Indigenous Cultural Tourism as part of the Birdsville/Strezlecki experience.

Abstract

This paper examines some issues relating to inclusion of Australian Indigenous cultural heritage in a recent heritage tourism study carried out along the Birdsville and Strzelecki Tracks in South Australia and Queensland. Tourism surveys show low levels of perception of 'Aboriginality' linked to the outback, possibly connected to the poor representation of Indigenous cultural association with the study region in tourist literature as well as on the ground. Legislative and administrative considerations led to the omission of Indigenous heritage from the heritage tourism study which was required to concentrate on post-non-Indigenous-settlement historic heritage. The report recommended that the Indigenous story be told where appropriate, and that this be based on consultation with Indigenous communities to identify places suitable for interpretation so that a layered understanding of peoples and place could be developed.