Sustaining Indigenous Cultural Tourism Aboriginal Pathways, Cultural Centres and Dwellings in the Queensland Wet Tropics

SUSTAINING INDIGENOUS CULTURAL TOURISM ABORIGINAL PATHWAYS, CULTURAL CENTRES AND DWELLINGS IN THE QUEENSLAND WET TROPICS By Tim O'Rourke and Paul Memmott SUSTAINING INDIGENOUS CULTURAL TOURISM TECHNICAL REPORTS The technical report series present data and its analysis, meta-studies and conceptual studies and are considered to be of value to industry, government and researchers. Unlike the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre’s Monograph series, these reports have not been subjected to an external peer review process. As such, the scientific accuracy and merit of the research reported here is the responsibility of the authors, who should be contacted for clarifications of any content. Author contact details are at the back of this report. EDITORS Prof Chris Cooper University of Queensland Editor-in-Chief Prof Terry De Lacy Sustainable Tourism CRC Chief Executive Prof Leo Jago Sustainable Tourism CRC Director of Research National Library of Australia Cataloguing in Publication Data O'Rourke, Tim. Sustaining indigenous cultural tourism : aboriginal pathways, cultural centres and dwellings in the Queensland wet tropics. Bibliography. ISBN 1 920704 74 4. 1. Heritage tourism - Queensland, Northern. 2. Business enterprises, Aboriginal Australian - Queensland, Northern. 3. Sustainable development - Queensland, Northern. I. Memmott, Paul. II. Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism. III. Title. 338.47919436 Copyright © CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty Ltd 2005 All rights reserved. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. Any enquiries should be directed to Brad Cox, Communications Manager ([email protected]) or Trish O’Connor, Publishing Manager ([email protected]). ii Aboriginal Pathways, Cultural Centres and Dwellings in the Queensland Wet Tropics CONTENTS ABSTRACT_____________________________________________________________________________ V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ________________________________________________________________ V SUMMARY ____________________________________________________________________________ VI CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________ 1 AIM AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY _______________________________________________________________ 2 RESEARCH METHODS ______________________________________________________________________ 3 THE TRADITIONAL CAMPSITES AND DWELLINGS OF THE DYIRBAL TRIBES ______________________________ 3 CHAPTER 2 ABORIGINAL CULTURAL TOURISM_________________________________________ 5 INDIGENOUS CULTURAL TOURISM_____________________________________________________________ 5 Australian Literature Sources _____________________________________________________________ 5 Overview of Indigenous Cultural Tourism in Australia _________________________________________ 5 Control of Tourism Products_____________________________________________________________ 12 Demand for Indigenous Cultural Tourism___________________________________________________ 12 THE BENEFITS OF INDIGENOUS CULTURAL TOURISM _____________________________________________ 12 Economic Opportunities of Indigenous Groups ______________________________________________ 12 The Promotion of Self-determination ______________________________________________________ 12 Cross-Cultural Exchanges _______________________________________________________________ 12 Preservation of Elements of Traditional Culture______________________________________________ 12 Protected Area Resource Management _____________________________________________________ 12 INDIGENOUS CULTURAL TOURISM AND SUSTAINABILITY __________________________________________ 12 Sustaining the Business Side of Aboriginal-Run Enterprises ____________________________________ 12 Indigenous Dwellings in Cultural Tourism __________________________________________________ 12 CHAPTER 3 THE WET TROPICS REGION _______________________________________________ 13 OVERVIEW OF INDIGENOUS CULTURAL TOURISM IN THE WIDER WET TROPICS _________________________ 13 The Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Industry____________________________________________________ 13 Cultural Centres in the Wet Tropics _______________________________________________________ 14 Cultural Tours ________________________________________________________________________ 14 Summary of Ethno-Architecture as a Tourism Product in the Wet Tropics _________________________ 15 CHAPTER 4 DYIRBAL TOURISM PRODUCTS____________________________________________ 16 INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________________________________ 16 DYIRBAL CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE ___________________________________________________________ 16 RESULTS OF A MIJA CONSTRUCTION PROJECT ___________________________________________________ 17 Research Difficulties ___________________________________________________________________ 18 BENEFITS OF THE MIJA CONSTRUCTION PROJECT TO THE PARTICIPANTS_______________________________ 18 PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ON CUSTOMARY CAMPSITES_____________________________________________ 19 DYIRBAL TOURISM PRODUCTS ______________________________________________________________ 20 The Nganyaji Interpretive Centre, Ravenshoe________________________________________________ 20 Hull River Mission Interpretive Centre_____________________________________________________ 20 Gugubarabi project at Echo Creek_________________________________________________________ 21 Misty Mountain Walking Trails __________________________________________________________ 23 Murray River Walking tracks ____________________________________________________________ 24 Mumbay ____________________________________________________________________________ 24 Jumbun Cultural Keeping Place __________________________________________________________ 24 Davey (Buckaroo) Lawrence Centre _______________________________________________________ 24 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS___________________________________ 25 THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF CUSTOMARY CAMPS AND DWELLINGS IN CULTURAL TOURISM _________________ 25 IMPEDIMENTS AND OBSTACLES TO INDIGENOUS CULTURAL TOURISM ________________________________ 26 FUTURE ACTIONS ________________________________________________________________________ 26 REFERENCES _________________________________________________________________________ 27 AUTHORS_____________________________________________________________________________ 30 iii SUSTAINING INDIGENOUS CULTURAL TOURISM List of Figures Figure 1: Wet tropics region - original extent of rainforest at time of colonisation and distribution of Aboriginal language and dialect groups __________________________________________________________ 1 Figure 2: Malanbara Yidinyji camp in the upper Mulgrave River Valley, adjacent to Mt Bellenden Ker ______ 3 Figure 3: A Dyirbal couple constructing a frame for a shelter on the Evelyn Tableland, c.1890 _____________ 4 Figure 4: The Tjapukai Cultural Park near Cairns with rainforest-clad mountains in background in 1996 _____ 6 Figure 5: Rainforest village reconstructed at the Tjapukai Cultural Park, 1996* ________________________ 13 Figure 6: Presentation by an Aboriginal man at the Tjapukai Cultural Park, 1996, to a seated audience with a rainforest dome at the rear used as a talking point on material culture_________________________ 13 Figure 7: A dome-shaped dwelling or bayu in Tjapukai Cultural Park, 2002___________________________ 13 Figure 8: Craft workshop, Yarrabah, 2004 _____________________________________________________ 14 Figure 9: The construction of mija in riparian rainforest along Deep Creek, close to Bilyana______________ 17 Figure 10: The completed mija built by Girramay elder Jack Muriata and his sons______________________ 18 Figure 11: Nganyaji Cultural Centre at Ravenshoe, 2004__________________________________________ 20 Figure 12: The Hull River Mission Interpretive centre, South Mission Beach__________________________ 21 Figure 13: Gugubarabi rangers ______________________________________________________________ 22 iv Aboriginal Pathways, Cultural Centres and Dwellings in the Queensland Wet Tropics ABSTRACT Much of the attraction of Indigenous cultural tourism is underpinned by traditional built environments and cultural landscapes, both internationally and, perhaps to a lesser extent, in Australia. Traditional Aboriginal camps and dwellings are represented in several categories of Indigenous cultural tourism in Australia, where they feature prominently in both theme parks and interpretive centres. Within the Wet Tropics region, this scoping study describes and critically assesses Indigenous enterprises that integrate knowledge of traditional Aboriginal dwellings, camps and building technologies and associated environmental knowledge into cultural tours and experiences for tourists. An underlying goal of this study and future research is to determine the role of tourism in the conservation of Aboriginal cultural knowledge. The first part of the study examines literature on Indigenous tourism, drawn predominantly from Australian sources, to establish categories of cultural tourism, the rationale for Aboriginal engagement in the industry, and to explore the multivalent concept of sustainability and Aboriginal cultural tourism. A survey of existing Indigenous tourism enterprises throughout the Wet Tropics region provides a general overview of the types of product on offer and the techniques used to

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