Embodied places in indigenous ecotourism: the Yarrawarra research project.
Beck, Wendy ; Somerville, Margaret
Abstract. Little research has been done on how places with shared
Indigenous and colonial pasts are communicated to tourists. One problem
is that many tourists lack an understanding of Indigenous cultural
landscapes and have stereotyped views of Indigenous peoples and places.
In order to address this problem we argue that an embodied presence in
the landscape, focusing on knowledge by the body as well as knowledge by
the mind, is essential to understanding Indigenous place stories, and
for seeing the landscape in new ways. On the mid-north coast of New
South Wales, where ecotourism is increasingly important, we are carrying
out a collaborative research project to develop interpretive materials
with the Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation. In the Yarrawarra Place
Stories project (1997-2000) we have carried out oral history and
archaeological research, and through a series of five books based on
individual places, we attempt to convey Aboriginal places in complex and
layered ways which focus on an embodied presence in the landscape, and
explore how tourists may construct places visited in new ways. In this
article we provide a reading of an example of the place representations
from this project (Yarrawarra Place Stories Books 1-5) to make evident
the embodied nature of local place stories in this interdisciplinary
research project.
Places, and images of places, are fundamental to the
practice of tourism ... Tourism is a strongly visual
practice. We spend time in advance of a tourism trip
attempting to visualise the experience by examining
guidebooks and brochures, or in anticipatory day
dreams; we often spend significant parts of the trip
itself engaged in the act of sightseeing in which we gaze
upon places, people and their artefacts; and we relive
experiences as memories and recollections, aided by
photographs or home video footage ... In the process we
are inventing (or reinventing) places to suit our
purposes. [Williams 1998:173]
The notion of the tourist gaze (Urry 1990) has been an important
one for research into tourists and tourism. But the 'tourist
gaze' is often a disembodied one, so in this article we explore the
notion of a bodily presence, putting tourists into the landscape. Our
research question becomes: how can we represent Aboriginal heritage
tourist places in a local and embodied way?
Little scholarly research has been done on the representation of
places for tourists, especially those places with shared Aboriginal and
colonial pasts AHC 2002; Zeppel 1999, Zeppel 2001a). In this article we
examine how our research project with Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation,
which involves Indigenous ecotourism, archaeology and oral history in
coastal New South Wales, has chosen to represent local places in books
produced for tourists (Yarrawarra Place Stories Books 1-5). The key to
our images of place lies in embodiment. Following Somerville (1999) we
argue that an embodied presence in the landscape is essential to
understanding Indigenous place stories and to developing relations of
empathy with the landscape and with the storytellers so that there is
the possibility of developing new stories, and of seeing the landscape
in new ways. Seeing the landscape in this context also involves seeing a
different and nonstereotypical Indigenous presence and making hidden
places and histories visible to non-Indigenous persons. Walsh (1992:145)
has argued that:
... heritage, in many of its forms, is responsible for the
destruction of a sense of place. The representation of
historical surfaces via a uniform set of media which
tend to appear in all heritage representations,
emphasize the spectacle rather than any depth of
historical questioning and analysis.
Many researchers present a dichotomy between the
'inauthentic' place identification of tourists and the
'authentic' lifestyles of local peoples. In our project we
argue that the 'production and consumption of heritage spaces
involves a much more complex negotiation between local and external
forces' (Hubbard and Lilley 2000:231), and that an
interdisciplinary research approach is necessary for effective heritage
tourist products. Our books, written for tourists, attempt to convey the
Corindi Beach places (near Coffs Harbour, NSW) in complex and layered
ways that focus on an embodied presence in the landscape.
There are obviously many ways in which places can be defined and
represented. Most residents and visitors to the Corindi Beach area have
an image and experiences of beaches, holidays and fishing, and a very
limited understanding of the Indigenous landscape and history of the
area; one which extends back thousands of years. When we present work
generated from the Yarrawarra Place Stories project we introduce the
place in different ways, representing different stakeholders in the
research. These place-practices are not necessarily in agreement. Some
of these ways of defining place are taken-for-granted place-practices
(e.g. identifying a location on a map); others are newly taken up and
not so obvious place-practices such as using language, language groups
and Indigenous ownership to identify a place. All are socially and
culturally determined and all are ways of defining and representing
place, which we refer to as 'place-practices'. These are
place-practices that we share with the Corindi Beach people and include
acknowledging and claiming Indigenous ownership of places, defining
place by speaking language or by marking language boundaries of
territory, or by living and working in places. In this article, we
present a detailed reading of Corindi Beach places to present
alternative ways for visitors to construct place.
Background
The project started in 1997 and is continuing, although the major
field projects of the first stage have been completed; these include
hundreds of hours of Corindi Beach oral history recording and several
archaeological investigations. The work was undertaken by a team
consisting of both Yarrawarra Corporation and University staff. The
specific aims of the fieldwork are to research places of significance in
the area of the Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation. This project is
somewhat unusual as it is not a contract, it is not a University
research project and it is not a cultural heritage management project.
It is a research partnership jointly funded by the Yarrawarra Aboriginal
Corporation and the Australian Research Council (through the University
of New England) who equally committed cash and in-kind support for the
work. The outcomes of this interdisciplinary project are productive for
both Yarrawarra and academic purposes and the research has focused on
local place stories.
The project is located on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales,
an area which is now densely settled, with an increasing population
situated along the coastal strip, and a large Indigenous population.
This population is part of the Gumbaingirr language group. Tourism is an
important industry in this area, for both domestic and international
tourists and Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation participates in this
tourist industry. For example, six per cent of Australia's
international tourists visited the North Coast in 1989; this is the same
percentage that visited Uluru. The presentation of attractive and
educative material for tourists, on Indigenous culture, is therefore
important.
Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation is located at Corindi Beach,
about 35 kilometres north of Coffs Harbour and has been involved in
cultural ecotourism since 1987. In 1997, Yarrawarra employed over one
hundred individuals in various enterprises, making it one of the largest
local employers. While a number of families live locally, other
employees live at Coffs Harbour and other regional centres, such as
Woolgoolga. As part of their ecotourism enterprise Yarrawarra run
programs designed for a range of client groups including primary and
secondary schools, tertiary students and adult tourists with
approximately 5000 visitors annually. The programs involve visits to
sites, bush-tucker walks, an art gallery, craft workshops and the sale
of crafts and bushfoods. In 1999 a seventy-bed accommodation block
('Nuralamee') was constructed and opened at Yarrawarra, which
supplements the existing Cultural Centre.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
International tourism as research stimulus
What does an international tourism context mean for Yarrawarra
Corporation and hence to the research project? Why are images of local
places important? Yarrawarra's ecotourist enterprise functions in
the context of an international tourist exchange market dealing in
cultural tourism and ecotourism. It has been predicted that
international tourism will have had an increasingly significant impact
on the Australian economy during the ten years from 1993 to 2003.
Expenditure by international tourists was forecast to grow at an average
annual rate of nine per cent, from just over six billion dollars in 1993
to almost fifteen billion in 2003 (Office of National Tourism 1998).
About 35 per cent of tourists to Yarrawarra are international tourists.
The northern coast of New South Wales is a popular international tourist
destination, six per cent of Australia's international tourists
visited there in 1989, the same proportion that visited Uluru (Ayers
Rock) (Brokensha and Guldberg 1992:27). Studies of international
tourists have also found (Young 1991:24) that the majority of
... international visitors to Australia are interested in
seeing and learning about Aboriginal arts and culture,
one third of the visitors purchased Aboriginal arts or
other items related to Aboriginal culture, the value of
these purchases is estimated at $30 million per year.
In 1996, about 557 000 international visitors, or fifteen per cent
of the total, visited Indigenous sites and attractions, an increase of
45 per cent from 1995 (Office of National Tourism 1998).
Such statistics highlight the phenomenon of growing international
interest in Indigenous cultures and 'authentic' experiences
that seems to parallel increasing globalisation and global consumerism (Zeppel 1998). Indigenous Australians have taken up these discourses,
most notably through their artworks in response to the world-wide
interest in Western desert style 'dot paintings' and in their
efforts to gain international advocacy (Zeppel 2001b). An international
audience (at the United Nations) has been sought in the case of native
title claims with the Australian Government's 1998 amendments to
the native title legislation, and also recently with World Heritage
bodies in relation to the establishment of Jabiluka uranium mine, near
Kakadu National Park. Locally, Indigenous communities and individuals
have taken up these discourses in a variety of ways, one of which is to
engage with the ecotourist industry.
Ecotourism and cultural ecotourism?
The Ecotourism Association of Australia includes in its definition
of 'ecotourism' fostering 'environmental and cultural
understanding and appreciation'. There is an acknowledgment that
culture and heritage are both parts of the landscape (Beeton 1998:49).
Ecotourism is widely considered, both in Australia and overseas, as an
area of the tourism industry with significant growth potential. It is
seen both as an important niche market with a particular range of
experiences sought by particular visitors, and as a catalyst for
encouraging the tourism industry to be ecologically sustainable (ADT 1994a). Indigenous peoples are particularly involved in this kind of
tourism (ADT 1994b), and Objective 10 of the National Ecotourism
Strategy is to 'enhance opportunities for self-determination,
self-management and economic self-sufficiency in ecotourism for
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders' (ADT 1994a:44). Tourism
was one of three industries recommended as offering opportunities for
greater Indigenous participation by the Government's response to
the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission (ARCADC 1992). There
are currently a growing number of Indigenous communities becoming
involved in ecotourism, particularly in guided walks and tours. Surveys
of tourists have indicated that visitor interest and participation in
field activities, such as visiting Indigenous sites and guided cultural
tours, is high (Young 1991:22).
The social, economic and cultural benefits of ecotourism are seen,
according to the National Ecotourism Strategy (ADT 1994:22), at two
different levels.
In the local community, to:
* create a variety of employment opportunities that draw on the
skills of local people
* contribute to diversifying the economic base of regional
economies and to the tourism industry generally
* assist in the long term conservation of natural areas that have
cultural value
* offer an effective means of re-vitalising local arts and
traditions
* encourage local communities to value and to benefit from natural
and cultural assets
* encourage Aboriginal organisations to be self-sufficient.
More widely, to:
* encourage reconciliation by helping non-Indigenous people to
understand and appreciate Indigenous cultures and values
* add to national foreign exchange earnings
* encourage local infrastructure development.
In many discussions about their ecotourist enterprise, Tony
Perkins, the Manager of Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation, has
emphasised Yarrawarra's interest in restoration of damaged lands,
land protection and land management. Cultural ecotourism is also
compatible with the need to be economically self-sustaining and at the
same time to maintain cultural values, in particular, relationship to
land. Tony has said that cultural ecotourism is appropriate because it
values Indigenous place knowledge; it allows Corindi Beach people to
live away from sources of employment in major centres and to continue to
engage in cultural practices of land management for cultural survival.
Yarrawarra markets itself in the context of the intersection of
discourses of ecotourism and market exchange and cultural maintenance.
The general objectives of Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation are
expressed, not in terms of market viability, but in terms of their
primary desire 'to strengthen and foster the development of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity and culture'
(Yarrawarra 1996). It is important that the development of their
ecotourism strategy and the research project be seen in this context.
The Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) was also important
at the time to support tourism projects. Members of the Corporation have
been involved in cultural ecotourism since 1987. The Corporation's
targets for the year 2000 (Yarrawarra 1996) included:
* Establish as major tourist operator in cultural experiences
* To be at Arating as conference holders and service providers in
cultural education
* Full-time employment for CDEP employees in culture and history
* To be a recognised label internationally and locally in the
supply of quality genuine art. Within the context of their desire to
preserve 'their identity and culture', Yarrawarra has taken up
the discourses of market exchange with their emphasis on marketing of
cultural experiences, competition in the marketplace, attention to both
international and local markets and the marketing of art objects as well
as tourist products.
The current business situation is summed up (Yarrawarra 1996) thus:
A platform has been laid for forward progress in
viability of projects established. However, some
projects require urgent funding to capture their
intended markets. If this is not done unfortunately
these projects will fail through market loss.
There is some sense of urgency expressed here in the desire to
capture local and international markets and the proposed research
project fits into this gap. Tony Perkins, Manager of Yarrawarra and
collaborator in the research proposal, in a meeting about the proposed
project, emphasised his desire in relation to knowledge about their
prehistory. He drew an open book in the sand with a line in the middle
of the page to signify 1900 and said 'We know a lot about this time
[after 1900] and we'd like to find out what happened up to here
[before 1900]'. So, how does a research project answer these
questions?
In developing the research proposal, we decided that information
was needed from a variety of sources, including archaeology, oral
history, and palaeo-ecology to include in the material that was required
to service the range of educational and visitor groups. Yarrawarra
Corporation considered that, in order satisfy increasing visitor demand,
the organisation needed to research more of the local sites to provide
accessible and accurate material for the growing tourist market. The
newly constructed accommodation building is expected to increase the
numbers of tourists, especially international visitors, and to put
considerable pressure on Yarrawarra to offer a high-quality tourist
product. Jacobs and Gale (1994) argued that, in order to ensure
high-quality tourism, information and educational material should be
easily accessible, accurate, stimulating and available for a range of
different visitor interests and requirements. Such material also ensures
protection of the sites by increasing respect and appreciation of them
(Jacobs and Gale 1994:123).
'Getting the message out'--sharing Indigenous knowledge
The rationale for tourism at Yarrawarra Corporation, however, is
about getting Aboriginal place stories from Corindi Beach
'out' to the community. Tony Perkins (1998) outlined the
history of the Corporation:
Yarrawarra was a dream ... going back in about the
1980s. The reason why we decided that we needed a
Corporation like this was to show the real value of the
Aboriginal culture ... its history, that virtually was
never known about and ... I don't think anyone pushed
hard enough or may be they weren't allowed to at that
time to establish these kind of organisations to show
that the culture is really alive ... on the ... on the
coastline of NSW. So basically that's why this
Corporation was set up to establish ... all those types of
aims and objectives, to get the message out that
Yarrawarra and where it's based had real culture and
real history that was very important to the Aboriginal
people living here.
How we've had to go about that was to first establish
an organisation and then start very slowly in getting the
elders of the tribe from this area to work as a clan group
to work out what information we could give regarding
the tradition of the tribe how do we put together
educational programs and what sorts of on-site stuff
can we do and then we thought maybe we can justify
that there is still an Aboriginal existence still along the
coastline ...
We can't ... we can't continue to be a hidden race of
people and we've come to terms there ... there is only
one way to get this message out, but at the same time
we have to be very careful, we don't want to lose, we
don't want to lose the full power of the tradition and
the culture and some of the secrets that need to be kept.
But at the same time we must let go so much of that to
be ... I suppose ... identified as a race of people that still
have the knowledge and that still live here in this area.
We think what we have done is working ... the elders
believe that knowledge must go out to a certain extent
and hat we must ourselves work out an educational
system where it'll benefit all people in this country.
Cultural maintenance and relationships to place
Cheryl Brown, a researcher from Yarrawarra Corporation, outlines
the reasons why communicating how Aborigines relate to place today is
important in addressing stereotyped views that tourists and others have
of Indigenous peoples. She says (C. Perkins 1998):
We as Aboriginal people from Yarrawarra have had
dealings with many different cultures and have heard
many different versions on what they think its like to be
an Aboriginal person living in today's society.
'Where are the real Aborigines?', and 'Did you used to
be an Aboriginal?' are some of the questions that people
ask, and while walking down the Bush Track I heard a
student say 'I don't eat Bush Tucker, I only eat real
food'. This made me laugh, because I didn't think you
could get any more real than eating bushtucker. So even
though some of us might choose to wear clothes, and
don't live in humpies, or chase the odd kangaroo it
doesn't mean that we are less an Aboriginal than our
ancestors before us. It just means that we have learnt to
adjust to a different way of living, but still not
forgetting who we are, where we come from, and what
our culture means.
Well as you can see there are different types of
comments from the general community, and other
overseas tourist. And even though eating the kangaroo
to some tourists, was like the thought of 'Eating
Skippy', I think this goes hand in hand with the thought
of eating 'Flipper' or deep-frying 'Willy'.
Australia has always been a multi-cultural society, with
hundreds of language groups. However now there is
pressure on Aboriginal people to present a similar
cultural picture all over Australia. At Yarrawarra we
wish to show visitors that Aboriginal Culture is not just
didgeridoos and dot painting. This is the reason that we
are gathering all this information together about
Gumbaingirr lifestyles and to help maintain and
develop Gumbaingirr culture, to make the young ones
proud.
So an important part of our research was making visible some of the
stories of the landscape that have not been previously visible to
non-Indigenous peoples (Somerville et al. 1999) as well as inspiring
Gumbaingirr young persons.
We were looking for a new way of presenting these various kinds of
place practices to outsiders, by working with archaeology and oral
history to develop a more productive relationship and a deeper
understanding of place. Previous research at Corindi Beach either had
taken an archaeological focus using time as an organising principle
(McBryde 1974:195), or had been based on very brief periods of
fieldwork, such as that for environmental impact consultancy reports
(Cane 1988; Morris 1994). While all of these relatively brief studies
(e.g. sixteen oral history fieldwork days) suggested a long and intimate
association of Corindi Beach people with significant places in the area,
they were not designed to be comprehensive research documents,
theoretical statements or interpretative material. More detailed
research was required and, since 1995, recognising areas of mutual
interest, Yarrawarra and the University of New England have designed and
carried out a large research project to address these gaps. We
considered that 'place' was a more appropriate framework for
interdisciplinary work aimed at revealing hidden places, and that a
productive relationship between oral history and archaeology would
involve an integrated knowledge base, without co-option or dominance by
one discipline over the other and with the possibility of movement
between. We propose the idea of conversation as a way to conceptualise the relationship between the two disciplines.
Creative interpretation of places
Our original objective was to propose how oral and archaeological
information may be integrated into a creative interpretation of cultural
sites. We started by jointly identifying five site clusters (Arrawarra,
Corindi Beach north, Corindi Beach south, Old Camp, Red Rock) which then
formed the basis of place categories and each interpretive book was
based on one of these clusters. We have moved from the idea of
integration, where often an artificial relationship is created, to one
of conceptualising the relationship as conversations involving a
movement between the two.
With place as an enabler, we found conversation allowed archaeology
and oral history to participate in productive interdisciplinary research
to produce books for the Yarrawarra ecotourism enterprise. We defined
several kinds of conversation between oral history and archaeology:
intersecting, parallel, complementary, co-opting and conflict. As a
result of these conversational types we were able to produce a richer
interpretation of placeness through: (1) embedding specific objects in
community of meaning, (2) adding an extra strand of parallel information
about place-based behaviours, (3) complementing information from each
source, and (4) answering questions that would otherwise be
unanswerable. We found that less satisfactory understandings arose
through co-opting one knowledge into the other. Consequently the richest
understandings of place at Yarrawarra were developed through
interdisciplinary conversations.
For example, in the production of the books, the various kinds of
conversations about each individual site cluster were brought together,
with local conversations on individual pages, followed by more general
conversations crossing over all the text, with the positioning of text
about place making the conversation. This forms an analogy for the
research process as a whole. As well as representing the
interdisciplinary nature of the research, we were concerned to represent
the Corindi Beach places in an embodied way. The Arrawarra site cluster
is a creek estuary and headland (adjacent to Arrawarra township about
three kilometres south of Corindi Beach) with several different kinds of
sites, including a midden, rainmaking site and fishtrap.
Embodied places
To explore the embodiment of place in the books, we have used the
idea of the fold to illuminate the intertextual nature of the meanings
created when the different sorts of text are brought into conversation
with each other. Just as the pages are folded together in the making of
the book, so the texts are folded together, making meaning by their
relationship to each other, the rubbing together of surfaces of meaning.
Elspeth Probyn (1993), following Foucault, also uses this idea of the
fold to illustrate that the way we are, as subjects, is created by the
places we live in. The following reading of the first book in our
series, Yarrawarra Place Stories, Arrawarra: Meeting Place (Somerville
et al. 1999), analyses the book using these ideas.
The outside front cover is a photo of a single turban
shell on a background of sand. It lies alone and
unexplained, presenting not a narrative of landscape
but an image or metaphor that is open to the fold. The
meaning of this image is created by the other texts in
the book and also by you the reader/subject reading
yourself into the landscape of these stories. What do
you see? How do you insert yourself into this picture?
In the bottom left a small black and white photo of a
group of five elders Keith Lardner, Bing Laurie, Jerry
Flanders, Bruce Laurie and Michael McDougall is
inserted into this landscape. They sit on the ground,
signifying their belonging to this place. The black and
white photo of the elders superimposed on colour of
the sand gives them a different form of authority, a
keyhole through which we can enter the stories of this
place. The title Arrawarra: Meeting place suggests that
the book is not about place in the abstract but people in
the landscape.
To unfold the inside of the book to an alternative
reading Margaret Somerville will trace three lines of
inquiry as they are represented in text and image--the
body, language and landscape.
Body
The first line of inquiry, linking with the image of the
turban shell on the cover, is the body. According to
feminist philosophers (Grosz 1994; Kirby 1991) the
body is erased in Western texts and constituting new
subjectivities first involves writing the body back into
our representations of ourselves in place. I have argued
elsewhere that the absence of the body is the
fundamental grounds of violation of landscape
(Somerville 1999). How is the body and body
knowledge evident in this text?
The turban shell on the front cover is first and foremost
an embodied form produced in and of its place. The
pearly spiral form of the turban shell on the front cover
is seen again on the inside front and back covers as part
of the dense lens of the midden. 'It was the physicality
of the site--the midden was so obvious on the beach
for so many years, so dense it was almost shocking, so
robust it was almost edible--shell, bone, stone' (Smith
in Somerville et al. 1999:24). The close-up of the midden
lens at eye level shows something of the physicality and
intensity of this site. At least three turban shells, their
inside spiral form exposed in various stages of
decomposition, are wedged amongst other shells or
suspended by fine root hairs from the collapsing
overhang of the dune.
The book was developed around the centre page
double-spread of a series of linked photos of the
midden lens. Around the photos are the names of some
of the fish and shellfish identified in the midden and
along the bottom of the page the language words
connected with that landscape. The story of the midden
is about shells and their bodies, about us and our
bodies. It is about eating-place. It is where people came
to eat a massive feast next to the fish trap, the plentiful
rock platform and the rich supply of food in the estuary
where the river meets the sea--a meeting place of
currents, environments and stories. We know that the
dense layer of shells was formed about 1000 years ago
over a very brief period of time. The conditions that
made the feast possible were times of a rich abundance
of food. The men tell stories about the mullet running at
such a time, "you can smell them in the waves" and
"the waves are so full they can hardly break".
"They're just a continuous flow of mullet along the
beach and it looked like one permanent cloud on the
shoreline for months on end, just travellin'--you'll see
millions and millions of white butterflies flyin' up the
coast here--and that's the start of the mullet season."
This is body knowledge--knowledge of the rhythms
and movements of place produced by living in and of a
place. The abundance and materiality of the midden is
reflected in the archaeological analysis of the bone and
shell remains found there.
"The midden contains a broad range of shellfish ... the
turbo or googumbal is the most common. ... Shellfish
provide the basic matrix of the midden and the
alkalinity of the shells helps to preserve the bone. It is a
story of bodies, materiality and eating place."
The cooking page, after the archaeological analysis,
shows some of the bodily qualities of contemporary
eating place practices. Part of my learning was to find
and cook googumbals.
"The googumbals are ready when the door comes loose
and the flesh starts to come out. You have to pull the
flesh out like pulling a plug (a bit like giving birth)
there's a slight woosh and you get a release of liquid
and the whole lot comes out elongated and then recoils.
We lay them on the board and look at their whole
form curled up into their little coils and we have to
work out which ones are males and which ones female.
Nan (Marie Edwards) says Just cut off the green bit on the
end. The little green bit, that's supposed to be the male. And
the other one's yellow, like an egg, that's the female, you eat
that. We used to eat them with damper."
Bruce Laurie still eats them today and we have
included his recipe for curried googumbal patties.
Bruce corrected our original recipe in the feedback
stage of the process of making the book. He insisted we
add the Keen's curry powder. Precise details of
language were important in the making of the books.
Language
We enter Arrawarra stories through language. In the
Arrawarra book, words are produced by and about
bodies and of places.
Bing says, "biyambeigu yural Yarrawarra", Be happy
and eat food at Yarrawarra, inviting us all to join in
eating, a traditional form of welcome to Yarrawarra
country.
For language speakers at Yarrawarra, "lingo" as it is
commonly known, is a site of embodied power
connected to place and learning language is a very
embodied experience. Words are produced by the
contact of surfaces between body and place. Language
can be learned.
Landscape
Arrawarra landscape language words are repeated at
the bottom of every page of the booklet so that nonspeakers
can become familiar with at least the shape of
these words that sound the landscape. The words at the
bottom of the pages of each book are words which
belong to this landscape--gargul, gooren, goloonay,
buloongull, midgin, googumbull; waves, wind, big
rain, mullet, flathead, turban shell. Language is
understood by Merleau-Ponty as the self-enfolding of
the flesh. "Language is the result of, or is made possible
by the dehiscence or folding back of the flesh of the
world (Merleau-Ponty in Grosz 1994:102)". Through
learning a language we are invited to participate in
landscape stories differently.
But even language is already hybridised; there is no
pure essence of place. Bing uses English spellings to
write language words that have never been written and
language talk is commonly known as lingo, a
reclaiming of the derogatory term of early white
settlers. Even more hybridised, Aboriginal English
carries the full meaning of the stories of place we
recorded. If we look at the stories of the mullet running
for instance, there is a double fold of the outside to the
inside. English has been bent to sound these place
stories and in this lies the possibility that we too can be
folded into this landscape through these hybrid stories
of place.
Multiple stories of place are folded together in the book
and different meanings can be made through the
contact of the surfaces. We know from oral history that
when the mullet were running there was an abundance
of food and people would gather at Arrawarra from all
over--it was a place for a big feast. We know from
language recordings what the words for the foods were
and how they sound the shape of the landscape. The
archaeology of the midden tells a parallel story through
positivist, scientific methods of data collection and
analysis. There are no oral memories of the midden.
Archaeology tells the story of a massive amount of food
remains created over a relatively short period of time
about 1000 years ago. It tells us the sort of things that
people probably ate during these feasts and what
proportion of each was represented in the midden.
There is a complex multiple and embodied
representation of place when different modes of telling
and knowing have conversations in intersecting,
parallel, complementary and contradictory ways.
[FIUGRE 2 OMITTED]
Conclusion
Various innovative ways of constructing places for tourists have
been explored in this article; constructions based on detailed research
and reading of landscapes. Places of significance in the area of the
Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation were studied using a range of methods,
especially archaeology and oral history, to find out how an Indigenous
people have related over time to places in five site clusters. Data
collection and analysis were carried out collaboratively, overcoming the
critical problem of appropriation of knowledge and material remains by
outsiders; information from multiple sources was integrated within an
Indigenous perspective; and the outcomes were used by Yarrawarra
Aboriginal Corporation to produce a range of information books, leaflets
and educational kits for their ecotourism enterprise. We used the idea
of embodied places to construct a book about Arrawarra (the first in a
series) that emphasises different ways of knowing and telling about
places. There are three themes: body, language and landscape. The bodies
of shellfish and fish, through cooking and eating are represented by the
materiality of the Arrawarra midden, and the Indigenous language words
are repeated on each page to represent Arrawarra landscape. The contact
between body and place through words and pictures is a way of directly
connecting the reader with the place. The theme of representing
Yarrawarra Aboriginal heritage places as embodied is a new way of
constructing places for the tourist gaze. One that puts the viewer (the
visitor) in the same frame as the viewed (the local Indigenous people).
Acknowledgements
We thank all the members of the project research team: Dee Murphy,
Cheryl Perkins, Tony Perkins (all from Yarrawarra), and Anita Smith (ARC
Research Fellow) for their sustained input into this project. We also
acknowledge the assistance of the Garby Elders and Yarrawarra Aboriginal
Corporation and its members. Their help was essential for the completion
of this project. Financial and in-kind assistance for the project has
also been provided by the Australian Research Council (Grant C5970052 to
Beck, Murphy and Somerville), the NSW National Parks and Wildlife
Service, the Australia Foundation for Culture and the Humanities, NSW
Marine Parks Authority, Coastcare, Coffs Harbour Waterways Catchment Management Committee, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission Many Rivers Regional Council.
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Wendy Beck is an academic at University of New England and an
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School of Human and Environment Studies, University of New England,
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Margaret Somerville is an academic at University of New England and
she has a passionate interest in people and landscape. In this project
she works as an oral historian, collecting place stories.
School of Professional Development and Leadership, University of
New England, Armidale, 2351, <msomervi@metz.une.edu.au>