Authenticity in tourism and Native Title: Place,time and spatial politics in the East Kimberley

This study examines the concepts of authenticity involved in the production and consumption of tourist experiences in the East Kimberley region of northern Australia. It contrasts the notions of authenticity produced in this domain with those produced in the legal context of indigenous land claims made through the Native Title process (Native Title Act 1993) in Australia. Our aim in making this comparison is to develop a deeper understanding of how the place-images of tourism relate to the politics of land use and land tenure in the East Kimberley. Environment and Aboriginal culture are the two unique aspects of northern Australia most commonly commodified by the tourism industry. We concentrate on relationships between the tourism industry and Aboriginal culture in the East Kimberley using the term 'Aboriginal cultural tourism' to denote the packaging of Aboriginal culture for tourist consumption. We describe experiences and expectations of tourists, tourism operators and Aboriginal people from the Miriuwung and Gajerrong groups regarding Aboriginal cultural tourism. Drawing on a multi-method approach that includes interviews, field observations and survey techniques we examine how ideas of authenticity are formed and promoted and their potential for change. We then compare and contrast ideas of authentic Aboriginal culture produced within the tourism industry with those produced within a Native Title claim. Interrogated in this way, the concept of authenticity is interpreted as a socially constructed value that provides a means to understanding how Aboriginal cultural tourism and tourism more generally connects with broader spatial politics. Cette étude examine les concepts d'authenticité impliqués dans la production et consommation d'expériences touristiques dans la région de Kimberley Est, située dans le Nord de l'Australie. Elle compare les notions d'authenticité issues de ce domaine avec celle produites dans le contexte légal de revendications territoriales aborigènes, menées selon le processus de Status Aborigène (Native Title Act 1993) en Australie. Par cette comparaison, notre but dans est de développer une meilleure compréhension de la façon dont les images touristiques locales sont reliées aux débats politiques concernant la propriété et l'utilisation du sol dans la région de Kimberley Est. L'environnement et la culture aborigène sont les deux aspects uniques du Nord de l'Australie les plus couramment appropriés par l'industrie touristique. Nous nous concentrons sur les relations entre l'industrie touristique et la culture aborigène en utilisant le terme 'tourisme culturel aborigène' afin de dénoter comment la culture aborigène est présentée pour fins de consommation touristique. Nous décrivons les expériences et attentes des touristes, des guides et des aborigènes appartenant aux groupes Miriuwung et Gajerrong envers ce tourisme culturel aborigène. A partir d'une approche multiple incluant entrevues, observations de terrain et différentes techniques d'enquête, nous examinons comment s'effectue la formation et promotion du concept d'authenticité et nous analysons son potentiel de changement. Nous comparons et contrastons ensuite l'idée d'une authenticité culturelle aborigène émergeant de l'industrie touristique avec celle produite par le biais de revendication du Statut Aborigène. Dans cette approche, le concept d'authenticité est envisagé comme étant le résultat d'un processus social capable d'ouvrir des voies d'analyse sur les façons dont le tourisme culturel aborigène, et le tourisme en général, est relié à une politique de l'espace beaucoup plus large. Esta investigación examina los conceptos de autenticidad que corresponden a la producción y el consumo de experiencias turísticas en la región de East Kimberley en el norte de Australia. Compara las nociones de autenticidad producidas en este campo con aquellas producidas en el contexto legal de las reclamaciones de tierra indígena realizadas por el proceso de Título Nativo (Native Title Act 1993) en Australia. Con esta comparación pretendemos llegar a una comprensión más amplia de cómo las imágenes turísticas del lugar encajan con las políticas de uso de tierra y de tenencia de tierra en el East Kimberley. El medio ambiente y la cultura aborígena son los dos aspectos únicos del norte de Australia más frecuentemente mercanceados para el turismo. Enfocamos en la relación entre la industria turística y la cultura aborígena en el East Kimberley, utilizando el término 'turismo cultural aborígena' para indicar el empacamiento de la cultura aborígena para consumo turístico. Describimos las experiencias y las expectativas de turistas, operadores de viajes y gente aborígena de los grupos Miriuwung y Gajerrong con respecto al turismo cultural aborígena. Haciendo uso de entrevistas, observaciones del campo y encuestas analizamos cómo las ideas de autenticidad son formadas y fomentadas y su potencia para efectuar cambios. Después comparamos las ideas de lo que es la auténtica cultura aborígena generadas en la indústria turística con las ideas producidas en una reclamación de Título Nativo. Así interrogado, el concepto de autenticidad es interpretado como un valor de construcción social que nos ayuda a entender como el turismo cultural aborígena, y el turismo en general, enlaza con una política de espacio más amplia.     

Cosmopolitan or ethnically identified selves? Institutional expectations and the negotiated identities of international students

The identities of young people, including students, are influenced by their institutional contexts. In central Melbourne over the past decade, international students largely from Southeast Asia have been presented with the expectations of universities in which they are enrolled and churches with which many are affiliated. But the subject positions offered to students by universities and churches diverge: universities expect of their students cross-cultural interaction and a forming global cosmopolitanism, whilst churches expect devoutness to be exhibited through close interaction amongst international students, often in national and ethnically specific groupings. Drawing from lengthy interviews with students and institutional service providers, this paper finds that the influence of religious organisations on the social forming of students is more direct and effective than the influence of universities. The churches draw their student members tightly and persuasively into ethnically identified groups, whose members enact a sociality almost entirely conducted in relation to those churches. The universities, in contrast, are less directive and insistent about their expectations of cosmopolitan interactions. Students whose sociality seems compliant with university statements are those whose plans to be cosmopolitan were developed independently of university expectations.     

Striking similarities: representing South Asian women's industrial action in Britain

The focus of this article is two significant episodes in British labour politics. The first is the Grunwick strike between 1976 and 1978; the second a dispute at Gate Gourmet that began in 2005. In both disputes, women of South Asian origin were the key actors and their legacy has been constructed through striking imagery as one in which against the odds exotic or passive Others became unexpected heroines of industrial struggle. These representations retained their power, despite significant social, economic and political changes in ‘post-Fordist’ Britain, including in the political rights of strikers, and in the participation and position of both women and minority workers in the labour force. Drawing on interviews with South Asian women involved in each dispute, this article challenges these representations and their significance in accounts of the action, documenting the complex, multiple motives of South Asian women involved in labour politics in the UK.     

Friendship and love in the lives of two twelfth-century English saints

For twelfth-century religious the vow of chastity did not mean renouncing a rich affective life. Along with the love of God, Aelred of Rievaulx and Christina of Markyate both found room in their lives for profound emotional relationships with several individuals. These relationships were not carnal but to call them ‘friendship’ underestimates their strength and passion. The modern distinction between passionate sexual love and passionless asexual friendship is inappropriate here. ‘Spiritual love’ best describes these relationships: deep and exclusive without being carnal, involving the passions of the soul rather than those of the body. Vitae survive for both Christina and Aelred, and Aelred also wrote several treatises on the subject of love and friendship. The biographers and Aelred himself followed in a medieval tradition of using the language of erotic love to describe spiritual relationships. These spiritual love relationships did not fit the monastic ideal of love (caritas) towards all; they were particular and exclusive (in each person's life, the several relationships were sequetial, not simultaneous). But they do indicate that twelfth-century monasticism provided a channel for the emotions we today connect with erotic love, without the rupture of vows of chastity or virginity.     

Book reviews

New Book Review policy

Australia

IDEALS AND FOREIGN POLICY

Henry S. Albinski

J. A. Camilleri, An Introduction to Australian Foreign Policy, Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1973, pp. v + 137, $1.50; J. Camilleri and M. Teichmann, Security and Survival. The New Era in International Relations, Heinemann Educational Australia. Melbourne, 1973, pp. ix + 226, $3.75.

Peter Aimer, Politics, Power and Persuasion: the Liberals in Victoria, James Bennett, Melbourne. 1974. pp. lv + 243, $9.95.

Alan Richardson, British Immigrants and Australia: A Psycho‐social Inquiry, ANU Press, Canberra, 1974, pp. 198, $8.95.

Bruce Juddery, At the Centre: The Australian Bureaucracy in the 1970s, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1974, pp. 272. Illustrated by Pickering. $4.95.

F. A. Larcombe, The Origin of Local Government in New South Wales 1831–58, Sydney University Press, in association with the Local Government Association of New South Wales and the Shires Association of New South Wales, 1973, pp. xv + 323, maps, $12.00.

H. G. Oxley, Mateship in Local Organization, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1974, pp. 240, $8.00.

H. Raysmith, J. Rimmer and D. Wookey, The Gee‐long Experiment in Social Planning, Geelong and District Community Chest Association, 1973, pp. 110, no price given.

C. A. Hughes and B. D. Graham, Voting for the Australian House of Representatives 1901–1964, ANU Press, Canberra, 1974, pp. xiv + 544 + xiii, $8.95.

International

URBAN POLITICS Martin Painter

Eugene Lewis, The Urban Political System, Dryden, Hinsdale, Illinois, 1973, $5.00.

Murray S. Stedman, Urban Politics, Winthrop, Cambridge, Mass., 1972, $7.50.

Kevin R. Cox, Conflict, Power and Politics in the City, McGraw‐Hill, N.Y., 1973, $4.50.

I. H. Burnley, ed., Urbanization in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1974, $13.50.

Rex Mortimer, ed., Showcase State: The Illusion of Indonesia's “Accelerated Modernisation”, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1973, pp. xiii + 163, $3.25, $5.95.

CHINA, RUSSIA, INDIA

S. P. Seth

Edward E. Rice, Mao's Way, University of California Press (Centre for Chinese Studies), Berkeley, 1972, pp. 596 + ix, $14.00.

Richard H. Solomon, Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture, University of California Press (Centre for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan), 1972 (paperback), pp. 604 + xix, $US5.95.

Geoffrey Jukes, The Soviet Union in Asia, Angus and Robertson (in association with The Australian Institute of International Affairs), Sydney, 1973, pp. 304 + vii, $7.50.

Alastair Lamb, The Sino‐Indian Border in Ladakh, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1973, pp. 113 + xi, $6.00.

T. E. Smith, ed., The Politics of Family Planning in the Third World, Allen and Unwin, London, 1973, pp. 352, $14.00.

Ronald J. May, ed., Priorities in Melanesian Development: Papers Delivered at the Sixth Waigani Seminar, University of Papua and New Guinea, Port Moresby, and Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, ANU Press, Canberra, 1973, pp. xii + 470, $6.00.

J. Ayodele Langley, Pan‐Africanism and Nationalism in West Africa 1900–1945, Oxford University Press, London, 1973, pp. viii + 421, $12.00.

Robert C. Good, U.D.I.: The International Politics of the Rhodesian Rebellion, Faber & Faber, London, 1973, pp. 368, $14.00.

Jack. Hayward, The One and Indivisible French Republic, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1973, pp. 306, $16.00 and $6.10.

Jean‐Jacques Salomon, Science and Politics, N. Lindsay, trans., MIT Press, Cambridge, 1973, pp. xxii + 277, $US 15.00.

M. Moroshima, Marx's Economics, Cambridge University Press, 1973, pp. viii + 198, £3.60.