Search results

New and converging technologies in administration and mapping have enabled property rights to become disconnected from the facts of occupation and possession of land. By the time native title was recognised in the Mabo decision (1992) the primary representation of land tenure was in digital cadastres¹ created and controlled by Federal and State bureaucracies. Native title was immediately cast as a spatial question. The location of native title rights was determined within the confines of a map of existing legal interests in the land. In this paper, I consider how the spatial orientation of property has affected the nature and expression of native title rights in Australia.

British colonization of Australia had lasting consequences for Australia’s legal system. Although designed as a “one law for all system” based on the English common law, the reality was, and is, that there have always been people regulating their lives according to their own distinctive culture and religion. Recognition of de facto legal pluralism, has only recently given rise to instances of de jure legal recognition. The latter necessitated a role for cultural expertise in a range of legal cases. The first considered is how social science expertise was employed in redressing the dispossession of the continent’s first peoples: indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. The landmark case of Mabo No 2 laid the legal ground for native title land ownership which fueled a demand for cultural experts in indigenous traditions, laws, and customs. The second aspect is Australia’s response to recent immigration from non-European nations, including from Muslim countries. Many Muslims continue to regulate their interpersonal relationships exclusively, or partially, by principles of Islamic law and their “homeland” culture. This is particularly evident in family matters and the prism for exploring the nascent role for cultural expertise is through post-divorce parenting orders. The third issue is the extent to which a court can accept an accused’s cultural practice or religious belief as a defense to a criminal act or omission. In all three, who is a “cultural expert” can be contentious. While cultural expertise in indigenous matters is well established, the role for cultural experts in the resolution of family disputes and criminal cases is just emerging.

The historian Patrick Wolfe reminds us that the settler colonial logic of eliminating native societies to gain unrestricted access to their territory is not a phenomenon confined to the distant past. As Wolfe (2006, p. 388) writes, “settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event.” In the Gulf of Carpentaria region in Australia’s Northern Territory this settler colonial “logic of elimination” continues through mining projects that extract capital for transnational corporations while contaminating Indigenous land, overriding Indigenous law and custom and undermining Indigenous livelihoods. However, some Garawa, Gudanji, Marra, and Yanyuwa peoples are using creative ways to fight back, exhibiting “story paintings” to show how their people experience the destructive impacts of mining. We cannot know yet the full impact of this creative activism. But their body of work suggests it has the potential to challenge colonial institutions from below, inspiring growing networks of resistance and a collective meaning-making through storytelling that is led by Indigenous peoples on behalf of the living world.

This opinion piece by Brye Marshall, an Aboriginal archaeologist, and Julie Nichols, an academic in architecture and digital humanities, explores the agency and authority of intangible cultural heritage [ICH], particularly from a First Nations’ perspective.

They consider how ICH is defined, valued, and supported within contemporary cultural institutions like galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM], which are custodians of Australian cultural heritage. The piece discusses the challenges of recording Indigenous arts and knowledge outside of Indigenous communities, without recognition or benefits to Indigenous people. The discussion extends to the Western-centric definition of cultural heritage and its limitation in recognising Indigenous world views. The authors acknowledge ongoing debates around best practice in acknowledging Indigenous knowledge and narratives in historical records.

This chapter concludes that redefining ICH from Indigenous perspectives could empower communities, redefine heritage definitions, and contribute to global conversations about heritage, climate change, urban development, and connection to land.

The laws and policies pertaining to foreign land ownership in Malaysia have seen tremendous changes for the past two decades. The reasons may be linked to economic, political and social factors. The changes, as claimed, have to be carried out to accommodate the current needs and circumstances. Nevertheless, at the same time, frequent changes would also create uncertainty and insecurity to the purchaser especially the investors. The Malaysian government has made various efforts towards becoming a developed country, trying hard to attract foreign investors to invest in the country. At the same time, a reasonable consideration must be given to the needs of its own people. Moreover, it is equally important to protect and to ensure that the people’s right shall not be sacrificed for the sake of development and especially when all the benefits will go to only a certain class of people. The history of foreign land ownership policy especially on the restrictions imposed by the laws and policies are worth noting. The legal perspectives are delineated from some important statutes such as the National Land Code, 1965, the Malay Reserve Enactments, the Malay Agricultural Settlement Act, the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954, and also the restrictions imposed by the states since land is a state matter in Malaysia. Furthermore, some of the restrictions are traceable in the policies determined by the relevant ministries. Following this, the implication of these restrictions on foreign land ownership and also property market will be addressed.

This paper investigates how contemporary public policy for public-private partnerships (PPPs) deals with non-financial values and thereby shapes the way social, cultural and environmental issues are accounted for.

A case study critically analyses PPP policy in Victoria, Australia, an acknowledged leader in the area. The investigation of the policy’s approach to non-financial value focusses on the treatment of social and environmental issues, particularly in relation to indigenous cultural heritage values.

It is found that important non-financial issues are characterised as risks to be quantified and monetised in PPP project assessment. A critical analysis shows that this approach obscures many significant dimensions of social, environmental and Indigenous cultural heritage value. The resultant relegation of non-financial values in public discourse and decision-making is seen to entrench unsustainable practices.

The paper shows how public policy may shape actions and outcomes that impact directly on social, environmental and indigenous cultural heritage values.

This study provides insights into contemporary social and environmental accounting and accountability for PPPs. It adds to the understanding of the implications of public policy framings of non-financial values.

Aboriginal people have property rights and interests in land and waters arising from traditional law and custom. Their traditional relationship to land is dual in character, having spiritual and material dimensions; i.e. they belong to the land and they own it too. The root of their traditional aboriginal title is found in the creative acts of the ancestral Stories in the Story‐Time and from the unbroken links of spirit which connect them and their deceased ancestors with specific land and sea country.

In 2020, mining activity by Rio Tinto destroyed rock caves in Western Australia's Juukan Gorge that are considered sacred sites by the First Nation Peoples of that area, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Peoples. This paper examines the public response to the damage caused at this culturally sensitive site and identifies cultural heritage protection strategies that emerged in the aftermath of this catastrophic event.

This research applies a qualitative case study method and analysis of open-sourced official policy documents, media reports and published institutional statements.

The research identified specific cultural heritage protection strategies, including stakeholder-driven advocacy and shared values approach to business practices to help foster a greater appreciation of the connections between people, objects and lands. Whilst the mining activities were considered lawful, significant gaps in the legislation to protect heritage sites were also exposed.

Using a recent case that occurred in 2020, this paper unpacks how the motivations for accessing minerals can override cultural sensibilities and legal/ethical frameworks established to protect cultural heritage. This paper brings to light the liabilities associated with the mining industry when operating in a culturally significant environment where appropriate due diligence to manage cultural heritage is not thoroughly applied. The paper highlights the role the community can play in demanding improved corporate social responsibility which can, in turn, act as a strategy for cultural heritage protection.

The purpose of this paper is to review and describe the teamwork, collaboration and learning experiences involved in meeting the unique challenges of establishing a new digital library for Syriac collections. The eBetharké Syriac Digital Library Portal is a collaborative effort between the libraries at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and the Beth Mardutho Syriac Institute, a traditional library of texts, to create a specialized digital library collection online. This digital library features content in and relating to Syriac, an Aramaic dialect spoken in the first century A.D. and for which a great deal of historically significant documents was written during the period.

This task required effort and research on multiple fronts, including software development; collaboration on technical, interpersonal and policy-based levels; and in overcoming challenges related to the predominant computing platforms installed and in use by potential users of this digital library.

This collaboration provided significant new challenges and learning experiences among the staff who worked on this project and provides a base upon which our digital library platforms can diversify and be more culturally aware.

There have been increasing calls within the academic community for better support in the technological space for this and other contemporary languages of the region. Creation of such a platform and expanding it significantly would benefit scholars of Middle Eastern texts in much the same way digital repositories have revolutionized online text access for the Western world.

The project is unique in that it is believed to the first production-level, digital preservation-specific Syriac digital library of its kind. It supports the display of metadata and descriptive details for digital library objects not just in English, but in Arabic and Syriac languages as well, where appropriate

This paper aims to track the evolution of an innovative Aboriginal tourism business model with deliberate social and community enterprise objectives in a remote setting.

It adopts an in-depth exploratory case study approach to discover key characteristics of an emerging tourism enterprise. The qualitative data sources include publically available planning, promotional and organizational materials, in-depth interviews with key informants and on-site observations. Yunus et al.’s (2010) social business model provides the framework for the case analysis.

Findings highlight the gradual deepening of Indigenous engagement – from simply providing a place for a non-Indigenous tourism business – to running a fully Indigenous-controlled, staffed and themed on-country tourism business. Complementing existing non-Indigenous tourism experiences reduced the need for start-up infrastructure and market recognition, thus reducing business risk for the Traditional Owners. Despite substantial changes in the business structure in response to political and maturation factors, the core motivations seemed to remain strong. The business model facilitates value creation to stakeholders in varying ways.

The contextual nature of Indigenous tourism reflects limitations of qualitative case study methodology.

The resulting business model provides a contextually appropriate structure to engage in tourism for achieving cultural and societal goals. It mitigates against the identified risk of low market demand for Indigenous tourism experiences by connecting with established non-Indigenous tourism products, while also allowing for product offering independent thereof.

Social benefits are high and have potential for replication in similar contexts elsewhere.

The paper contributes to the emerging research on culturally appropriate business models in Indigenous tourism contexts and validates a strategy to overcome low demand. It offers a model that for the tourist facilitates a sustainable experience which enables co-production while for the hosts fosters community resilience, intergenerational learning and improved livelihoods. The case highlights opportunities for further research into the interrelationship, dependencies and thresholds between the social and economic profit equations, particularly in the context of the culture conservation economy.

旅游服务文化：澳大利亚原住民旅游商业模式的演变

本文追踪了以社会及社区企业为主的偏远地区的创新原住民旅游商业模式的演变。具

本研究采用深入的探索性案例研究方法来发现新兴旅游企业的关键特征。定性数据包括可公开获得的计划, 促销和组织资料, 与主要信息提供者的深入访谈以及现场观察。 Yunus等人（2010）的社会商业模型提供了案例分析的框架。

调查结果凸显了土著人参与度的逐步深化–从简单地为非土著人旅游业务提供场所, 到经营完全由土著人控制, 配备人员以及进行主题化的国家旅游业务。丰富现有的非土著旅游体验, 可以减少对启动基础设施和市场认可的需求, 从而降低了传统业主的业务风险。尽管由于政治和成熟因素, 业务结构发生了重大变化, 但核心动机似乎仍然很强。研究得出的商业模型通过各种方式促进了利益相关者的价值创造。

土著旅游的性质反映了定性案例研究方法的局限性。

本研究中的商业模型为通过旅游业实现文化和社会目标提供了一种适当情景下的结构。通过与成熟的非土著旅游产品建立联系, 目的地缓解了针对土著旅游体验的低市场需求风险。同时本文之方案还为其独立旅游产品开发提供了可能。

此商业模式的社会效益很高, 并且有可能在其他类似情况的地方进行复制。

本文为土著旅游背景下文化相关的商业模式的新兴研究做出了贡献, 并提出并验证了克服低需求的策略。它为游客提供了一种可持续发展的体验模式, 使人们可以实现体验共创, 同时为居民提供的模式则可以提高社区的适应能力, 代际学习机会和改善生计的途径。该案例强调了进一步研究社会与经济利益之间的相互关系, 依存关系和阈值的机会, 尤其是在文化保护经济的背景下。

土著旅游, 价值创造, 共创, 文化保护经济, 社会企业, 金伯利地区

Turismo para servir a la cultura: la evolución de un modelo de negocio de Turismo Aborigen en Australia

Este documento analiza la evolución de un modelo de negocio del Turismo Aborigen innovador, con un objetivo social común y empresarial determinado en un entorno remoto.

Adopta un enfoque profundo y exploratorio de estudio de caso para descubrir las características claves de una empresa turística emergente. Las fuentes de datos cualitativos, incluyen materiales de planificación, promoción y organización de acceso público, así como entrevistas en profundidad con informantes claves y observaciones in situ. El modelo de negocio social de Yunus et al. (2010) proporciona el marco para el análisis de casos.

Los hallazgos destacan la profundización gradual de la implicación indígena, desde proporcionar simplemente un lugar para un negocio de turismo no indígena, hasta un total control de la gestión del negocio turístico con personal y temática indígena. Complementando las experiencias existentes de turismo no indígena, se redujo las necesidades iniciales de infraestructuras y reconocimiento del mercado, disminuyendo así el riesgo comercial para los Propietarios Tradicionales. A pesar de los cambios sustanciales en la estructura empresarial que los factores políticos y de maduración provocan, las motivaciones centrales parecían mantenerse fuertes. El modelo de negocios facilita la creación de valor a las partes interesadas de diversas formas.

La naturaleza contextual del turismo indígena refleja las limitaciones de la metodología de estudio de caso cualitativa.

El modelo de negocio resultante proporciona una estructura contextualmente apropiada para la implicación de las comunidades indígenas en el turismo y poder lograr objetivos culturales y sociales. Mitiga el riesgo identificado de la baja demanda del mercado de experiencias de turismo indígena, al relacionarse con productos turísticos no indígenas establecidos, al tiempo que permite la oferta de productos independientes de los mismos.

Los beneficios sociales son altos y tienen potencial de replicación en contextos similares en otros lugares.

El documento contribuye a la investigación emergente sobre modelos de negocio apropiados, desde el punto de vista cultural, en contextos de turismo indígena y valida una estrategia para superar la baja demanda. Ofrece un modelo que por un lado, facilita al turista una experiencia sostenible permitiendo la coproducción, mientras que para los anfitriones, fomenta la resiliencia comunitaria, el aprendizaje intergeneracional y mejora los medios de ganarse la vida. El caso resalta las oportunidades para una mayor investigación sobre la interrelación, las dependencias y los límites entre la ecuación de beneficios sociales y económicos, particularmente en el contexto de la economía de preservación cultural.

Turismo indígena, creación de valor, coproducción, economía de preservación cultural, empresa social, región de kimberley

Trabajo de investigación