Sustaining spirit: a review and analysis of an urban Indigenous Australian cultural festival

ABSTRACT

Indigenous Australian festivals have long been tools for cultural maintenance and revival, cultural sharing and economic opportunity for Indigenous Australian communities. Recent research indicates the multiple benefits festivals may offer to Indigenous Australian communities and their contribution to building a more harmonious Australia, but also notes considerable knowledge gaps. This article reviews and analyses the Spirit Festival, a major annual urban Indigenous festival in Adelaide, Australia. It explores the issues in operationalizing and maintaining the Getz paradigm for responsible and sustainable events in an increasingly neo-liberal world. Based on in-depth quantitative and qualitative research, it highlights how the transformation of events from tools for community development to tools to attract tourists through event tourism may have serious repercussions for the sustainability of these events and undermine their social and cultural value, particularly for Indigenous stakeholders. Special attention is paid to the tensions between social goals and harsh economic reality, the complex issues surrounding management processes, funding and partnership, the importance for Indigenous peoples of positive visibility and the role of reconciliation that festivals can play. It poses the key question: who and what are Indigenous festivals for – a question applicable worldwide and to many forms of Indigenous tourism.

可持续的精神：一个澳大利亚城市原住民文化节的回顾与分析

澳大利亚原住民的节日是保留分享文化及获得经济机会的工具，虽有研究表明此类节日有多重效益，但存在大量知识缺口。本文分析了阿德莱德原住民重要年度节日圣灵节，探索在新自由主义世界中实施及维持负责任可持续节事新范例的问题；基于定性及定量研究，强调节事由社群发展工具向吸引游客工具的转化过程可能严重影响其可持续性及破坏社会文化价值；重视经济、管理、合作等各类要素，提出关键问题：原住民节日是为谁和为什么举办？

KEYWORDS:

• Commodification
• triple bottom line sustainability
• neo-liberalism
• social inclusion
• Indigenous cultural festivals
• events
• event tourism

关键字:

• 商品化
• 三重底线的可持续性
• 新自由主义
• 社会融入
• 原住民文化节

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Umeerwarra Radio has broadcasted the event to listeners all around Australia and the Pacific region.

2. It should be noted that in 2014, the Spirit Festival moved to the very heart of the city at Victoria Square or Tandanyangga. This was a very important gathering place on Kaurna country prior to invasion and in contemporary times is the beating heart of the city but a contested space in terms of Aboriginal presence as it was declared a “dry zone” by the Adelaide City Council in the mid-2000s. As Sonia Waters noted in her interview, it was the redevelopment of Tandanyangga in extensive consultation with the Kaurna community that enabled this space to once again host Kaurna ceremony (interview 21 December 2012).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Freya Higgins-Desbiolles

Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, PhD, is a senior lecturer in tourism, School of Management, University of South Australia. She has researched, taught and offered community service on Indigenous tourism for more than a decade. She has particularly approached tourism from a community rights and social justice perspective and has disseminated her work through both academic and community outlets. She has received a number of awards for her work for equity and engagement, research and teaching excellence. Her books include co-edited volumes on Peace through Tourism and the Politics and Power of Tourism in Palestine published by Routledge.