Welcome to Country

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people from around the world visit sites of natural beauty and significance to Aboriginal people: Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park, Kakadu, the Bungle Bungles in the Kimberley, Cape Yorke.

What gets lost on many travellers is that each of these sites belongs to traditional owners with their own cultures, protocols and histories.

A new book, Welcome to Country by prominent public figure Marcia Langton, could be the first travel guide to Indigenous Australia — a handy reference for how tourists might best travel through different cultures and sacred lands.

It could be the travel guide Australia didn’t realise it needed.

“I’ve got the opportunity here to talk about language rules and the protocols of when to take photographs, when to ask questions and when not to,” Professor Langton said.

The book is full of information on Indigenous languages and customs, history, native title, art and dance, storytelling, and cultural awareness and etiquette for visitors.

Professor Langton says over the past four decades she has noticed a growing curiosity among non-Indigenous Australians towards the country’s pre-European past and its Aboriginal heritage.

But, she says, that past is full of trauma for many Indigenous people.

Professor Langton says there is a clear need for tourists to have a greater understanding of this history.

“Whether you’re Australian or whether you’re from another country, if you turn up in an Aboriginal area and start asking questions without an understanding of the history that’s gone before it, it could be very embarrassing not just for the visitor, but for the traditional owners,” she said.

“It causes great pain to people to have to answer questions from people who have no understanding of that history.

“That’s why I felt it was essential to explain some of that history — so that people can have a regard for the feelings of their hosts.”

A tradition of Aboriginal 'classics'

But she says Welcome to Country could introduce many more people to Australia’s history and culture, because of its broad appeal to the travel market.

“There is always a need for more books authored by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors,” she said.

“This resource, so beautifully packaged, will encourage the start of two-way learning as well as the consideration of Indigenous enterprise as a first priority.

“For some, Welcome to Country will be the first step in their learning journey about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia.”

Celebrating Aboriginal enterprise

From the first chapter, Professor Langton, who describes herself as “a descendant of the fighting Yiman of Queensland”, does not pull any punches about the continuing legacy for Aboriginal people of the arrival of Europeans.

“I don’t think that many Australians are aware of that part of our history, and that’s very unfortunate,” she said.

“That’s why I raise these issues in the book.”

But so much of Welcome to Country is about looking to the present, and celebrating Aboriginal businesses and enterprises that many travellers miss or take for granted.

She says this side of the book aims to show the range of experiences available to those who seek it.

Most importantly, it opens up the prospect of jobs for Indigenous people on their own land, a theme Professor Langton has pursued for decades.

“There are wonderful Indigenous-owned businesses all over the country where people can have a firsthand encounter with Aboriginal culture or food or environmental management,” she said.

“One of the great advantages for viable tourism businesses for Aboriginal landowners is they get to stay on their own country and get to raise their families on their own country and teach their children about their culture in-situ.

“That’s all that people have ever wanted, really.”

Source
ABC News