Tourism Geographies, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 142-163 (return to Table of Contents for Vol.1)

Naturalizing the 'Primitive': A Critique Of Marketing Australia's Indigenous People as 'Hunter-Gatherers'

Gordon Waitt
School of Geosciences, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

Abstract
This paper explores the representation of Australia's indigenous peoples in the visual and verbal texts of the Australian Tourism Commission's (ATC) international advertising campaigns. These advertisements employed respresentations of Australia's indigenous people to signify experiences of ecotourism, the escape to a primeval world and the adventure of an untamed frontier. I analyse these symbolic representations of indegenous Australians using semiotic techniques. By employing these representations within advertising strategies, the ATC differentiated Australia as an international tourist destination. The ATC's attempt to attract international tourists to sustain an economically prosperous tourism sectoo also provides the potential visitor with a range of cultural tools enabling the construction of fantasy, meaning and identity. My critical reading suggests that the ATC's representation of indigenous peoples helps maintian the myths of either eco-angles or noble savages, reiterateing colonial power relations. Given the official contemporary rhetoric over the term 'Aboriginality", attention is drawn to the contradictions created by this imagery.

Keywords: Australia, Australian Tourist Commissin, advertisements, semiology, Aboriginality, myths, cultural politics of domination