Tourism as theatre: performing and consuming indigeneity in an Australian wildlife sanctuary

Abstract

This article explores the social and cultural production of indigeneity in a wildlife sanctuary on the Australian Gold Coast. We note that the human and animal characters that form the displays of the sanctuary work towards the assemblage of a largely consistent underlying theme. The latter reproduces commensurability between two main figures associated with Australian settler history, namely the country's pre-colonial indigenous species of animals and plants and the human Aboriginal population. We argue that the theatre produced in the park's highly sanitized visitor contact zone has wider social and political ramifications for Australian society and modern society in general. By ceremonially re-enacting the historical myth of separation between modern civilization and primordial indigeneity, through a tourist enterprise, the sanctuary produces ambivalent meanings about the relation between ‘nativeness’ in nature and society. Our analysis addresses the simultaneous emancipation of contemporary human indigeneity as a revitalized cultural value together with the social distancing of Aboriginal people as one-dimensional caricatures of primordial nature.

Keywords:

• tourism
• indigeneity
• performance
• value
• Australia

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge collaboration and collegial discussion from Jane Mulcock, Catarina Moreira and Alexis Bunten.

Funding

The collaboration for this project was enabled by support from The University of Queensland (Trigger), University of Southern Queensland (Pocock) and a 2012 University of Queensland Travel Award for International Collaborative Research (Picard). Moreover, part of Picard's research was financed through national funds provided by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology project [PTDC/CS-ANT/114825/2009].

Notes

1. Two species of lorikeet visit Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary; the dominant species is the Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus) while smaller numbers of scaly-breasted lorikeets (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus) also appear at feeding times (Barker & Vestjens, 1990, pp. 345–346; Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, 2009). Both species are native to this area of northeast Australia.

2. See http://www.cws.org.au/getcloser/visitors_information/faqs/#link14, retrieved January 23, 2014. In a related fashion, it appears that certain koalas are ‘selected for handling’ at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane some 80 km north of Currumbin: http://blog.queensland.com/2013/08/29/cool-jobs-head-koala-keeper/, retrieved January 25, 2014.

3. Though somewhat ironically this can be ‘Aboriginal music’ actually performed by non-Aboriginal artists, such as Adam Plack (also known as Nomad) who has established an internationally known performance genre focused partly on producing Australian Aboriginal music.

4. For recent discussion of this issue in public debate, see: Pearlman and Gibson (2007), when I was fauna: citizen's rallying call, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 May 2007, http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/when-i-was-fauna-citizens-rallying-call/2007/05/22/1179601412706.html, retrieved January 25, 2014. McQuire (2012), no longer flora and fauna: New South Wales Government commits to heritage legislation, Tracker, 6 November 2012. http://tracker.org.au/2012/11/no-longer-flora-and-fauna-nsw-govt-commits-to-heritage-legislation/, retrieved January 25, 2014.

5. This term may translate as ‘brother’ in the language of Torres Strait Islands: http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/PNG/MIHALIC/M2/LetterB/bala.htm, retrieved January 25, 2014. It is used more broadly throughout parts of Aboriginal Australia.

6. See http://www.southbank.qm.qld.gov.au/Events+and+Exhibitions/Exhibitions/Permanent/Dandiiri+Maiwar/Ailan+kastom+bilong+Torres+Strait/Dhari#.Uul4uU2IrIU, retrieved January 30, 2014.

7. There was considerable ambiguity in the talk about dingos. They are displayed both within cages as dangerous to humans and yet also walked on leads among the visitors where their role as apex predators is celebrated as beneficial to humans and nature.