Tourism, two laws and savanna lands
Leader: Dr John Bradley, University of Queensland,
Brisbane
Full title: Tourism and Two Laws on the Gulf Savannah (NT). An
examination of the interrelationship between social and
environmental well being on the savanna lands of the south-west
Gulf of Carpentaria.
Project 3.3.3
Summary | Objectives | Aboriginal culture and
healthy landscapes | Approach and methods | Linkages |
Outcomes | Outputs | Project Team |
The study comprises two PhD projects by Kathryn Seton and
Stephen Johnson of the University of Queensland who are working in
collaboration with the Yanyuwa people in the south-west Gulf of
Carpentaria.
Their work aims to assess various stakeholders (e.g. mining,
fishing, tourism, pastoralism), but more particularly Aboriginal
imperatives, regarding the healthy and sustainable management of
land, sea and natural resources in this region of the Gulf. A
further aim is to investigate the functioning of community-based
land-management programs and broader implications for regional
management, policy and planning related issues.
- Document the history of tourist use in the tropical savanna
environment of the south-west Gulf of Carpentaria and to provide
evidence of its impact on indigenous society and culture;
- Review indigenous and non-indigenous expectations of tourist
development and land-claim processes over multiple land tenure and
uses;
- Identify the competing principles between
traditional/indigenous knowledge and that of competing land users
and managers;
- Gain further insight into non-indigenous perceptions of country
and the motivations informing the tourist experience and
land-management practices;
- Study cross-cultural correspondence and contest between
indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in order to gain some
insight into how change is invoked and new meaning is constructed
through this process. This includes an investigation of power
differentials and contestations of knowledge as they occur within
these processes and how these impact on indigenous participants and
their relationships with country;
- Investigate factors (for example, tourism, mining, pastoralism)
impacting on Yanyuwa perceptions of, and relationships with,
landscape and indigenous notions of resource-management strategies.
An investigation into how these areas are treated and interpreted
within the judicial and administrative processes surrounding land
rights, claims and negotiations.
- Contribute to knowledge surrounding the specific objective of
Theme 3, which is to achieve or restore healthy landscapes, through
discussions of both short-term resource-management issues relating
to healthy savannas and riverine systems in Yanyuwa country, and
longer-term regional implications as drawn from the study.
Overall landscape ecology and health is identified as a priority
for research in the TS–CRC. The discussion paper, Defining
and measuring the health of savanna landscape: A north Australian
perspective (Whitehead, Woniarski, Jacklyn, Fell and Williams
2000), developed a concept of healthy savannas and noted that
attributes of Aboriginal land management have been less actively
studied than others to date. The need to consult with Aboriginal
people to achieve this is clearly highlighted.
However, in the past, similar collaborative approaches have
reduced Aboriginal environmental perceptions and practices to their
material aspect only (Povinelli 193:683). This means that meeting
the TS–CRC objective to consider the
‘long-term…aesthetic and spiritual’ needs of all
interested parties could prove difficult.
The CRC states that social indicators within Aboriginal culture
need to be given appropriate attention in regard to conservation.
This requires both local and regional attention to best integrate
traditional resource-management knowledge, and associated customs
and techniques, into effective and useful national development and
conservation endeavours involving sustainable resource management
and protection.
By undertaking participant observation fieldwork (the hallmark
of anthropology) and relying on primary and secondary documents a
case study of Yanyuwa people, relationships to Country and Law will
be built up. Access to archival materials and the undertaking of
semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and other relevant
people associated with Yanyuwa interests in land and resource use
are also contributing to this study. Both current community-based
management projects and local/regional negotiations surrounding
land rights, management and development (stemming from both land
claims and local initiatives), are being investigated and
assessed.
Linkages with the Caring for Country Unit, Northern Land Council
and other associated bodies (e.g. Indigenous Land Management Unit,
Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory) offers the
ability to monitor the implementation of new, small,
community-based land/sea management programs (e.g. the community
ranger program, the Wanga Djakamirr Rangers in the Arafura
Catchment in the Top End) as well as exploring indigenous
perceptions of the value or otherwise of tourism.
Similarly, there are questions that need investigating about
non-indigenous approaches to indigenous involvement both in tourism
and land management.
Overall research and outputs will contribute particularly to
Themes 1, 2 and 3 of TS–CRC objectives and inform many Key
Result Areas by:
- providing relevant local and regional information regarding
landscape health and function in the Borroloola region;
- promoting greater understanding of the issues surrounding
effective management and participation between stakeholders in this
region; and
- as a byproduct of the research process over time, contribute to
some educational aspects of Theme 4.
It will also provide reports to Projects: 3.1.1. Development of
tourism opportunities, 3.2.1. Bioregional Planning Practice in
Northern Australia; 3.2.2. Applying Planning System Approaches to
Sustainable Regional Development in Tropical Savannas, 3.2.3.
Regional Vegetation Management Planning for Landscape Health
This project is undertaken with the consent of the Yanyuwa
community been granting by Li-Yanyuwa li-wirdiwalangu (the Yanyuwa
Elders).
- Contribute to an enhanced understanding of the problems with
communication, consultation and collaboration in multi-agency
negotiations and how they effect the implementation of land
management strategies in the region;
- Increased knowledge of culturally acceptable frameworks for
understanding social, economic and ecological imperatives of
Aboriginal stakeholders;
- To gain an adequate understanding of power differentials
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous stakeholders and how these
are manifest in Indigenous concerns over rights to access and
control over country;
- Contributions to regional management and healthy landscape
strategies and discussions in the Gulf tropical savannas;
- Contributions to policy and planning development through
assessment of local and regional perspectives.
- Participation in regional management forums.
- Production of research publications and reports including the
holding of a possible conference for Indigenous communities, local
government planners, tourist developers, environmental managers,
anthropologists and other interested parties
- The provision of results to indigenous holders of knowledge in
appropriate formats such as community reports, videos and input
into the Diwurruwurru website (see link below).
- Communication of results to natural resource managers and
government departments responsible for environmental management in
the Gulf.
- Production of PhD theses.
Dr John Bradley, U Q
Kathryn Seton, UQ *
Stephen Johnson, UQ *
Peter Cooke, NLC
