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Abstract
This article examines the way in which selected cultural institutions, government and non‐government organisations and individuals in Australia’s Northern Territory have responded to globalising influences on the preservation, interpretation and public face of its history and heritage. It draws upon a number of interviews with local practitioners and professionals in the field to explore the multiple understandings of cultural heritage, history and identity in the Territory, to investigate how competing interests and expectations are managed at the state and local level, and to address issues of sovereignty in the context of global heritage. Respondents indicate that, despite a strong resurgence of local cultural identities, without people on the ground who care about their heritage, efforts by international bodies will have little effect. There has been increasing concern about the protection of local cultures in the face of globalisation, and research such as this is critical in providing feedback to international heritage organisations. Without strong local support for cultural heritage and identities, they can become increasingly vulnerable in a rapidly globalising world. In Australia’s Northern Territory, however, there seems little indication of this happening.
Acknowledgements
This article is based on an Australian Research Council Grant, ‘UNESCO – Agency of Cultural Globalisation? Analysis of the Tension between Universal Values and Local Cultural Identity in the Asia‐Pacific Region’, 2002–05. The NT was a case study for this project, further supported by a Northern Territory History Grant, ‘Global Heritage: Responses and Perspectives from the Northern Territory’, 2004. Participants in the project included William Logan, Mark Askew, Michele Langfield and Jonathon Sweet as chief investigators, and Colin Long and Anita Smith as postdoctoral fellows.
Notes
1. The interrelationship of cultural and natural heritages, especially for Indigenous peoples, and the concept of totemism, is explained in Boer and Wiffen (Citation2006, pp. 16–18 and 261–266). The links between cultural heritage and land rights are also addressed.
2. For a comprehensive appraisal of this Convention and its impact in Australia, see Boer and Wiffen (Citation2006, Chapter 3).
3. The programme concluded in 2006 with the entry into force of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
4. Australia only became a party to this Convention in September 2009.
5. At the time of writing, Australia was not a member of this Convention.
6. The Australian Heritage Council Act was passed in 2003. The Council maintains the Register of the National Estate (see Boer and Wiffen Citation2006, pp. 127–128).
7. This had significant NT listings, many nominated by the National Trust, and included Indigenous heritage.
8. The Charter was drafted at Burra in South Australia in 1979 and revised in 1981, 1988 and 1999 (see Carment Citation2001, p. 11).
9. The relationship between States and Territories and the Commonwealth government in relation to heritage law is explained in Boer and Wiffen (Citation2006, Part 1V; Alternatives to listing are discussed in Chapter 8).
10. See Special Issue, Historic Environment, ‘Managing a Shared Heritage, Australia ICOMOS Conference, Darwin, December 1993, Selected Papers’, 11 (2 & 3), 1995.
11. For the nature of this debate and its influence on subsequent legislation, see Carment (Citation1991, p. 70).
12. See Northern Territory Government Heritage: http://notes.nt.gov.au/dcm/legislat/legislat.nsf/linkreference/HERITAGE%20CONSERVATION%20ACT. For a comparison of the Heritage Acts of Australian States and Territories, see Boer and Wiffen (Citation2006, pp. 182–220).
13. Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts, Review of the Heritage Conservation Act, 1. http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/heritage/manage/review.html.
14. A Public Discussion paper was released to stimulate community interest and outline available options. A website was developed to facilitate community access, including an on‐line survey now dismantled. Richard Woolfe was the Review Officer.
15. Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts, Review of the Heritage Conservation Act, 2, http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/heritage/manage/review.html.
16. At the time of interviewing, Barrkman was Curator of South East Asian Art and Material Culture, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT).
17. At the time of interviewing, West was Curator for Aboriginal Art and Material Culture, MAGNT.
18. At the time of interviewing, Dimond was Curator of Territory History, MAGNT.
19. At the time of interviewing, Wells was Acting Senior Heritage Officer, Office of Environment and Heritage, NT Government, Darwin.
20. At the time of interviewing, Tarbett‐Buckley was Registrar of Collections, MAGNT.
21. At the time of interviewing, Mearns was Senior Anthropologist at the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority, former President and long‐time member of the National Trust and AAPA’s representative on the Heritage Advisory Council.
22. On Yolngu intangible heritage, see especially the work of Fiona Magowan (Citation2007a, Citationb).
23. See for example the work of Deborah Bird Rose (Citation1996, Citation2002).
24. See Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976 ‐ Section 3, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/alrta1976444/s3.html#sacred_site.
25. At the time of interviewing, Avery was Acting Chief Executive Officer, Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority. He links the 1970s legislation with the work of anthropologists such as W.E.H. Stanner and Ronald and Catherine Berndt, whose ideas shaped land rights policies and who were involved in developing a national project to identify Aboriginal sites of significance.
26. See the Preamble to the 1989 Act for a more extended ‘mission statement’ of the AAPA.
27. See Australian Government, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/about/Indigenous/index.html, accessed 24 June 2009.
28. Ibid. See also Australian Government (Citation2007).
29. At the time of interviewing, Lorraine Williams was affiliated with the School of Australian Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Charles Darwin University.
30. See also the more recent case of the Blue Mud Bay High Court decision of 31 July 2008 where it was declared illegal for the Northern Territory Fisheries Act to sanction licenses for fishing in waters that fell within the boundaries of land covered by the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act. This outcome resulted from local Yolngu people fighting for rights to their land since the 1960s. See http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/land/blue-mud-bay-high-court-decision.html, accessed 24 June 2009.
31. The NT government has set up various Indigenous Knowledge Centres, similar to archives, which send information back to communities and try to make them user friendly by having them digitised. People then can have access to photographs and documents that belonged to their community and communities can have control over aspects of their heritage that were taken away some time ago (West interview 2003).