Why Australia’s new Aboriginal history tourism offerings are pretty special

Acknowledgements and welcomes made, ATE audiences were introduced to a nation of full of promise.

Chinese tourists are still sorely missed in Australia, as elsewhere – just 42 per cent of the 2019 flight capacity between China (excluding Hong Kong) and Australia is currently being met, and that is forecast to rise to just 51 per cent by September, a significant hurdle being that the Land Down Under isn’t overly popular with Beijing at the moment, and is not included on China’s Approved Destination Status list.

But visitors from other markets, especially India, are returning to Australia in droves. And awaiting them are a host of new “products” and created “experiences”.

We are not a big fan of those terms – Destinations Known would like to believe many folks still travel to discover countries and the people who live in them as they already are, rather than to partake in contrivances designed only to attract visitors – but some of the new “offerings” are pretty special, especially a couple tied to Aboriginal history.

Meaning “beautiful view out to the horizon” in the local Pitjantjatjara language, Wintjiri Wiru tells the story of the Mala people – a tale that has been narrated verbally for thousands of years – but this time with illuminated drones, lasers and projections in the night sky.

The spectacle takes place above Uluru and is watched from an observation deck designed in such a way that when it is dismantled, no trace will be left on the land.

Meanwhile, down in nipaluna, in lutruwita (the lower case letters are important; Indigenous people may have to use the white man’s writing system, given their languages are oral only, but they do not have to use his punctuation), Nunami Sculthorpe-Green, of blak led tours, tells a horrifying tale.

The Aboriginal guide leads tour groups in the footsteps of 40 resistance fighters who arrived in the colonial outpost of Hobart (nipaluna) in 1832, to negotiate an end to the long-running Black War in Tasmania (lutruwita).

These proud Aboriginals were made promises that were later broken, and Sculthorpe-Green tells their story with the compelling anger warranted by genocide.

Other attractions and venues have opened in Australia recently – including HOTA (Home of the Arts), on the Gold Coast; the Museum of Underwater Art, in Townsville; the Great Southern Land gallery, in Canberra; and the National Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne – but it seems unlikely anything will leave an impression quite like the revelations delivered on a blak led tour of Hobart. Especially if you’re British.

During the ATE conference, over a break­fast of smashed avocado on toast and home-made baked beans at the new Langham – a hotel that has brought a touch of class to the sun, sea and excesses of the Gold Coast – we were struck by the mixed messaging sent out by a pair of articles in local paper The Sunday Mail.

In the pull-out travel section was a mildly congratulatory opinion piece about how Australians are no longer the baddest boys and girls on the block in Bali. Australians on the Indonesian holiday island have earned something of a reputation over the years, their anything-goes mentality often clashing with conservative local values.

But, “Aussies no longer hold the record for appalling antics on holiday”, read the subhead on this article. “We’ve been eclipsed by influencers and pants-droppers from another nation.”

The writer went on to declare, “It’s fair to say the Russians are making us Aussies look pretty good. According to The Bali Sun newspaper, of the 93 foreigners deported from the island so far this year, 24 were Russians compared with Australia’s six.”

However, the impression of the Aussie becoming more respectable was undermined by the paper’s front page. A contrite looking man stared out below the headlines, “Sorry case of Indo-Amnesia” and “Noosa man blames sunstroke, vodka but forgets ‘bits’ of naked Aceh rampage.”

The story explained that Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones is facing five years in prison and lashes of the cane for having run amok through a quiet village on the island of Simeulue, in the Aceh region.

The 23-year-old allegedly ran through the village drunk and naked, screaming and “bashing into a coffee shop” before hurling a motorbike at a local man, who suffered serious leg injuries as a result, reported the Sunday Mail.

The article mentioned another incident involving an Australian. Brenton Craig Abbas Abdullah McArthur, 47, was arrested on suspicion of spitting in the face of a religious leader in West Java.

The Russians may have invaded Bali, but Aussie yobbos are apparently still chiefs of grief elsewhere in Indonesia.