Support all Indigenous tourism, culture spans the continent & islands

Your answer to Aboriginal culture.

Do you live along the east coast of Australia? Do you wish you had access to Aboriginal culture?

If you answered yes to these questions, boy do I have a solution for you. Go to the Northern Territory. Well at least that is what is being recommended by Northern Territory Tourism, as part of their latest campaign being advertised in areas of Sydney.

Image supplied: Will Cooper

I mean, with Sydney being the site of earliest resistance, one of the foundational locations for the Black political movement and rich in Aboriginal history and culture in its own right – makes sense to go to the Northern Territory for culture.

Surely the numerous locations in Sydney and close surrounds that are Aboriginal sites of significance from sites of ceremony, shield trees on Dharawal country, the rock carvings at North Bondi, the Aboriginal storytelling cave art in numerous locations in and around Sydney and the wealth of knowledge and continuing culture here in Sydney and New South Wales, along with the rest of the East Coast would present cultural options for people to experience and learn from Aboriginal culture.

Not according to the latest targeted and antagonistic tourism campaign seeking Sydney tourists to go to the Northern Territory for cultural experiences.

Sure, Aboriginal cultural tourism plays a major role in the Northern Territory’s tourism, and identity, however campaigns such as this perpetuate the falsehood that the only place you can experience Aboriginal culture is in the Northern Territory, and that there is no Aboriginal culture that still exists along the east coast or elsewhere on this vast continent

It is historical fact that colonial force was first felt, and most violently, along the East Coast where resistance was for the benefit of all clans across the continent. So it is both offensive and untrue to say that Northern Territory is the place to go for culture.

In a past role I conducted cultural tours to local Aboriginal sites, for groups ranging from international students studying at university to groups of professionals attending the local area for conferences, these tours would also include a performance of traditional Aboriginal dances,  one of the moments that still stands out to me was during a tour for a group of German doctors and surgeons who were visiting as part of a study trip to Australia. The tour went well, no issues, lots of interaction and engagement, the performance went well. Then we received the feedback forms. I remember the organiser of the tour being a bit reluctant to give us all of the forms and holding one in particular back.

We eventually got the form and the comment at the bottom of the form read “Really good tour but, would have been better if there were real Aboriginals doing the tour.” Whilst at the time I remember taking the comment with a grain of salt and making a number of satirical comments, it is reflective of the comments that the majority of Aboriginal people along the east coast hear on an all too regular basis.

Throughout NSW there are a number of cultural tourism experiences that are available ranging from local sites tours all over the state, to specific experiences such as quad bike cultural tours in the Port Stephens area, to stand up paddle boarding cultural tours in Coffs Harbour. There are also a number of events held each year that display a variety NSW Aboriginal cultures such as corroborees held across the state.

The Corroboree which is held in Wollombi every alternate year, which myself and IndigenousX CEO Luke Pearson have performed at in the past, and the annual Dance Rites competition held on the steps of the Opera House which highlights traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance and cultures from all over Australia.

Culture is about more than just ceremony, more than just dance, more than just painting up, and don’t get me wrong, I love putting ochre on my skin, I love learning dances and teaching dances, and creating new dances. I love every aspect of my culture and my community.

I love painting my culture, dancing my culture, singing my culture, keeping culture alive and passing it on to my children, or to anyone who wants to learn, but culture is so much more too.

It is country, it is connection, it is community. It is love.

Visiting a site and learning its story is not made less or more cultural if I am wearing roo skin or trackies. The smoke that cleanses my spirit is not more or less significant if the person who lit the fire has skin that is lighter or darker than my own.

Culture is culture. And NSW has culture, as does the NT, and WA, and Qld, the Torres Strait, SA, Vic and Tas… and by all means, experience them all, support Indigenous tourism in all of these places, but don’t come back home and think you’ve just experienced ‘the real Aboriginal culture’ when you haven’t even bothered to learn about the people and lands you currently live on.