|
Abstracts of Articles of TRR Vol.29(1), 2004
|
| |
| Tourist
Consumption of Sacred Landscapes Space, Time and Vision
(Myra
Shackley) |
| |
This
paper considers the way in which tourists consume a sacred
landscape, utilizing the example of Uluru (Ayers Rock),
a monolith at the heart of a World Heritage landscape in
central Australia. Uluru is sacred to the Anangu Aboriginal
people who have lived there for 30,000 years. It receives
more than 350,000 visitors per year and is probably the
most familiar landscape element in Australia, at least to
non-Australians. Most Australians will never visit Uluru,
yet it is still widely perceived as the geographical and
social heart of the country located in the ‘Red Centre’
and symbolic of Australian-ness. For Europeans, whose familiarity
with Australia may have come as a result of exposure to
popular films or wildlife documentaries, a visit to Uluru
may be a unique opportunity to encounter Aboriginal art,
mythology and culture. Visitors consume the landscape of
Uluru in a variety of different ways, some of which seem
inappropriate to a sacred site. The most contentious of
these is climbing the monolith itself, a procedure discouraged
but not forbidden by its Anangu custodians. Temporary closure
of the climb in 2001 as a result of the death of a tribal
elder resulted in increased awareness of Uluru as a sacred
landscape, a process already facilitated by Anangu-led tours.
The visitor experience of Uluru is gradually refocusing
from photography to participation, as the visitor is offered
new ways of consuming the landscape.
|
| |
|
| |
Previous |
|
|
| |
|
| |
©
Copyright Tourism Recreation Research & Tej Vir Singh |
|