassed in the term ‘travel trade operators’, leaving open the question of whether this phrase encompasses all those involved in marketing Indigenous tourism.

Using the above explanation, this chapter uses trade operators as a focal point to shed further light on this interface existing between hosts and tourists. It specifically addresses the incongruity that all these articles fail to mention that there is a lack of engagement with Indigenous participants involved in tourism and those people

51 responsible for promoting and selling Indigenous tourism opportunities to tourists. This incongruity is at the heart of my analysis, which begins with a short piece of ethnographic ‘thick description’ to convey how marketplace expectations are established by tourists’ interactions with trade operators long before tourists actually encounter Indigenous people themselves.

I commence this discussion by narrating my approach to the ‘field’, beginning with my visits to several tourist information centres around the Cairns region. The town of Port Douglas in the Far North of Queensland is used as a base for both international and domestic tourists to visit two spectacular World Heritage Sites, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. This town is approximately 70 kilometres north of Cairns by car. In this setting, I visited two tourist information centres at Port Douglas that had non-Indigenous employees working the front counters. Part of their role is to offer services and advice to tourists about places of interest within the catchment area of Far North East Queensland. My fieldnotes in 2016 from these visits reflect my initial shock at the content within the conversations I had with the employees: In a town at the doorstep of these sites of natural beauty the last thing I expected to be confronted by was the ugliness of racism. However, this was my experience...After my encounter with both employees I came away reflecting on whether these people had had any training that demanded they keep their biases to themselves, or if it was normal to freely proffer their thoughts about where tourists should and should not bother going based on their political ideology without consideration of cultural awareness (FB October 2016).

These notes commented on from my field book contain my reflexive thought processes. Given the following comments, I do not believe my initial reactions or any conclusions about what I perceived as either unconscious or conscious bias on these tourism centre employees part is not justifiable. Therefore, in this section, I reflect on these experiences, and my own reactions to them as part of a discussion of the role of tourist information centres in shaping marketplace expectations of Indigenous tourism enterprises.

I wanted to experience what it would be like to be considered a tourist and not an anthropologist, so I entered the first tourist information centre that was situated on the

52 main street in Port Douglas and asked whether there were any Indigenous tours available in the area that I may be able to go on. My question was met with a quizzical gaze and I was not offered any brochures relating to the availability of Indigenous run tours in the area. The young female tourist centre worker mentioned Tjapukai, a cultural village just outside of Cairns city. This employee told me:

it’s like a theme park, you know with spear throwing there and boomerang throwing there if you really wanted to drive that far south for something like that (FB October 2016).

This statement shocked me as she had not tried to sell me on the idea of the attributes offered at the cultural village, however, this shock was nothing compared to how her next statement made me feel. ‘It’s like a zoo there; oh I probably shouldn’t really have said that’. I didn’t ask her if this meant there were animals on display at the cultural village, I felt the implication of what this tourism employee was trying to convey was that the whole concept of the village was one that tourists should look at from afar, and that brought a visual representation of animals in cages. I was completely taken aback by these comments and wondered as I walked away if these statements would have been made to an international tourist, or did this employee feel it was okay to describe the cultural village in that way to another non-Indigenous Australian. Given the ‘zoo’ comment was quickly followed by a comment noting the realisation that she shouldn’t have said it, it highlighted to me how easily a tourist would have been disinclined to go to that cultural village and how this would affect the economic situation of those working there. Perhaps this employee was more interested in keeping the tourist (read my own) dollar in the region she was working in, however, this would then negate the fact there were many other Indigenous tourism enterprises in the Port Douglas area, which I had discovered due to previous research. Though there was ample opportunity to inform me whilst present in her tourist information centre, she chose not to share this knowledge with me.

As I entered the next tourist information centre in Port Douglas I was greeted by a middle-aged man. He was very friendly to begin with until I asked him about whether there were any Indigenous run tours in the area I could go on, he told me:

I wouldn’t bother going to that place… I wouldn’t waste my money. It is really staged though the … brothers offer tours that are really good, so is... (FB October 2016).

It soon became apparent that that was the end of our conversation about what was available. He offered no brochures or further discussions about other tours that I knew, were available in the area. Yet again I was astounded at the power these tourist information centre workers possess in determining the economic outcome of a tourism enterprise which employed Indigenous people. Using Davies (1999) reflexive approach to ethnography on the drive back to Cairns I wondered if this complete lack of interest in offering positive information about the Indigenous experiences a tourist may expect was due to it being mid-afternoon on a Saturday, or if this was the same information a tourist would receive at any given time or day of the week.

The third tourist information centre I visited was in Cairns city. It had taken two previous attempts to organise a meeting with the tourism centre manager. I introduced myself as a research student and explained the purpose of my fieldwork and obtained a consent form before I began our interview. Throughout the course of my conversation with the tourism centre manager he made a comment about:

how bad it looks when the tourists getting off the cruise ships walk through the park to have to see Aboriginal people sitting under the shade of the trees drinking alcohol out of brown paper bags (FB October 2016).

My reflexive thought processes and subsequent fieldnotes from this meeting again register my shock, as I commented in my field book:

What I found interesting about this statement was that the previous weekend I had witnessed this same type of behaviour by non-Indigenous people playing football on the beach. It seemed there was a double standard in the two situations. The Indigenous people this participant spoke about were drinking out of bottles in brown paper bags, while the non-Indigenous people I had seen the weekend before were drinking beer and wine out of glasses, not concealed in brown paper bags. Again, I was left wondering about the negative impact that can be transmitted by those who are responsible for selling an idea of Indigenous tourism in my research study area (FB October 2016).

Is it reasonable to assume that the interviewee thought Indigenous public drunkenness would put tourists off the idea of looking for Indigenous tours? Or were his comments hampered by the stereotypical view of Indigenous people drinking from brown paper bags? I would argue that this was not the case, as it would seem none of the non- Indigenous businesses in the area near to the tourist information centre suffered from a lack of business due to the non-Indigenous people drinking on the beach out of the beer and wine glasses. It appears there was one rule for one group of people and another for the Indigenous people in his non-Indigenous view.

The fourth and last tourist information centre I entered on my fieldwork was in Kuranda Village just north-west of Cairns. The participant was a tourist information centre worker who discussed the importance of tourists having the opportunity to speak to an Indigenous person or an Elder when they visit the village. This participant said:

……. that is gold, for a tourist to be able to have a ten minute chat with a local Indigenous person……it’s what we find now, the people travelling really want to know more than just what they can buy, they want to know a little bit more about the people and the village they are visiting (FB November 2016).

Kuranda Village can offer this for its visitors as the tourist information centre has built up a working relationship with the local Aboriginal people; they also have an Indigenous volunteer who works in conjunction with the Queensland Tourist Board and he is offered casual work conducting tours around the village. This person is volunteering with them on a pilot scheme from QTIC. The research participant told me he is there for a six-month project and is raising the profile for those Aboriginal people living in the area. He is working towards a Certificate III educational qualification in Tourism and hoping he will be able to secure full time work in the area. Having Indigenous people available to offer insights into their culture to tourists seems to be an important factor when consideration is given to what tours a tourist will participate in, which will be commented on in the following section.

What is it that Tourists Want?

The Queensland Tourism Board has a website that showcases many of the Indigenous tours available in Far North Queensland. Interestingly not one of the

55 tourists I interviewed, whether they were domestic or international, found out about the tours through this medium. Higgins-Desbiolles states that ‘Aboriginal tourism products and imagery are significant to the Australian tourism industry because marketing Aboriginal ‘products’ helps to create ‘Brand Australia’ (Higgins-Desbiolles 2006:6). This ‘Brand Australia’ is what the tourism industry refers to in the ‘So where the bloody hell are you?’ campaign launched in 2006, a marketing campaign that was meant to portray all the delights of the Australian lifestyle and questioning the catchment demographic as to why you would not come to Australia yet, contained no mention of any Indigenous tourism product or imagery. This campaign was launched and then removed two years later. Tourism Australia websites now offer a varied array of Indigenous owned and operated tours or an Indigenous experience for tourists to choose from. This changes the ‘Brand Australia’ from the picturesque view of beaches and mountains that was incorporated in the campaign noted above to one that offers a cultural view of the descendants of the first inhabitants of Australia.

Corporate bodies are taking the marketing of their product into their own hands and not leaving it to state or federally run tourism websites. This is evidenced by the billboard that has been recently commissioned by a cultural village in Mossman. Beside the main road heading north out of Cairns is a billboard that portrays an image of the Indigenous person responsible for starting interest in the building of a cultural village. In this picture he is wearing clothes worn by the tour guides at the cultural village and gives a clear view of what a tourist may expect to see when they go to the village. The rainforest is depicted in the background with an Indigenous painting included. Cassel and Maureira (2017) tells their readers that ‘images of Indigenous peoples are increasingly used to attract tourists to heritage sites’ (Cassel & Maureira 2017:1).

Photograph 4: Billboard advertising the Mossman Gorge Centre. Photograph by author.

The Indigenous tourism marketplace I observed in the Far North East of Queensland has a certain type of tourist who is interested in learning more about Indigenous Australia, whether they are domestic or international visitors. The tourists I spoke to wanted to experience what they had perceived as a real version of Australia. They were interested in Indigenous Australia and wanted to learn as much as they could about the livelihoods of the tour guides and performers. This brings to mind work carried out by MacCannell (1992). This author coins the phrase of a ‘neo-nomad’ tourist who is liberalised by the concept of freedom. A freedom they are afforded as they leave behind the trials and tribulations of everyday life and travel to places unknown. MacCannell notes this is achieved by these ‘neo-nomads’ as they traverse boundaries and frontiers. Which ties into comments made by an international research participant I will mention in Chapter Four, who had expectations of a real version of Australia [the kind that conquers up colonial visions of untamed territories or frontiers]. These types of tourists MacCannell describes are interested in collecting only intangible ideas through the storytelling of the Indigenous tour guides. These ‘neo-

57 nomads’ are more consumed with this aspect of Indigenous tourism than in the physical objects that can be transported back to their place of abode.

Interestingly Lane & Waitt (2007) also mention areas described as ‘last frontier’ s (Lane & Waitt 2007:106). Or tourist destinations that are promoted for nature loving adventurers. Places that offer a perception of unchartered territories, notwithstanding any groups of Indigenous family groups already residing in these areas. While their work is centred on self-drive tourism in the Northwest of Australia there are similarities with some reasons my research participants chose to participate in nature tours. Like the subjects MacCannell discusses above these tourists were uninterested in collecting objects or souvenirs in a material form to carry home.

The high number of international tourists compared to domestic tourists involved in this research study replicates figures used by Abascal, Fluker & Jian (2016). In that these authors report statistics from the National and International Visitor Survey 2013 (Tourism Research Australia 2014). These authors note that ‘11% of all international visitors and only 0.7% of all overnight domestic visitors engaged in Indigenous tourism activities’ (Abascal, Fluker & Jiang 2016:1350-51). The reason for this variance in numbers these authors note is difficult to ascertain as they state, ‘there has been limited research undertaken into Indigenous tourism in Australia from a demand perspective’ (Abascal, Fluker & Jiang 2016:1351). This statement mirrors Altman & Finlaysons’ (2003) comments relating to the impacts of participation in Indigenous tourism in Australia being under-researched. Which gives evidence to my findings on a gap in the literature. From work carried out by Ruhanen and Whitford (2013) we are made aware that a recommendation by these authors to the Indigenous Business Australia & Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, Indigenous Tourism Working Group, is to ‘support Indigenous tourism operators in developing products and experiences that are reflective of contemporary indigenous culture while balancing visitor demand and expectations’ (Ruhanen & Whitford (2013:6). This is a sound recommendation which could only benefit those Indigenous individuals working in owner-operated tourism ventures.

Based on interviews with participant tourists, in respect of marketplace and expectation, it may be noted that domestic research participants admit the cost may be prohibitive for families. One of the tourists I interviewed commented that the

Indigenous full day tours were possibly more suited to backpackers and single tourists, though they were determined to offer their children the experience of meeting and talking with someone who had such a close connection to country. This participant told me it was very important to her that she brought her children on a tour operated by an Indigenous person. This research participant said the tour could have been done by a non-Indigenous person; however, the memories her sons would take away from the tour would remain with them always and this interlocutor believed the tour would have an impact on them they would never forget. The research participant stated that they had never seen an Indigenous person before they met the tour guide and noted they were gaining information they would not have been able to learn in school. This participant said she thought:

it was very special to be shown rock art by a person who had a direct connection to the land surrounding the rock art (audio recording October 2016).

The international research participants were all of the same mindset in that it was the experience they were looking for and overall, I have concluded from this dialogue that while a non-Indigenous person could have conducted the tours, they felt they were able to garner more information from someone whose parents and grandparents had lived in the areas where they were taken.

Photograph 5: Rock art in Cooktown, Queensland. Photograph by author.

I interviewed a Canadian girl who identified as a First Nations Metis person; who arrived in Australia with some information about Indigenous Australia. Her father was heavily involved in the First Nations community where they lived and had actively sought out Indigenous tourist information on her behalf. This research participant said her father had done research and wanted her to experience what it was like in other countries for Indigenous people. Some of his recommendations involved going to the Kuranda Village and Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Park. This interlocutor told me she wanted to see Indigenous people act in the way their ancestors would, in her words ‘back in the day’. She commented that it was understood to her that the performers were showing her dances and doing ceremonial actions that they no longer do daily, though highlighted a determination throughout our dialogue about wanting to go to these two places to see the dances and learn about the Indigenous ways. By making these comments about her awareness that the ceremonial actions were not how these people operated daily, it made me reflect on Goffman’s (1959) ‘front and back stage’ concept and the way it is not just reserved for those who are performing. This participant was cognizant of how a performance portrayed was just a performance.

One of the tourist information centre research participants talked to me about the expectation of tourists from North America and India. This research participant said they are often surprised and disappointed when they arrive and discover there are no Indigenous people living in huts and wearing traditional clothing walking around the village. It was imperative to her that an explanation was given to the tourists that people are the same as elsewhere in Queensland and they live in houses. She said their expectation was for an authentic tour, something that is run by an Indigenous person.

This highlights the challenges faced by the participants involved in Indigenous tourism enterprises in this setting and recalls Conklin’s study of Indigenous people in Brazil. In that research, Conklin (1997) argues that Indigenous people are caught between the rock and the hard place: if they do not conform to what the idealised version of an Indian is, they are not being authentic enough, and yet if they wear ‘traditional garb they are trying to profit from their indigeneity’ (Conklin 1997:728). Writing in the Journal of Travel Research rather than from the perspective of anthropological study, Zeppel

(2002) notes that first time visitors to the cultural village were disappointed they did not see what they perceived as ‘cultural markers’ or dances and performances in the long houses of a Canadian First Nations village. She also discusses work carried out by Stanton (1989) and notes how disappointed the tourists were at a Polynesian Cultural Centre in Hawaii when they did not see the staff living in ‘village houses and there were no bare-breasted women at the center’ (Zeppel 2002:93). I found analogous dynamics in my fieldwork. Bunten also discusses similar challenges arising for Indigenous people in Alaska and argues: ‘while meeting “authentic Alaskans” is high on the priority list of most people visiting the state, the average tourist is unlikely to encounter Native culture unmediated by tourism’ (Bunten 2008:383).

This sense of Indigenous culture being ‘mediated’ was keenly felt by my research participants. For example, I spoke to two international tourists travelling together, from Italy and France. When I asked how they found out about the tour, one of the participants told me he looked at YouTube and searched Australia and Italy. He was shown some clips from two Italians doing road trips across Australia who suggested the tour as something that should be seen. This tourist said he wanted to ‘see how the Aboriginals lived’, he didn’t feel as though this was provided to him and he wanted to know if any, in this participants words, Aboriginals still live in Australia like they did in the old days. This tourist had a preconceived notion of what it was like to be an Aboriginal in Australia; he said these views had come from movies he had seen. He did not believe the show (performance) was an educational one and he wondered if they were just showing the tourists what they thought the tourists wanted to see. The other international tourist conversely ‘felt as though a non-Indigenous person could have done the shows, though I would not have felt as touched as I was by seeing it done by an Indigenous person’.

Both the domestic and international tourists I interviewed generally found out about the Indigenous tours from a mixture of places other than tourist information centres. One of the younger tourists found their information from the Lonely Planet (a travel guide book) and another using the internet and watching YouTube clips. However, one person mentioned they used a tourist information centre in Cairns as they were looking to do a reef tour. When I asked why they did not make enquiries from the tourist information centre about the Indigenous tours, he said he found the internet was able to give him as much information as he needed. Therefore, in discussing the

61 marketplace expectations of tourists it is necessary to consider a variety of virtual and actual encounters beyond the tourist information centre setting with which I began this chapter. Nevertheless, each of these settings created specific expectations relating to the authenticity of the experience being packaged for sale. This concern similarly arose in relation to the products available as souvenirs, giving rise to the third question and section of this chapter.

Do the Items for Sale meet Marketplace Expectations?

Throughout an interview with an international tourist a comment was made about the authenticity of items for sale in the retail area of a cultural village. This participant stated that a lot of the things he looked at had stickers on them depicting they were ‘Made in Australia’, though he did not believe these products were made by local Indigenous people. This participant was interested to know where he could buy a ‘truly aboriginal made’ item. His comments were the same as an Indigenous employee at the cultural village and are discussed in the following paragraph.

One of the cultural village heritage managers who I interviewed was disinclined to think the mass-produced souvenirs on sale were offering any benefit to cultural awareness. This participant said:

the mass-produced products on display do not showcase the down to earth feeling of Aboriginal culture (audio recording November 2016).

He explained these types of items can be bought at any exit point within Australia, and therefore he does not understand why these types of products take the place of dilly bags (that is, woven plant fibre bags traditionally made to carry small items) and boomerangs made locally by the community. In his view, locally produced items are the ‘bread and butter’ for the community, by way of an explanation, that they provide the basic economic benefits from Indigenous tourism. However, the peak season brings the international tourists who he feels tend to buy the mass-produced items, while the domestic all year-round tourists often buy those items produced locally. An interesting aspect of this comment was that while the international tourists I spoke to on the Indigenous cultural/nature run tours were eager to know where they could buy local souvenirs, my participant commented that the cultural village tended to cater for

62 the international tourists who bought the mass-produced items that are available at any airport departure gate, where they tend to be sold by non-Indigenous people.

Photograph 6: Art gallery at Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. Photograph by author.

In Langton’s (2018) work she offers advice on how tourists can ensure they are purchasing artwork that is authentic. Langton tells her readers:

you can …be assured that works are authentic if you buy from members of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia, The Australia Commercial Galleries or the Indigenous Art Code (Langton 2018:27).

Providing this information in all areas that sell Indigenous art work and handiwork would help to reduce the replication of Indigenous artists’ work without consent. If this tactic was utilised, we may see a minimisation of the sham souvenirs that are offered for sale to unwitting buyers in main tourists’ areas.

As well as the advice offered by Langton above there is an Indigenous Art Code which according to the website has this code:

The INDIGENOUS ART CODE (the Code) was developed in the first instance by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) and then by the Australia Council for the Arts, who worked closely with an Industry Alliance Group made up of artists, Indigenous art centres, commercial art galleries, public art galleries, auction houses and visual arts peak bodies; including the Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists, Umi Arts, Ananguku Arts, Desart, Australian Commercial

Galleries Association, NAVA and the Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association. (https://indigenousartcode.org/the-indigenous-art-code/)

This is a public company and was established in 2010. The ‘Board of Directors is drawn from the Indigenous visual arts industry and the wider community’ (https://indigenousartcode.org/the-indigenous-art-code/)

Locally, the retail places I visited in the Cairns area were run by Asian proprietors. Of the five outlets I went into each had the mass-produced items that had stickers stating they had been ‘Produced in China’. I came across some challenges when trying to ask where the souvenirs were purchased from and had to rely on these labels. The language barrier proved difficult to overcome, so I was obliged to use observation rather than interviewing techniques in these retail spaces. Of the tourists I saw buying items they all headed to the cheap and mass-produced souvenirs. It could have been speculated that they were only interested in having something that carried the stereotypical idea of Australia, small toy like boomerangs and magnets with Indigenous dot paintings on them that were not locally produced, and which were clearly provided for the international tourist who were less concerned with the authenticity of a product, certainly more so than those tourists who I spoke to who were actually on the Indigenous run tours.

Photograph 7: Tour guide showing Indigenous wayfinding markers in the Daintree Rainforest. Photograph by author.

Unlike these Asian tourism retail spaces, the art gallery UMI in Cairns is operated by members from Indigenous communities from Cardwell on the coast, out to Mt Isa and up to Cape York. Membership is determined by what one participant termed ‘blood connection’ and ‘clan groups’, which he explained to mean different ‘family groups’ when I asked him for some clarification of those terms. Membership entitles artists to exhibit their work in the gallery for up to six months to secure a sale. This participant has a role in the gallery that focuses on creating opportunities for member artists and musicians. The art gallery was established in 2005, my participant said prior to this there was nowhere in Cairns for the exclusive display of and no support for Indigenous operated art galleries. Indigenous contractors are used to help set up the exhibitions and these people find out about the work through word of mouth. My participant said, ‘people know people’ and then before he knows it, he has a plentiful number of interns and volunteers. He uses social media to locate new artists and then invites them to exhibit their work. Items for sale in the gallery include jewellery, paintings and corporate gifts. This participant said there is a ‘mixed bag’ of domestic and international tourists. This research participant noted the exhibitions tend to bring domestic tourists both local and interstate. The international tourists mostly stop by on their way to the airport. I asked him whether he thought tourism, in this instance through tourist art purchases, was a way for Indigenous people to improve their economic and hence their social situation. He replied that he believed so, especially in the incident describing the fifty-six artists who were listed on the sales report he had just received, which showed they had sold works through the gallery in the previous financial year.

Cultural Awareness, Marketplace Expectations and the Success of Indigenous Tourism Enterprises

This chapter considered the cultural and economic implications of marketplace expectations for Indigenous tourism enterprises. It has particularly focused on the perceptions of Indigenous tourism enterprises held by tourist information centre employees, and how these perceptions shape tourists’ expectations prior to any actual

65 encounter with Indigenous people. This chapter also considered what it is that tourists want from their Indigenous tourism experience and asked if the items for sale meet marketplace expectations. The gap in Indigenous tourism literature relating to the impact of cultural biases of information tourism centre employees has been discussed. As noted, this is not just related to the Australian context and not confined to purely anthropological literature, it is also the situation within tourism studies.

Noted above was my personal negative experience at three tourist information centres, which highlighted the power tourist information centre employees have in relation to guiding a tourist away from Indigenous tourism adventures. I discussed the double standards relating to drinking alcohol in a public place, due to cultural dynamics between non-Indigenous tourist information centres workers and Indigenous people in Cairns. This chapter also investigated the propensity of tourists participating in Indigenous tours being more interested in locally produced items for sale rather than the mass-produced items available at any exit point in Australia. The data analysed highlighted some variance in views about whether a non-Indigenous person could conduct a performance in a cultural village or be a tour guide, with one participant questioning whether the performers were showing the tourist what they thought they wanted to see rather than offering an authentic experience.

In conclusion, I point to the power that remains in the hands of non-Indigenous people such as tourist centre employees, as two of these demonstrated their derogatory views of Indigenous tourism participants. And this was noted when tourist information centre employees do not offer a fair and non-biased view of a product, they are responsible for selling to tourists. These employees also have the power to dissuade tourists from participating in Indigenous tourism by their lack of information about what is available and giving negative commentary. The concept of authenticity is touched on in this chapter and will be explored further in the following chapter, however, this data revealed the way an Indigenous business may falter due to the power and a perception of an authentic Indigenous experience, from the point of view those non-Indigenous people responsible for selling Indigenous tourism products.

Through examination of the data collected it can be argued there are more things to consider than just whether Indigenous tourism participation can be used as an economic development tool to reduce the disparity noted in the ‘Closing the Gap’

(2007) policy. I argue that consideration needs to be given to what can be perceived as a lack of cultural awareness of some of those people who have job descriptions that encompass imparting information about Indigenous tourism enterprise. The following chapter will address the challenges of authenticity, performance, the effects on social agency and the commodification of identity of those Indigenous participants involved in tourism enterprise.

Chapter Four: Believing Really is in the Seeing: Perceptions of Authenticity and Performance In this chapter I analyse the question: how do tourists perceive the authenticity of Indigenous performances? To gain an understanding of this question consideration is given to these matters: how do stereotypical views of indigeneity affect Indigenous tourism participants? and what effect does this have on the agency of those Indigenous people who participate in tourism enterprises? This follows on from Chapter Three’s discussion related to marketplace expectations and the conceptual questions raised which considered the way those expectations can affect the economic outcome of an Indigenous tourism enterprise.

The perception of the authenticity of an Indigenous performance is subjective. Tourists’ perceptions of authenticity may, for example, be shaped by stereotypical views gleaned from media such as movies, books and artwork. Yet, these stereotypes are contested by Indigenous performers, who tend to view their own performances as ‘authentic’, notwithstanding the touristic settings. Drawing on field work completed with Aboriginal performers at cultural villages in the Far North East of Queensland and cultural habitat tours in the Cairns region, as well as interviews and ethnographic participant observation with non-Indigenous tourists, I show how Indigenous tourism enterprises are constrained by perceptions of ‘authentic’ and ‘in-authentic’ culture. This is an important issue to consider given the polices put in place by government to use Indigenous tourism as an economic development tool, can be determined by tourists’ perceptions of authenticity and their value as a touristic enterprise worthy of participating in. This chapter will address literature that is relevant to authenticity and its implications and then I will present the results of my research.

In section one of this chapter, I analyse how the perceptions of authenticity are complex, relational and subjective. According to some of my research participants, authenticity is in the hands of those who tell the story. However, the far-reaching impact of the media shows that the different outlets of communication networks through the media, can determine the expectations of a tourist seeking to undertake an Indigenous tourism venture. According to an International tourist I interviewed from Europe these expectations can be skewed depending on the source of the information

68 on which a tourist draws, (FB October 2016), in the case of this informant that information included the internet or during his face to face interactions with those who are responsible for providing information about local Indigenous tourism experiences.

In section two, I consider how the word performance has different connotations for Indigenous tourism individuals who participate in tourism enterprises. Performers involved in Indigenous tourism are generally charged with exhibiting displays of Indigeneity, expected to offer a view of their culture which sets them outside the mainstream or even how they would normally act Cowlishaw (1988). In the course of discussing how the advent of structural functionalism in Australian anthropological studies may have altered how Indigenous people were studied, still they were objects of anthropological scrutiny, Cowlishaw (1988) notes how Indigenous Australians were referred to as a ‘unique people’ (Cowlishaw 1988:63), thus; setting them apart from all other Australians. There is an expectation that those involved in the display of Indigeneity will provide an other-worldliness that is not expected of those who have come after colonisation, at least in the Australian context (see, e.g., Parsons 2002). Aspects of the difference between intangible and tangible heritage will be discussed in the following pages, as I note how the hopes of tourists are built up by those who would portray a version of Australian indigeneity in relation to Indigenous tourism.

I will examine how agency is exhibited by those Indigenous people involved in tourism enterprise, despite constraints imposed by tourists’ expectations. The research participants I interviewed expressed a sense of control over their lives that they described as lacking in the lives of their parents and grandparents, who were forced from their traditional lands onto missions (see, e.g., Anderson 2010) and other settlements (see, e.g., Swain and Rose 1988, Wolfe 1994). The last part of this section notes the different connotations of the phrase, the commodification of indigeneity. Some of my research participants believed it is necessary to commodify their culture to gain an economic benefit for their communities, while others were clear that culture should not be commodified as it is not something that is for sale. Throughout the conversations I had with my research participants it seemed that there was more importance placed on sharing their cultural heritage with non-Indigenous people than explicit notions of monetary gains from the concept of commodifying their culture, which I will discuss in depth in the following pages as I recount some of these conversations.

Government polices identify the economic advantages that the involvement in Indigenous tourism may bring to those who participate in tourism ventures. However, we must be cognizant of how the perceptions of authenticity by non-Indigenous tourists can partially determine the success of these government policies that focus on the economic outcome of Indigenous people involved in tourism enterprise.

More Than One Side to a Story

In considering how the perception of authenticity can affect Indigenous participants I discuss work carried out by anthropologists and other academics studying tourism. While scholars have extensively reviewed the concept of authenticity in touristic performances, there is lack of literature which examines tourists’ perceptions of authenticity and performance in an Australian Indigenous setting, this is of course notwithstanding work Bruner (1994) carried out which is discussed elsewhere in this thesis.

Anthropological research about tourism has often commented on the challenges of maintaining an idealised stereotype of authenticity for Indigenous tourism participants. For example, Conklin (1997) argues that South American Indigenous people have gone away from the wearing the Western clothing that had become popular and returned to wearing traditional clothing. She notes this may be due to these people becoming more politically active (see, e.g., Ortner 2006), and choosing to create a more authentic experience for tourists. Arguably these Indigenous people gain agency as they take control over how their indigeneity is portrayed (see, e.g., Wright, Stark & Kutzner 2009, Canessa 2012, Banks 2013, Coronado 2014), and Carlson (2016) notes Indigenous identity can be reinforced by those who wear Indigenous ceremonial clothing through performances making a connection to Indigenous communities as there is a sense of pride in showing their indigeneity by those who dress this way.

Theodossopoulos (2013) appraises the essentialism of the authenticity-inauthenticity divide in an analysis of Indigenous performance, while noting a tendency for academics to critique authenticity while serving to further duplicate it. Based on work in Panama in Central America, Theodossopoulos notes he fell victim to this trap that he describes as the ‘trap of authenticity’ during field work in Panama:

I found myself defending the authenticity of the community (and the cultural practices enacted by its inhabitants) against some tourists and tour guides who criticised the community as touristy, and its constitution as contrived and inauthentic (Theodossopoulos 2013:398).

This distinction between inauthenticity and authenticity, which this academic noted as being introduced by tourists, inevitably becomes the way a society or Indigenous community is judged, according to Theodossopoulos. It is worth considering a point he makes, people studying the concept of authenticity in Indigenous tourism need to be aware this can be done in many ways, including an academic perception of the concept and in the practical views of the tourists.

The subjective points of view of media portrayal of Indigenous culture in North America highlights how a (southwest US) Native American artist’s work was hindered. Ballengee-Morris (2002) notes that Indigenous artists who produced work that had a cultural aspect to it, in a contemporary manner had no marketplace for their work. They felt compelled to produce artwork that portrays the cultural view from the movies or artwork that displayed their past tribal-lifeways. One artist stated:

I know some feel I have sold out, but I had to change the materials and design to compete with other crafters...I’m tired of fighting. I joined them and at least I get invited to show…as long as I remember how it is really done and with what materials, what does it really matter? (Ballengee-Morris 2002:239).

The authenticity of the paintings was determined by the artist; however, it was commissioned by those who would purchase the finished artwork and who had their own perception of what an authentic piece of artwork should be.

Comments made by Graburn (1984) offer insights into the challenges involved when Indigenous tourism is used to gain an income, albeit it could be noted in a cynical manner. ‘Selling out’ is a term used by Graburn to note pressures that may be involved when Indigenous people ‘bend the rules, show secrets that should not be shown to tell stories that are not appropriate for outsiders’ (Graburn 1984:401) to hear all in the name of trying to increase tourist numbers.

At the same time, academic research has demonstrated how tourism-oriented products and services can create new meanings that become part of local cultural identities (see, e.g., Cohen 1988). These cultural identities depict what the tourist perceives as being an authentic aspect of Indigenous culture.

The concept of the ‘front’ and ‘back stage’ as noted by Goffman (1959) has proved influential in discussions of authenticity. Goffman argues that humans behave in different ways depending on who the audience is and whether they are being watched, and whether they act differently when there is no one to see how they behave. These portrayals of the self are discussed in Bruner and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett’s (1994) Maasai on the Lawn: Tourist Realism in East Africa, the Maasai are obliged to present a certain exotic model of themselves to tourists as the ‘real deal’. This work notes a blood-letting ceremony which is a practice that combines the blood and milk from cows and is used for celebrations, ceremonies or to provide sustenance to the sick. This blood-letting ritual is not to be witnessed by women. The authors make a good account of a situation where the ceremony was seen by a woman and then the ceremony was halted, and another animal had to have the ritual conducted on it away from the prying eyes of females.

Yet the female owner of this establishment where the performance of blood-letting was undertaken for the touristic gaze, maintained that the Maasai don’t worry about conducting the ceremony in front of her. In this instance Goffman’s front and back stage is centre stage, in that the Maasai acted a certain way in front of the tourists and yet as shown, these actions were different when the female owner of the establishment was looking on. They portrayed a type of authenticity they believed the tourists wanted to see as they made sure the tourists knew the ceremony must be conducted again without females witnessing it. This article does not give the reader information about what the effects were on the woman who caused the ceremony to have to begin again, nor does it deal with what the female owner thought about these front and back stage actions by the Maasai. These actions may mirror issues faced by Indigenous Australians involved in performance tourism as they are expected to wear ceremonial clothing while depicting their ancestral stories through dance.

Studies from Australia are also relevant to this discussion. For example, Henry’s (1999) work on the village of Kuranda near Cairns in Far North Queensland, discusses

72 the role of performance in place-making. This article describes an amphitheatre which was constructed by the inhabitants of that village. Henry states that the amphitheatre was not ‘only built by the community, for the community, it actually made the community’ (Henry 1999:343). That is, actualising performance in a staged environment creates connections to place that can alter a performer’s depiction of what they want to present to others and how space is used. This indicates that performers have some control over what is shown to tourists or spectators throughout, while also complicating the concept of Goffman’s front and back stage.

Similarly, work carried out by Picard, Pocock and Trigger (2014) discuss the staged presence of performers in their article in an environment where there was an importance placed on vying for the tourist dollar from other tourism sites in the area, notably zoos and other venues that displayed wildlife. These authors note the conditioning of ‘wild’ animals which enables tourists to hold them, while tourists were given the option to watch authentic ‘native’ dances. Both Henry (1999) and Picard et al (2014), note how performance affects how space is used while performing place.

Bunten (2010) states that tourism enables Indigenous people to have agency over their lives. This author makes a connection to the benefits to communities when Indigenous individuals are in positions that allows for employment through working in Indigenous tourism enterprises. Earlier work carried out by Bunten (2008) when she was a tour guide in 2003 describes how she was told not to worry if she forgot her script or failed to take the tourists somewhere that was on their brochure. She was told ‘it is you they pay to see’ (Bunten 2008:381). This article gives a good account of the complexities involved in commodifying indigeneity. This anthropologist describes a concept called a commodified persona which is self-commodification. She describes this as having a two-pronged agenda, both an economic acknowledgement of globalisation and being politically motivated to achieve an expression of identity. Bunten makes a similar point in a different article in 2010. She states ‘Indigenous tourism businesses operate according to principles that reflect a commitment to community needs and goals’ (Bunten 2010:295), while simultaneously attempting to ensure they are able to provide information about their ancestors’ legacy, through storytelling.

Lemelin, Koster and Youroukos (2015) offer similar sentiments which are expressed in the comments made by academics in the tourism sector, as these academics note that where tourism development is embraced by community residents, it is done so in the expectation that social, cultural and economic advantages will ensue, therefore placing as much emphasis on the economic as the cultural benefits of the involvement in Indigenous tourism enterprise.

While Ypeijs’ (2012) scholarly work shows that ethnic identities are often deployed for tourism ends, stating that some ‘scholars argue that Indigenous identities are lost through the commodification of culture’ (Ypeij 2012:19) (see also e.g., Greenwood 1977, 1989), although Ypeij argues against these scholars as she documents work carried out in Peru with Indigenous women. Ypeij informs her readers that these women take control of how they portray their indigeneity through the clothes they wear when having their photographs taken by tourists.

Interestingly, Whitford and Ruhanen (2016) describe what could be noted as a ‘double- edged sword scenario’ in terms of Indigenous tourism. The down-side they ruminate on is that Indigenous peoples’ rights and self-determination are impinged upon through tourism, as it potentially can also result in a commodification of Indigenous people as their cultures become tourism resources that are desirable to non-Indigenous tourists (Whitford & Ruhanen 2016).

These comments are reflected in Hitchcock’s work (2005), who argues that the development of sites in South Africa where rock art is situated, may mean there is an increase in the social value of an area, which in turn will ensure the preservation of the rock art sites. However, this does not allow for the consideration of the effects of the Indigenous peoples interests as they determine, like some of my research participants who and what will be seen by tourists.

Other research conducted in South Africa by John and Jean Comaroff notes how the San Bushman had once ‘performed themselves as menial employees’ (Comaroff & Comaroff 2009:93), however, they ‘now do so as proprietors in the service of economy, specialising in their own brand of exotic experience’ (Comaroff & Comaroff 2009:93). This book by these authors offers a succinct account of how the commodification of indigeneity can have some economic benefits for some cultures.

In the early 2000s, Dyer, Aberdeen and Schuler (2003) undertook research at the same cultural village at which some of my research was completed. There is a marked difference in their information about the cultural village employees than from those I received. Dyer et al states that ‘Djabugay employees believed that the Park’s portrayal of their culture was inauthentic’ (Dyer, Aberdeen & Schuler 2003:90), whereas the employees I interviewed told me they go to great lengths to ensure the performances shown to the tourists are as accurate a portrayal of their culture as they have knowledge of. It is possible given the time difference between my research in 2016 and Dyer et al’s before 2002, that the successive generation has grown up with the cultural portrayals of the village, or that the earlier performers were unused to portraying Indigenous cultures for outsiders and were potentially discomfited by doing so.

Consideration of the literature noted here means it would be fruitful to examine these conceptual questions: does the commodification of indigeneity by non-Indigenous tourists through watching and participating in Indigenous tourism, shift the balance of power into the hands of non-Indigenous tourists as Rose (1999) suggests? Or is it through performance that an authentic Indigenous tourism experience can offer an Indigenous person involved in tourism a degree of agency? And does selling an idea of indigeneity commodify Indigenous culture in tourism?

The data used for this chapter is comprised of information from audio recordings and notes taken in my field book. The demographic of the tourists I interviewed was made up of equal female to male ratios with ages varying from 22 to 65 years old. The mixture differed however, between tourists who participated in the cultural habitat tours, namely those which were on the beach or in the rainforest which included 6 interviewees, and those who participated in the cultural villages watching ceremonial performances of which there were 8 interviewees. The cultural habitat tours were predominantly made up of couples over the age of 50, while the cultural village tours had a mixed female to male and male to male ratio of under 30-years-old, mostly all the tourist research participants interviewed for the data in this chapter were international.

What You See is What You Get?

Perceptions of authenticity are complex, relational and subjective in the context of Indigenous cultural tourism and in the performances of Indigenous culture.

Conversations with two of my international research participants from Europe relating to the authenticity of an Indigenous tourism experience show the media impact that can affect a portrayal of Indigeneity. As noted in Chapter Three the expectations of tourists can influence the tourism experience. These experiences can also be affected as a tourist imagines a forthcoming adventure through the guise of different types of media ranging from books, to movies (see, e.g., Jedda 1955 and Walkabout 1971) and while there are more contemporary movies (see, e.g., Radiance 1998 and Samson and Delilah 2009), these older movies depict a version of what my participant was describing about his expectations of Indigenous Australia which I will note in the following pages.

One of my international research participants from Europe discussed how he came to have an idea of what Aboriginal Australia was. These comments were made as we talked about the authenticity of a cultural village. He had seen movies, (although we didn’t discuss which movies he had seen, as he had described to me, he had received most of his knowledge about Indigenous Australia culture from YouTube), that depicted Aboriginal culture and wanted to know where he could see this, the participant said he wasn’t sure he got that from the visit to the cultural village as noted below:

I didn’t really feel like I got how they lived, I don’t even know if now in Australia there are still people that live in that way…or if because the mix of culture…I don’t know is there somewhere that they live like this... (audio recording October 2016).

This participant struggled to reconcile what he thought of a mix of culture, rather than what he was expecting to see as an authentic Aboriginal portrayal of life. He commented that he thought that Aboriginal culture had been diluted when it was melded with the dominant culture and this participant made his view of this clear when he said:

I think the only way to keep on this stuff [he was referring to the different aspects of hunting and what tools were used in the performance and the overall culture of Australian Aboriginals] is to keep them separate. When you mix, there is one, in this case usually there is one that will destroy the other one. I think this is touristic stuff here… (audio recording October 2016).

In this instance this participant noted an authentic Indigenous Australian as being one that conformed to the interpretation shown in the movies he had seen, and not contained within the Indigenous people he interacted with in the cultural village. His version of how Indigenous Australians lived and what he was shown did not coincide with his perceived view of Australian Aboriginal life. This aligns with comments made by Banks (2013) that authenticity is context dependent, as the portrayal of Indigenous culture my participant had seen in movies and on YouTube was fabricated by producers and directors, while the lived translation of the Indigenous performers I interviewed in the rural and urban setting was markedly different.

The importance placed on authenticity by tourists is highlighted by Ypeij (2012). This author carried out work in Peru and discusses people known as ‘sacamefoto’ these are women who live in poor conditions, and previously sold their goods at markets. Tourists were always asking for their photos and they became upset when they started seeing their images on postcards. They began to ask for money to have their photo taken. They soon realised according to Ypeij, if they dressed in traditional clothing and stressed their indigeneity and made sure they had native llamas and children with them, they would be more likely to be asked for a photo. Ypeij tells readers the more the sacamefotos looked like the imagined figures of the tourist’s minds, the more money they were likely to receive for having their photo taken.

Interestingly these comments seem to meld with my experience as I returned to a cultural village one evening to interview some performers. As I walked towards the entrance of the village, I saw the performers farewelling three tourist buses filled with international students. These performers were all dressed in the traditional clothing worn throughout a tourist cultural experience. I was greeted warmly by one of the tour guides who was also a performer at the village. I had spent the previous day with her as we talked to two other tourists about her culture and what it represented to her to

77 be able to pass that knowledge, that she had been given by her ancestors, on to other people. This research participant was dressed in ceremonial clothing for the length of the tour and I spent a few hours with her after our interview as she sought me and two international tourists out, just to see how we were enjoying ourselves. Later that evening, I recorded the following notes in my field book:

At the end of the day around 5pm I was in the museum area of the cultural village … I heard someone call my name and turned around to see … [my participant] … I didn’t recognise her at first as she was wearing a pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. We chatted about our day and how she felt about wearing ceremonial clothing through the performances compared to what she routinely wore … [She] said ‘we need to dress like that, so we can show others what our ancestors wore’ (FB October 2016).

This participant felt it was crucial that the tourists understood and got a sense of how her ancestors had lived from the clothing they wore, to how they used different tools to hunt for game. There was no irony in her mind related to the clothes worn outside of her work hours at the cultural village and those she wore while trying to pass on ancestral knowledge to tourists. This research participant believed that wearing the ceremonial clothing offered ‘a more authentic experience to tourists’ (FB October 2016).

These comments about authenticity were like those of another participant who commented that it is ‘in the storytelling’ (audio recording October 2016) that the authenticity of Indigenous culture can be experienced. This participant considers himself to be a ‘translator’ of rock art rather than a tour guide. His goal is to pass on his father’s stories as he remembers them. When giving translations of the meanings of the rock art depictions, as far as he is concerned, he is giving tourists an authentic interpretation of the art work. In this respect we are made aware of the relational aspect of authenticity, in that this participant sees a connection between his translation of the art work and his father’s stories.

One of the research participants on a cultural tour and I were talking about how the tour was structured. This interlocutor said:

you couldn’t get more authentic than this, walking through the bush, crushing leaves and making soap and washing your hands, this is something my kids would not have the opportunity to learn in school. Its more authentic when you know the history is from his part of the world that his group were moved off [land from around the Cooktown area], then came back, [to Hopevale an Indigenous community 46 kilometres north-west of Cooktown] so yeah definitely think it means more when … ah … when someone is directly involved rather than a third party (audio recording September 2016).

Photograph 8: Soap making in Cooktown, Queensland. Photograph by author.

While this statement was made in a heartfelt manner, it would be possible to teach children how to make soap by crushing leaves in a classroom. However, as my participant pointed out the authenticity offered by an Indigenous person out on country, who had a strong connection to the caves where the rock art was, provided her children with an experience they would never forget, given a stage in their lives when they had never met an Indigenous person. These statements by this mother from Melbourne, Australia concur with my Indigenous tour guides’ comment about authenticity being in the storytelling.

Jumping Through Hoops to Get a Point Across

Performances are conducted by humans in every aspect of their lives daily, generally done without analysis or even giving the performance a second thought. In Indigenous tourism the word performance has different connotations than those manifested by day-to-day human actions. The Indigenous participants of this research view performance as a method used to share perceptions of their culture and one of my participants believes that performance is an integral aspect of Indigenous culture in Australia.

One of my International tourist research participants questioned the authenticity of a performance we saw, and I have noted his comments when he said:

I wonder if the performers are showing us tourists what they think the tourists want to see (audio recording October 2016).

It is this line of questioning that could bring up the underlying reasons why Indigenous people may struggle with becoming involved in tourism enterprises. They become enmeshed in the trap of authenticity while attempting to meet the demands of the tourists. However, being placed in situations where they need to show a version of indigeneity that the tourist expects to see, may be counterproductive to what type of portrayal they envisage as being important to share knowledge of their ancestors. Throughout our tour this international tourist did not make any derogatory comments about what we were shown or how the tour was conducted and seemed genuinely interested in trying to ascertain whether it was all ‘for show’. The interesting thing about this comment made to me in our interview was that he really wanted to know why the performances were chosen, though didn’t ask the tour-guide any questions about the actual performances. This international tourist had no problems asking other questions however, as the tour guide commented to me during our interview:

wow he asked 20,000 questions, I liked it, I liked being able to answer him and maybe have him feel like he knows a little about us…how to use the weapons and how it was for my ancestors (FB October 2016).

This international tourist’s comments accord with statements made by Travesi (2018), who discusses the recognition of knowledge by both the tour guide and the tourist. It

80 is in the knowing that the tourist will receive answers to the questions he sought, with the tour guide becoming the teacher and the tourist the student. Travesi tells her readers that ‘knowledge has value because it is what the tourists seek in the encounter, and it is what the guides promise to provide in their tours’ (Travesi 2018:5). Some of the questions this international tourist asked as we were escorted around the village were made relating to the spear throwing and what was the best way to throw a boomerang. These were questions that had more to do with the mechanics of how the tools were made and what types of animals were hunted by the tour guide’s ancestors, rather than questions about the dances we tourists were shown and what they meant.

Photograph 9: Performer at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. Photograph by author.

This highlighted to me the distinction between the types of heritage that are in the possession of those Indigenous people involved in tourism when considering the tangible and intangible heritage aspects of Indigenous tourism. The international

81 tourist who wondered about the authenticity of the performance noted earlier, was more interested with the tangible display of Indigenous culture, through the boomerang and spear throwing demonstrations than the intangible displays shown to the tourists like dancing and the creation story we were told at the beginning on the tour. Such attitudes could present challenges for a group of people who did not use the written word to pass on cultural heritage and rely upon storytelling to share knowledge of their ancestors.

Logan (2007) defines intangible heritage as something that is ‘embodied in people rather than inanimate objects’ (Logan 2007:33) while the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website (https://ich.unesco.org/en/what-is-intangible-heritage-00003) defines it as the expressions, representations, skills and knowledge recognized as elements of the cultural heritage of individuals or communities passed on from generation to generation. This is in complete contrast to the description of tangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. Tangible cultural heritage is depicted in monuments, historic places and buildings, as well as artefacts. Which given my research participants questions about the spears and boomerangs characterises where his interests lay.

The Indigenous people I interviewed who were performers at a cultural village choose what dances will be shown. The routine of what dances will be presented are decided upon when the performers meet to discuss any upcoming programme changes. In conversations I had with one of the head performers at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park (FB November 2016) we talked about how the dancers came to know the movements they portrayed on the stage. This research participant had been performing for over twenty years and that he had learned the dances within his community when he was a young man. I did not ask him how all the other performers came to know the dances they exhibited to the tourists. However, we did talk about what happens when different performers join the troupe who have other types of totems, which he described as being dependent on where they came from and what had been assigned to them by their families. The performances I saw during my fieldwork incorporated dances from the Daintree area and included the kangaroo, cassowary and mosquito dances. Throughout one of the performances I observed, the tourists were shown the ‘mosquito dance’. This is a dance that is led by the female performers, while the male performers danced at the back of the stage area and played

82 the drums and didgeridoo. Watching these performances enables the viewer to become aware of an empowering display of how females play a part in the storytelling. Throughout another dance sequence three women danced in a row alone on the stage. A male performer sat off to the side playing the didgeridoo while another male gave a commentary about what dance the women were doing, he said:

this dance is an imitation of the cassowary, the cassowary is a large flightless bird, lives here in our rainforest and near our beach land (audio recording November 2016).

It is worth noting the importance placed on ensuring both females and males were able to share with the audience the dances that each gender felt would enable this type of intangible heritage to be shown to tourists. When I interviewed a cultural heritage manager, he told me that the purpose of the meetings where they schedule which dances will be shown to the tourists, was to ensure an equal mix of male performances and female performances displayed, where possible. As I only attended two dance performances, I am unable to comment whether there was always this equal display of female and male roles played out in the stage performances.

The cultural village where I interviewed performers in 2016, had its inception in 1989 in a modest setting in the basement of a building 15 kilometres north west from where it is now situated, with only 7 dancers. During the performances I saw at the cultural village, there were up to 15 different people showcasing their own totem and appropriate dance. One of the performers and I were talking about how he feels when performing

I feel like when I dance I am transposed...I think about my Elders and my ancestors and I dance for them…I feel like I can get my point across when I wear the traditional clothing my ancestors wore as I perform…I like to make eye contact with the audience and nothing makes me feel better than to think I may be giving them goose bumps, that’s how I feel (FB October 2016).

When one of the head performers described to me how he felt and that he was the embodiment of his ancestors when he danced, made me reflect on how much self- determination the performers can exhibit. In that they can choose what dances are shown and can display degrees of self-assurance, as noted by this participant when

83 he said he can look the tourists in the eye. This was the second time I had heard an Indigenous person involved in tourism speak like this. Both research participants from completely different geographical areas and family groups, believed it was their involvement in tourism that gave them the courage to look a non-Indigenous person in eye and speak to them in a manner described by one of my research participants as being ‘on the same level’. This shows a sense of agency which I will discuss in further paragraphs. This performer told me he feels like the main purpose of showing his creation story is to pass that knowledge on to others. This was a common thread with all the Indigenous research participants I interviewed, whether they were tour guides, performers or artists.

I asked two of my research participants what their thoughts were on wearing traditional clothing throughout their dance performances and they both told me that they understand getting dressed in ceremonial clothing and dancing is very far removed from how they act and dress in their daily lives. Though it was important to them that they show the tourists how their ancestors told stories and they stated that while things can be written in books that is not how their ancestors were made aware of their family connections. Information about these family connections were passed on through oral traditions. Wearing the ceremonial clothing as they performed was important for my research participants as it allows them to be able to walk in both worlds, the one their ancestors did and the one they must operate in an Australian modern society. This is an interesting point, given the ceremonial clothing they wear at the cultural village could be deemed as being antiquarian and completely out of place and time in the 21st century.

The performances offered showing dances and how to use spears and boomerangs were conducted by people wearing ceremonial clothing in the cultural village. While interviewing a tour guide at another cultural village I was struck between the variations of those who dress up in their traditional clothing and perform and those who wear a different type of uniform, a guide’s uniform of a short-sleeved cotton shirt and a pair of shorts. Both offer a performance throughout each tourism experience. The reason behind mentioning the clothing is to highlight the expectations placed on those who ‘perform’ a dance on a stage or those who offer a method of using Indigenous tools and those who wore comfortable clothing for walking through the rainforest while

84 conducting their cultural habitat tours. I made these notes in my field book at the end of the day on the return to my accommodation:

It’s interesting to note the different clothing worn by those offering the cultural tours that involved walking through the rainforest or along the beaches, compared to those who dance and show how the tools were used at the cultural village. I wonder what the reaction of tourists would be if those offering the rainforest and beach tours wore the same grass skirts as they conducted their tours, as those who are doing the dances in the cultural villages. Do they wear these different types of clothing to meet what they believe are the expectations of the tourists? (FB October 2016).

Photograph 10: Ceremonial clothing worn during performances. Photograph by author.

This was a line of enquiry I did not follow up specifically, though I did reflect on whether it was to do with, as one of the performers stated, he wore those clothes to get the point across about his ancestors, while those who conducted the cultural habitat tours possibly relied on the physical environment as they went about the storytelling of their ancestors without the need to dress in a stereotypical fashion. These queries were similar to ones made by the information tourist centre employee I interviewed from Kuranda in Chapter Three.

Authenticity, Performance and Indigeneity for Sale: On Their Own Terms

This chapter considered these questions: how tourists perceive the authenticity of Indigenous performances and what are the effects of the stereotypical views of indigeneity that tourists come to expect from their Indigenous tourism experience.

I argue that the authenticity of an Indigenous tourism experience depends on the point- of-view of the person who is involved. Authenticity is a complex concept and is grounded in what lens you are using to examine the idea. Media portrayal of what a tourist should expect to see as an authentic Indigenous experience, whether that is in relation to artwork, cultural tours or how Indigenous people should act is often far removed from the actuality of everyday Indigenous life. This can lead to tourists feeling as though they have not had an authentic cultural experience or questioning what they have been shown. During my research, I recorded a range of views from non- Indigenous participants that varied between those who did not think you could get a more authentic Indigenous tourism experience than the one that had been involved in, to openly wondering whether what they were being shown was being manipulated to please what the Indigenous performers may have believed the tourists wanted to see.

In contrast, Indigenous research participants in tourism enterprises emphasised that authenticity resided in Indigenous peoples’ control of the representations of indigeneity. As one participant put it: his translation of rock art highlights for him the authenticity of his cultural habitat tours. As he noted it was in his interpretation of his ancestors’ rock art that gave his clients an authentic Indigenous experience. Wearing authentic ceremonial clothing throughout the work day for one of my research participants was necessary to ensure the tourist received an authentic Indigenous experience, while she was also adamant in her views that she was who she was, regardless of what she wore (FB October 2016).

In conclusion Indigenous participants involved in tourism are expected to offer tourists an ideal of indigeneity that does not normally involve their regular movements and actions. These performers ‘put on a show’ to share perceptions of their culture to others. The intangible characteristics of performance can create challenges for tourists. This was highlighted when one of my research participants noted he was more comfortable discussing the tangible aspects of the tour with things like spears

86 and boomerangs and how they were used by the Indigenous performers ancestors, than questioning the authenticity of the intangible heritage, like the creation story we were told at the beginning of the tour.

Tourists’ perceptions of authenticity are made malleable by people such as some of the tourist information centres mentioned above who would offer a stereotypical view of indigeneity. I have shown how Indigenous tourism enterprises and the success of these businesses can be constrained by perceptions of ‘authentic’ and ‘in-authentic’ culture. The perceptions of tourists noted in this thesis is an important aspect to consider as there can be a direct effect on the economic outcomes of those Indigenous participants involved in tourism enterprise.

Chapter Five: Walking Our Own Path

This chapter will consider the links between agency as noted in the previous chapter, self-determination, and the commodification of culture and how this intersects with the economic and cultural aspirations of Indigenous tourism participants discussed in Chapter Two. This chapter engages with work carried out by a scholar of communication and anthropological literature.

In what may be considered an unorthodox manner, at least in terms of anthological and tourism studies scholarly work I would like to discuss Kurdi (2014) and agency. Kurdi is a Professor of Wireless Networks and Communication from Saudi Arabia. Kurdi (2014) offers a compelling piece of writing when she discusses how closed- circuit television (CCTV) is used to obtain data that can provide information for infrastructure in many countries. What is interesting about this is it highlights how the agency of all individuals is removed as they have no say over when or where they will be monitored. This idea will be developed in the following pages.

All individuals have the power to exercise agency according to Page & Petray (2016), however even these authors note the inequality of that power distribution in relation to Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. While Giddens (1984) work on structuration theory will be used to develop ideas I will note specifically about agency in the paragraphs below.

Webb (2012) notes that both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (ICSECR) state that, ‘all peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development’ (Webb 2012:81). This self-determination is an issue for Indigenous Australians as it is the social and cultural development aspect of these words that belie what is happening in Indigenous Australian lives. This is evidenced by the disparities noted in the ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) policy.

The concept of self-determination noted by Webb (2012) is engaging given the link to agency and identity. Identity as an idea is noted in work carried out by Galliford (2010). This author examines the complexities for both non-indigenous and Indigenous

Australians as both of these groups of people attempt to discern where their identity lies in comparison to the ‘Other’. I will comment on the similarities between some of his research participants statements and the research participants I worked with that are written about in Chapter Three.

As I build on Chapter Four themes and the connection between authenticity and the commodification of culture, I would like to comment on a study conducted by Dennis Foley, an Australian Aboriginal academic. The authenticity of a performance is bought into light in a paper written by Foley (2014) on the commodification of Indigenous culture through a musical instrument called the didgeridoo. In this paper this author notes how this instrument is being used all over Australia and is often used to represent an Australian Aboriginal connection. When in fact Foley states the didgeridoo was ‘once geographically isolated to Northern Australia and deemed sacred to many’ (Foley 2014:2). This comment shows similarities with Ballengee- Morris’s (2002) work done on Native Americans in Chapter Four.

I will be drawing on both Hitchcock (2005) and Bunten’s (2010) work that engages with the commodification of culture. These authors will be used to demonstrate the manner that some Indigenous communities use this commodification to increase their economic situation.

A study carried out by Foley (2011) will also highlight how other Indigenous people, such as the Maoris from New Zealand, have been put in a position that demonstrates how an involvement in tourism has commodified their culture. I will discuss a link to the economic advancement the New Zealand government hoped to see for the Maoris and the Australian government’s strategy from the ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) policy.

However, to begin this chapter I would like to reader to consider the ensuing question.

Can it be possible for any individual to say they truly have agency over their own lives? We may live in a democratic society in the Western world in Australia, though almost every move we make is monitored in some way. Whether that is through the government and CCTV scanning our habits on public roads and transports systems. Some might say the results of which are then used to manipulate what routes we take in our daily travels (see, e.g., Kurdi 2014) or social media companies that have access to our personal data and even down to what decisions we make about lifestyle choices

(see e.g., social media sites such as Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/). In general this type of constant monitoring is not unknown to Indigenous Australians.

I would argue that non-Indigenous Australians who comprise the population of the post-settler society since colonisation (see, e.g., Page & Petray 2016) are not under these same restrictions over their agency to act with a sense of power compared to non-Indigenous Australians. As they do not have to follow the same conditions as Indigenous Australians as must prove their indigeneity to receive funding or grants to establish tourism businesses, businesses that would allow a sense of agency and even self-determination.

To some degree there are greater restrictions placed on Indigenous Australians than those who came after colonisation, in that there is no expectation for these people to justify their connections to family groups to receive government funding to start a tourism enterprise. This business funding provided by the government removes a sense of agency for these Indigenous individuals. As the control over Indigenous peoples lives is handed over to government bodies, as they justify their indigeneity to receive help in their attempts to become Indigenous tourism business owners, self- employed and self-sufficient citizens who would then be able to take a positive stand in reducing unemployment figures.

Notwithstanding the disparities noted in the ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) policy, post- settler society individuals, are different to Indigenous Australians in that they are not made to perform or act in an authentic way for a version of their culture to be remembered. This is in part due to western cultures not relying on oral histories and having the capacity to record their histories in a written format. In this section I would like to discuss the juxtaposition of the meaning of agency for Indigenous tourism participants, as they are caught up in situations where they are expected to fulfil a tourist’s stereotypical perception, while in turn also taking control over what is shown of their culture to tourists.

Giddens (1984) uses a structuration theory which discusses a combination of structure and agency. This section of the thesis draws mainly on agency as a concept. However, as Giddens states:

the basic domain of the social sciences, according to the theory of structuration, is neither the experience of the individual actor, nor any form of societal totality, but social practices ordered through time and space (Giddens 1984:2)

Therefore, while there are structural conditions operating in touristic performances, I would argue that agency for Indigenous individuals would play a larger role in the lives of these entrepreneurs and those involved in tourism, as they use their power to try and ensure they are not objectified as they go about their interactions with tourists. These individuals are in control of what they choose to show tourists. Even though the consideration of what a tourist expects to see during a performance or how they participate must be heeded, there is a degree of self-determination applied as the Indigenous tourism participant chooses what will be shown and shared to non- Indigenous tourists. They are empowered in these exchanges of sharing their culture with non-Indigenous tourists who may never have had the opportunity to interact with an Indigenous person.

The individuals I interviewed who were involved in tourism enterprises show degrees of agency even as they must conform to a stereotype expected by tourists. Evidence of this agency can be witnessed through the interactions these people have with tourists as they go about their daily work schedules. These Indigenous people are in control of what information about their culture they choose to share with non- Indigenous tourists.

Working in Indigenous cultural villages in the Far North East of Queensland, allows for a type of agency that could be argued does not exist for those Indigenous people living in remote communities with no access to tourism infrastructure. This access to main areas already set aside for tourism by Tourism Australia allows for the employment of Indigenous people and is noted by Bunten as providing the ability for a ‘commitment to community needs and goals’ (Bunten 2010:295). This commitment she mentions was highlighted in a conversation I had with one of my research participants from a cultural village, which I will note here:

basically, we are all related, we have nieces and nephews and aunties and uncles all here from our community…working our way up the ladder…everyone from the community wants to work here, the tribal council has a voice as to who works here…the little ones from the community they grow up learning the

language and the dances…we have about 80 -100 team members (audio recording October 2016).

The employment offered by this cultural village allows its Indigenous team members the opportunity to have a say in how their culture is depicted through dance and the interaction with tourists. This permits circumstances which enables their ancestral stories to be told through an Indigenous lens. Having this control is different from the narrative depicted in the picture below of a group of Indigenous people, who in the past had been ‘acted’ upon and had little control over how they lived their lives.

Photograph 11: Museum at Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. Photo by author.

As with the cultural village employees and the cultural habitat tour guides, an artist I interviewed while on field work exhibited a type of agency. While at the same time operating under the constraints of Giddens (1984) structuration theory discussed earlier. In that the building and the funding institutions of the government bodies who provide resources for the tourism participants working at UMI cause them to be fettered to the power of those institutions. I would argue however, they are able to

92 exhibit a degree of agency as they choose which items will be displayed for sale to the tourists in their gallery. The UMI art gallery in Cairns is managed by one of the research participants. His role in this organisation is to focus on creating opportunities for member artists. He completed an Arts degree at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney with the intention of going back to his community in the Far North of Queensland, in Bamaga, to set up an arts centre in Cape York. However, he was offered a position as the Indigenous Development Manager at UMI, an offer he accepted. He stated that he thought he would be able to help more artists working at UMI.

My participant said the gallery was established in 2005 and prior to this there was nowhere in Cairns for the exclusive display of Indigenous handcrafts and artwork. The items for sale in the gallery include jewellery, paintings, musical compact discs and handmade souvenirs. This participant said there is a mix of both domestic and international tourists who stop in at the gallery, and that the international tourists, who generally call in on their way to the airport do not spend much time browsing in the gallery. Unlike the domestic tourist, both interstate and local who tend to go to see the exhibitions. During our interview he had this to say about tourism and art galleries:

because of how Cairns is…you know we have that influx of tourists coming in and out…I would say there is a mixed bag of both international and domestic buyers…we had a refurbishment in 2013 after we got funding from the government…we are fully reliant on funding here, we are a not-for profit company and we get Federal monies, Australia Council and Arts Queensland … and now we have the two front galleries which used to be the shop…we have a music studio out the back…this enables us to put more programmes on…we just received some monies for the next four years from Arts Queensland and I think we got some monies from Australia Council for four years as well…and last year Federal monies came through for wages and that…so we are secured for the next four years, so we gotta work harder…we only bring in Indigenous contractors to help set up the exhibitions and volunteers and interns to give them the training…(audio recording October 2016).

These members of UMI operated with agency as they determine what will be done with their artworks and how they will be displayed. This gallery only shows Indigenous work and my participant said it is good, as the other galleries around town can be hard to get in to. The people that run the non-Indigenous galleries can be very selective with what they show, which makes it difficult for the Indigenous artists. He later said:

whereas if you become a member here the shop is yours…those exhibitions and stuff…artists who work in the shop they do get sales…we don’t look after artists who are outside of the region…so it is only for us that have blood connection ties to the area…we got some stats [statistics] through yesterday that said 56 individual artists sold things last year…(audio recording October 2016).

This comment made about the sales achieved by Indigenous artists exhibiting their work in UMI points to an economic benefit from working in the tourism industry, while providing an opportunity for Indigenous artists to take control of how their work is displayed. Even as these artists have agency in relation to determining what they will produce and who will be the recipients of these works, they are caught in a situation where they commodify their culture in order to achieve this agency.

One challenge that my participant noted was one that was very similar to a different participant who opened their own tourism business. Both people struggled with the business skills needed to enable them to enter a tourism business. These constraints did not deter them from trying and then ultimately becoming successful entrepreneurs, however, what it did highlight was having agency and control over your immediate environment is more complex in a business setting.

Within the context of Indigenous tourism, identity is closely aligned with agency. One of my research participants stressed the importance of ‘knowing who you are’ (audio recording October 2016). We were discussing the control he has over what is sold in the cultural village he worked in and he said:

maintaining our identity is paramount to us…we are in a business that is a cultural business not a business showing culture…culture comes first, it is in our DNA…our identity is who we are at work…I tell the tourists there are as many languages in Europe as there are different Aboriginal languages in

Australia…I like to let them know that we are Aboriginal though we are from different places…there is no stereotypical Aboriginal person, there are purplish black Aboriginals from the desert and then suntanned people like me from the shade of the Rainforest (audio recording October 2016).

This thesis does not deal with the specifics around the degree of differences in each family group, though I wanted to note an interesting comment this participant made about identity. He was speaking about multi-racial marriages and said:

in this modern era the Aboriginal DNA is being diluted…people can choose to marry who they want if they have the Elders blessing and there are assurances that the bloodlines are not close between the people...this is different to when arranged marriages took place (audio recording October 2016).

In the context of this conversation there seems to be a lack of agency on the part of those involved in, what this participant described as ‘arranged marriages’. What is noteworthy of commenting on is, one of my other male Indigenous research participants who was around the same age at 55 years, spoke about how his grandparents were introduced at a young age and told they would be married when they grew up. He said:

well it was lucky for them that they ended up liking each other… cause they had seven kids (audio recording November 2016).

These comments relate to how strongly each participant felt that tourists knew that not all Aboriginal people were from the same place or followed the same conditions when getting married and that all Indigenous people were different. While still ensuring their identity was maintained. One of my other research participants told me ‘the more you learn about Aboriginal Australia shows how different and diverse we are’ (FB November 2016).

The topic of varied groups of Aboriginals came up again with a different participant when he said to me:

aboriginal culture is a good thing, the more you can learn about all Aboriginal people around Australia the better grounding you will have… with you know understanding… you know how diverse we are, I think it would be great if there

was Aboriginal tourism all across Australia though cause it’s such a big place there are a lot of remote areas that tourists just can’t get to (audio recording October 2016).

I mention this to note how important it was to these research participants that they can tell their life story from their own point of view and to share it with others, which demonstrates Giddens (1984) and Page & Petray’s (2016) discussion about the theory of agency.

The commodification of culture through the sale of the mass-produced souvenirs in the cultural village as discussed in a previous chapter, removes agency, also noted by Bunten, from the Indigenous participants according to one of my interviewees, as they have no control over what is sold in the guise of an authentic Indigenous made product. And the discussion of the commodification of indigeneity brought out many interesting discussions with my research participants. Some believing it is necessary, to ensure there is an economic benefit to those involved in Indigenous tourism, and some vehemently stating culture and indigeneity should not be commodified. In some, but not all instances, these variations of opinions were between those who offered for sale to the public material goods and those who offered cultural habitat tours. The degrees of outlook from different people were as varied as can be imagined for the human condition. One of my research participants related how important is was to him that culture was not commodified as he stated:

I really wanted to take people on full day tours to give them …ah how do you say it...a more personalised tour and teach people about how we live today…and the struggles my grandfather and grandmother and family had to go through to get to us where we are today…to give people a real sort of tour instead of going through and showing them just basic bush medicine and bush tucker… to make it more about… you know family orientated, more personal…I don’t want it to be commodified…it’s a culture and you can’t really commodify that…it’s more about that educational…and experience for tourists…it shouldn’t become a commodity it’s a culture…not something you can buy from a shop (audio recording October 2016).

The main purpose of conducting Indigenous tours for this participant, lay in passing information about his culture on to other people and this is noted here when he said:

I travelled overseas and wanted to learn about other people’s culture and I realised that just wasn’t available where we went [he didn’t stipulate where he went travelling to] so I came home [to Australia] and I wanted to do that in my Homelands [this participant meant where he came from and where he lived]…once you learn a bit more about your own culture it gives you self- esteem…and you start to feel proud about who you are and where you’re from…(audio recording October 2016).

For this participant the importance of his Indigenous tourism enterprise was in sharing his culture with others. He runs a very busy and successful tourism business and the way he feels about sharing his knowledge comes across in his tours. His tours are generally well-patronised and the reviews you can access online about his tours are all glowing. For this research participant educating tourists about Australian Indigenous identities was an important aspect of his tours.

Interestingly comments made by one of my research participants that are noted in Chapter Three and those mentioned above, echo statements from studies conducted by Galliford (2010). Galliford asserts that tourists desired a ‘personal engagement with Aboriginal people connected to the tours’ (Galliford 2010:230). There is an innate type of intimacy as people make these connections. Galliford describes it as ‘an intimacy borne of intercultural engagement’ (Galliford 2010:230). An engagement that blends different identities together while at the same time allowing for the concept of Indigenous identity to be separate.

Photograph 12: Tour guide at the Mossman Gorge Centre. Photo by author.

The concept of identity is socially constructed. This concept is something that Indigenous Australians must prove to enable them access to government funds and other bodies (see comments about UMI membership and family groups in Chapter Three). Having control over the representation of Indigenous culture as those who work in the art gallery at UMI offers these Indigenous Australians a type of agency. Agency is also demonstrated by those Indigenous tourism participants who chose where, in relation to what areas they will take tourists on their guided walks, and what performances they will choose to be shown to tourists from dance performances. This enables these research participants the opportunity to determine in what format, how much and to what degree their culture will be displayed. I would argue this allows for a type of agency in these situations.

Given the complexities involved related to portraying a version of indigeneity to fulfil stereotypical perceptions of Indigenous culture leads me to ponder this question: can the agency exhibited by those Indigenous participants working in successful tourism

98 enterprises be strong enough to ensure the balance of power between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is equitable in the context of tourism participation?

Or does the commodification of the culture of Indigenous people through tourism, which can be argued, as something that neither happens in all occurrences of Indigenous tourism or only rarely, the point is that it does happen, shift that power balance? When it does it skews the power balance. The issue of the commodification of Indigenous culture is when it happens and under what conditions.

Commodifying culture it seems has long been the purvey of governments who have an Indigenous population within its societies members. This is demonstrated by Foley (2011) when he discusses work carried out in New Zealand. Foley (2011) notes that there was an increase in tourism in the early 1900’s in that country and that ‘New Zealand thus became the first nation in the world to create a government department dedicated to the marketing and development of its natural and cultural resources, which included Indigenous peoples’ (Foley 2011:179-80). The economic gain for that country by commercialising their Indigenous people through tourism, shows a similarity to the Australian governments recommendation in the ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) policy, which suggests that an involvement in tourism will increase the economic situation of Australian Indigenous people.

It is interesting to note there are two opposite ideas relating to this concept of the commodification of Indigenous culture within the narratives of my research participants in the Cairns region. The representation of Indigenous identity is wrapped up in the souvenirs for sale in the areas where an aspect of indigeneity is for sale. The products available for purchase to tourists bear a resemblance to the perception of indigeneity shown on tourism websites, through the portrayal of indigeneity in the media and throughout the tourist information centres in and around the Cairns region. However, they are mass produced overseas and sold in tourist hotspots as though authentic. One of the research participants was adamant that Indigenous Australians do not commodify their culture, while others believe doing so is what helps them achieve their financial goals. The sale of mass-produced souvenirs removes Indigenous agency, as they have no control over what is sold in the guise of authenticity.

The marketing of an Indigenous product can be done not only through direct sales to tourists, it can also be done when an Indigenous person uses cultural items for

99 economic gain. There are many challenges facing Australian Aboriginal people as they attempt to navigate the issue of portraying an authentic depiction of their culture. Foley (2014) comments on this in his paper about the widespread use of the didgeridoo in Australia. This author deliberates on the effects on authentic Indigenous culture when both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people use this musical instrument. He states that the didgeridoo was geographically linked to Northern Australia with many constraints placed on its use in regard to who, how and when it should be used. However, the playing of this instrument that was ‘beamed into the living rooms of millions of viewers internationally, becoming the dominant artifact of Aboriginal culture in the opening ceremony’ (Foley 2014:5) of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. This spectacle was organised by Tourism Australia and included over 1000 Australian Aboriginal performers, see other work on highlighting heritage as a selling point (Galliford 2010, Marcus 1997). Clear evidence of the New South Wales governments attempt to try and develop the image of tourism in Australia using it’s Indigenous inhabitants. This could be argued, in a manner that was culturally inappropriate given Foley’s comments about digeridoos being isolated geographically to Northern Australia and not New South Wales.

Linking back to comments made in Chapter Four by Hitchcock (2005) relating to rock art provides a completely opposite result to the thoughts of one of my research participants who discussed how a community went to great lengths to safeguard an area where rock art had been discovered, thus he [the participant] said that helped to ensure it never became public knowledge. The traditional people in the locality did not want the area overrun with visitors looking at the rock art as is noted when my participant said:

I will definitely not register that find …[he was referring to rock art that had been discovered up in the mountains near where we were driving and an international tourist asked him if he would tell anyone about it] ...next thing you know there would be a boardwalk going around it…some things are better left alone…there are six traditional families here and if they want to take their kids up to see them that’s fine…I’m allowed to take photos of it and for people like yourselves [the tourists on the bus] I can get a printout of it and show you here on the bus (audio recording October 2016).

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This dialogue provided one instance of control over what would be shown to tourists and how commodifying the rock art for economic gain was not up for consideration by these family group members my participant was talking about.

An interesting point to make about this research participants reluctance to register the rock art, is that these six traditional owner family groups were able to make that decision, which exhibits individual agency, even though they are a group of traditional owners, without having to consult others who may have had an interest in the site. This may not be the situation if rock art were discovered in one of the cultural villages of Mossman Gorge or Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, given both of these enterprises are co-operatives. The act of not registering this find with government agencies shows a degree of agency which I would argue is not possible for those individuals involved in a co-operative tourism venture.

This chapter’s conclusion considers the way the agency of Indigenous tourism participants is affected in this exchange of information about their culture to tourists. Having command over what performances are shown in the cultural villages and where tourists will be taken on nature walks displays Indigenous agency. Though an agency that is at the mercy of those tourists who are the recipients of a cultural heritage knowledge exchange. This is related to the position Indigenous tourism participants find themselves in, as they fulfil the stereotypical view of their ancestral lives that has been depicted in different types of media forms.

I have discussed some examples of agency for the artists who have control over what artwork will be displayed in an Indigenous art gallery in Cairns. While also offering discussions about the connection to agency and identity as they were noted by more than one of my Indigenous research participants. Having a say over how their identity is displayed was commented on as them having agency over their lives, far more, one of my research participants noted than their grandparents who lived on a mission. Commodifying culture was something one of my research participants stated should not happen as culture is not for sale, they stated it was not something that can be bought from a shop (audio recording November 2016).

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Chapter Six: Conclusion

In this thesis I have considered the cultural dynamics of people who are involved in Indigenous tourism by addressing the question: How is Indigenous participation in tourism enterprises affecting Indigenous culture and what are the cultural dynamics of Indigenous tourism businesses? I have looked through the lens of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants involved in tourism. Chapter Two draws upon views and responses of Indigenous participants as I considered three aspects of the economic and cultural aspirations of Indigenous people involved in tourism. Chapter Three utilises data from non-Indigenous informants as I considered marketplace expectations of tourists and tourism centre employees. In Chapter Four both Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives are considered and in Chapter Five I finish using the same Indigenous lens as used in Chapter Two.

The comments of the research participants make clear that in general they placed as much emphasis on the cultural outcomes of involvement in tourism as they did the economic outcomes. While the research participants acknowledge the value of having a good education and a steady income, which some commented on as enabling them to achieve the goal of home ownership, these interviewees asserted that passing on ancestral knowledge to other cultures was a priority to them. All the Indigenous Australian people I interviewed involved in tourism enterprises held the view that it is imperative they maintain their relatedness to their culture. At times tensions within their communities developed as they tried to navigate the necessary skills needed to succeed in tourism enterprises.

Unconscious/cultural biases and cultural dynamics can have a bearing on Indigenous tourism. I considered the effects of these attributes and processes as I posed the question in Chapter Three: What are the effects of marketplace expectations on Indigenous tourism participants? Commoditising indigeneity to meet preconceived notions of an authentic Aboriginal experience highlighted the challenges faced by Indigenous participants involved in tourism.

There are many challenges I have noted that could have a direct impact on the economic success of a tourism business. For example, the comments made about media portrayal and stereotypical movies that offer a skewed view of what it means to

102 be Indigenous. Therefore, at least in the view of some of my international tourists, creating in their imagination what they expect to see while participating in Indigenous tourism activities. Some concerning conversations with non-Indigenous people working in tourist information centres showed, how easily tourists could have been deterred from visiting certain Indigenous-run businesses. I concluded that this could adversely affect the agency Indigenous people may have over their lives both economically and culturally.

I have considered this question: how do tourists perceive the authenticity of Indigenous performances? To try to discern an answer to this I looked at how stereotypical views of indigeneity affect the lives of Indigenous tourism participants and what effect does this have on their agency. I have argued that the perceptions of authenticity are complex, relational and subjective. I noted three situations which highlighted the adverse repercussions for Aboriginal people involved in tourism. I concluded that tourists’ expectation of how an Indigenous performance should be carried out can remove the agency from Indigenous tourism participants.

I have noted that the Indigenous research participants I interviewed believed they had a sense of control over their lives, certainly more so than their parents and grandparents who had been subject to forcible relocation and other forms of discrimination. The research participants emphasised how their forebears had worked the sugar cane farms for no financial remuneration and only for the access to food rations in the stead of financial gains as an illustration of their lack of agency. Taking control over how they interacted with tourists allows the research participants the freedom to portray their culture through their own storytelling and translation and is what the research participants believed enabled them a sense of agency.

In a cultural exchange the power balance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can affect the agency of those Indigenous Australians involved in tourism. This can at times be alleviated as we consider the control actioned by the artists at the UMI gallery as they determine what will be displayed and then sold to international and domestic tourists.

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Discussion on findings

I began this thesis by noting that the importance placed on using Indigenous tourism as an economic development tool in policies like COAG’s ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) and strategies like the IEDS by Australian governments, does not take into consideration the larger range of issues posed by Indigenous tourism, including the cultural aspirations of people involved in tourism. Policy makers should not disregard the distinct nature of Australian Indigenous culture when implementing policies and strategies. Dismissing the expectations of tourists and the effects of the power tourism centre employees have in relation to advising tourists which Indigenous tours to participate in, can also have negative effects on the economic viability of Indigenous tourism enterprise. Another aspect of these negative effects are the stereotypical views of what it means to offer an authentic Indigenous tourism experience. The commodification of culture which is I argue is at the baseline of those policies and strategies to reduce the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, carried with it as many differing viewpoints as would be expected were we try to compartmentalise any group of humans. Some of the research participants believed it was the only way they would be able to increase their economic situation, while others held the attitude that culture is not for sale and therefore should not be commodified.

While I had only interviewed a small sample group of Indigenous business owners and others who were employed in tourism enterprises, in that there were roughly the same amount interviewed as there were tourists, the data points to an issue that government policies do not consider the importance of ensuring there are procedures in place that would benefit Indigenous people starting up new businesses, by providing feedback sessions with those Indigenous people who are given government grants. As discussed in Chapter Two, businesses that had received government funding to provide opportunities for those Indigenous people becoming involved in tourism enterprises are too often left to their own devices with a lack of follow-up by government agencies, even after someone had been placed in employment in the tourism industry. I have noted the different approach taken by the ILSC operation at the Mossman Gorge Centre which has a training facility on site.

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There is a dearth of mentoring available for Indigenous people embarking on careers in tourism in employment directly provided by the government agency of Centrelink, a scarcity which severely limits the efficacy of policies that would utilise cultural tourism to alleviate Indigenous socioeconomic disadvantage. This absence of mentors could be addressed by making provisions through Centrelink for sufficient case workers to support Indigenous entrants to the tourism industry. If this government agency were to follow the example of the co-operative run businesses like the Mossman Gorge Centre and the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park there would be a higher success rate of those individuals continuing in the employment of local tourist businesses’. The exasperation I felt about this lack of basic business acumen on the government departments part relating to their role of helping to secure employment for Indigenous people as one of the key points of the ‘Closing the Gap’ (2007) policy, was only made more incredulous as I discovered what seemed to be a complete lack of cultural awareness and training from those tourism centre employees I had encountered through my fieldwork. The comments made by those tourism workers will stay with me as I struggle to understand how this type of behaviour is not deemed as out of touch as the once popular White Australia Policy with the stereotypical views that abounded in those acts.

Future research

This field of study would benefit from more in-depth research by anthropologists and not just academics in the tourism sector. The topic may also benefit from work carried out with non-Indigenous tourism operators and how they present Aboriginal culture.

Implications of the work for future research

As noted by Finlayson, Altman and others mentioned above, there is a gap in the anthropological literature that addresses the impacts of Indigenous tourism on those who participate in that enterprise. Further research in this topic would benefit from a multidisciplinary approach that would encompass not only anthropologists, though could include those who study the field of business and incorporating tourism scholars. This would enable an opportunity for policy makers to utilise the expertise available for the decision-making processes that could then culminate in policies that combine an economic benefit as well as ensuring cultural considerations are reflected and observed.

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Appendices

Ethics approval

116

Participant Information Sheet

117

Participant Consent Form

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Tables of research participants

Table 1

This table demonstrates a breakdown of tourist research participants.

Female Male Domestic International Age 14 12 5 21 22-55 Total 26

Table 2

This table indicates the demographics of those research participants involved in tourism enterprises overall.

Female Male Indigenous Non- Owner- Co- Age Indigenous operated operative owned 12 11 12 11 3 2 30-65 Total 23

Table 3

This table shows research participants which include tour operators/tour guides, performers, cultural heritage managers, artists, gatekeepers, and community workers/tourist centre employees. Some of the research participants conducted their participation in tourism enterprises which involved more than one aspect, for example in some instances they were both tour guides and performers.

Tour Performers Cultural Artists Gatekeepers Community operators/ heritage workers/ tour guides managers tourist centre employees 6 5 3 1 2 11

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Questions for research participants

Tour guides

Where did you find information about how to start your own business?

How do you think the business is received by international and domestic tourists?

Tourists

Where did you locate your knowledge about this tour?

How do you feel about indigenous people being tour guides?

What would you prefer to see on tours?

Cultural Village Manager

How do you choose what items go on display for sale?

What is the impetus behind selecting the shows for the performers to perform?

Performers

How do you feel about the shows you perform?

What do you hope the tourists who come to watch your shows take away with them?

Art gallery managers

What was your motivation to become involved with UMI cultural organisation?

Where do you get the art works from?

Art gallery owner

How did you start your first art gallery business?

How do you determine what art works will be shown and sold?

Retail owners

How do you determine what stock will be sold whether it is indigenous made or produced on mass?

How are do you invoice hand made goods?

Retail consumers

What are your thoughts on indigenous made souvenirs?

How does it make you feel when you see mass produced items for sale marked as indigenous products?

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