Jon Altman

Tourism dilemmas for aboriginal Australians

Abstract Tourism is regarded by policymakers as a leading sector for the economic development of north Australia. Several key destinations in the Northern Territory are located on Aboriginal land and the culture is used to market the region. Tourism is frequently presented as the only option available to remote Aboriginal communities to both improve their marginal economic status and to reduce their high dependence on the welfare state. This paper, based on data collected at four locations, argues that while recent ownership of important destinations gives Aboriginal interests increased economic leverage, tourism will not provide an instant panacea. Economic, political, and sociocultural reasons for tourisms limited development potential are discussed.

Observing the economy

1. Introduction 2. The theory/data dialectic 3. Land and Environment 4. Labour and its Organisation 5. Technology 6. Output - Surpluses and deficits 7. Distribution and exchange 8. Consumption 9. Economics, Politics, religion and ideology 10. Interpreting Economic data.

Sustainable development in the indigenous-owned savanna: Innovative institutional design for cooperative wildlife management

This study examines a particular form of cooperative wildlife management on Aboriginal land in the tropical savanna of the Northern Territory of Australia, in the context of broader questions about governance. It asks how governance at the local or community level can be designed to ensure sustainable development and real economic benefit for the region’s long-term indigenous residents. It is argued here that sustainable development will require hybrid institutions that accommodate and value the principles and practices of indigenous resource management, while also recognising the benefits of broader regional resource governance. Emerging best practice in wildlife harvesting that is founded on careful scientific assessments of sustainability is identified, and an approach to northern development based on sustainability and locally controlled commercialisation is canvassed. Future challenges to the proposed approach include convincing governments and state agencies of its national as well as regional benefits. Reform of governance to facilitate its rapid implementation is desirable, in the context of the relative poverty currently experienced by many indigenous people in tropical north Australia.

The comparative cost of food and beverages at remote Indigenous communities, Northern Territory, Australia

Objective: To determine the average price difference between foods and beverages in remote Indigenous community stores and capital city supermarkets and explore differences across products.

Mobility and Modernity in Arnhem Land The Social Universe of Kuninjku Trucks

This article explores the central role played by vehicles in a contradictory set of social processes that have unfolded in western Arnhem Land, north Australia, over the last five decades. Motor vehicles have mediated much of humanitys experience of the world over the past century. Kuninjku peoples interaction with motor vehicles, we argue, provides one revealing lens through which to explore a distinctive and ambiguous experience of modernity. This article explores the role vehicles play in mediating Kuninjku interaction across diverse arenas — their customary lands, an expanding regional social universe occupied by kin, the Australian nation-state, and finally an increasingly globalized world. Briefly exploring the process by which vehicles were introduced into Kuninjku country, we then track key transformations in Kuninjku life through a series of historical phases. The distinctive Kuninjku values that govern use of vehicles are explored. In conclusion the article reflects on the paradoxical nature of Kuninjku experience of late modernity and the fragility of their apparent success in realizing their aspirations.

The Indigenous Land Corporation: An Analysis of Its Performance Five Years On

The Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) is a relatively new Commonwealth statutory authority which commenced its operations on 5 June 1995. It is new not only in the sense of its short existence, but also in the unique framework enshrined in its enabling legislation that aims to provide improved outcomes in Indigenous land acquisition and land management. This article explores this unique policy and operational framework, contrasts it with past Commonwealth policies and practices for Indigenous land acquisition and management, and assesses the ILC’s performance in its initial five years. The article argues that notwithstanding this new framework, the potential for future success will lie in the ability of the ILC to substantially address long-standing issues in the management of the Indigenous estate which now comprises in excess of 15 percent of Australia.

Managing forest country: Aboriginal Australians and the forest sector

Summary Aboriginal Australians have diverse interests in forest, encompassing cultural, economic, environmental and social values. Historically, the agencies and industries comprising the forest sector have engaged with only some of these interests, and have typically done so in a fragmented fashion. Our research with Aboriginal communities around Australia suggests a myriad of opportunities for a broadly defined forests sector, but this requires improved relationships between Aboriginal people and the dominant society and much deeper understanding of diverse Aboriginal aspirations at the local level. The National Indigenous Forestry Strategy promotes these aspirations, but requires a much stronger commitment from governments if it is to deliver them.

Indigenous Rights, Mining Corporations, and the Australian State

This chapter examines the relationship between indigenous people, mining corporations, and the state in liberal democratic, rich and minerals export dependent Australia. I begin by briefly describing indigenous societies at first contact and then trace the devastation of the hunter-gatherer economy as state and settler colonization expanded. Today, indigenous people are an encapsulated and marginalized minority in a settler-majority society. It is only in the last 30 years that progressive laws and judicial findings have seen considerable tracts of marginal land returned to indigenous ownership. However, land rights and native title laws provide no recognition of indigenous rights in commercially valuable resources, including minerals.

Indigenous Livelihoods and Art Income: participation, production and returns from woodcarvings in Arnhem Land, north Australia

Abstract Participation in the Indigenous visual arts sector provides one of few market opportunities for Indigenous Australians resident on remote Aboriginal lands. In this article we examine the economic factors that influence this market engagement as they relate to woodcarving in the Maningrida region of Arnhem Land. In particular, we look at the factors that affect participation, production and monetary returns using scan and focal sampling, resource accounting and sales data from the regional art centre. Artists were engaged in a range of activities of which art production was the prominent means of productive cash income generation. An artists residence and also their language community were found to influence the amount of sculpture production undertaken, with artists residing on ‘country’ in the hinterland being more engaged in sculpture production than those living in the township of Maningrida. The annual income earned by an artist for carving was highly variable and a large proportion of woodcarvers also earned income from producing artwork in other media. Capital costs were relatively minor, with travel costs and labour the main input into carving production. Based on the average return for a single woodcarving,

20 Years of aboriginal woodcarving in Arnhem Land, Australia: using art sales records to examine the dynamics of sculpture production.

160, we estimate the average hourly return to artists as between