Finding new meaning for old values: Aboriginal cultural tourism planning in and adjacent to protected areas

Abstract

My doctoral research with the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation on Country-based tourism planning and management in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area explores applications of traditional knowledge within Aboriginal tourism and the real or imagined barriers to its recognition by the broader tourism industry and tourism managers as an essential linkage between Indigenous peoples and their environments. Education/tourism activities on Country may be one of the few ways to preserve knowledge as a lived-experience, as the culture surrounding traditional hunting and access to Country in protected areas evolves. This research has been strongly influenced by senior Jirrbal Elder, Ernie Grant, whose holistic planning and education framework has been adopted by the Queensland Department of Education as a model for cross-cultural education. His style of cultural education at Echo Creek can be viewed as a model of best-practice rainforest tourism, in which traditional knowledge, cultural transmission, and ecosystem and Indigenous wellbeing are indivisible. This holistic approach has the potential for broader application in developing participatory approaches to cultural awareness for a range of protected area stakeholders, including managers and the tourism industry.