Presentation Type
Presentation
Location
The Kailis Room and online
Start Date
30-9-2026 12:30 PM
Description
Australia’s significant rock art is part of contemporary Aboriginal culture and is of importance to a national and international community with interests in heritage, art, and culture. However, this heritage is often contested and subject to cross-cultural misunderstandings, threatening the preservation of its tangible and intangible components. Over the last decades, cultural tourism has been one of the globally most significant areas of economic development and growth. In Australia, the demand for ‘Aboriginal tourism experiences’ is increasing as well. The Federal Government and State Governments continue to focus on Aboriginal tourism as a strategy for economic development and social improvement. However, significant critical questions need to be asked in relation to the mechanisms that are driving these developments. Is the growth of cultural tourism a product of a romanticised and ultimately revisionist nostalgia? Is the interest in Aboriginal tourism experiences a consequence of problematic notions of an untouched deep past of Australia and contemporary Aboriginal people? This paper will reflect on some of these themes in relation to the preliminary analysis of a recent exhibition, The Great Kimberley Wilderness at the Western Australian Maritime Museum. Within this experience, visitors were immersed in a virtual reality cinema with surround sound and invited to step into the heart of the Kimberley through cascading waterfalls, ancient caves, and some of the world’s oldest rock art. Yet what does it mean to experience the Kimberley without ever leaving Fremantle? What are the implications of experiencing the region through the narration of Luke Hemsworth and an Australian production team? And what, if any, consequences are there for a touring exhibition that has now travelled to Geelong, Canberra and Auckland?
Recommended Citation
Porr, Martin and Mayer, Laura, "Virtually Real. The Great Kimberley Wilderness and the construction of Indigenous heritage" (2026). Talking Heads Seminar Series. 15.
https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/nulungu_talkingheads/2026/Schedule/15
Virtually Real. The Great Kimberley Wilderness and the construction of Indigenous heritage
The Kailis Room and online
Australia’s significant rock art is part of contemporary Aboriginal culture and is of importance to a national and international community with interests in heritage, art, and culture. However, this heritage is often contested and subject to cross-cultural misunderstandings, threatening the preservation of its tangible and intangible components. Over the last decades, cultural tourism has been one of the globally most significant areas of economic development and growth. In Australia, the demand for ‘Aboriginal tourism experiences’ is increasing as well. The Federal Government and State Governments continue to focus on Aboriginal tourism as a strategy for economic development and social improvement. However, significant critical questions need to be asked in relation to the mechanisms that are driving these developments. Is the growth of cultural tourism a product of a romanticised and ultimately revisionist nostalgia? Is the interest in Aboriginal tourism experiences a consequence of problematic notions of an untouched deep past of Australia and contemporary Aboriginal people? This paper will reflect on some of these themes in relation to the preliminary analysis of a recent exhibition, The Great Kimberley Wilderness at the Western Australian Maritime Museum. Within this experience, visitors were immersed in a virtual reality cinema with surround sound and invited to step into the heart of the Kimberley through cascading waterfalls, ancient caves, and some of the world’s oldest rock art. Yet what does it mean to experience the Kimberley without ever leaving Fremantle? What are the implications of experiencing the region through the narration of Luke Hemsworth and an Australian production team? And what, if any, consequences are there for a touring exhibition that has now travelled to Geelong, Canberra and Auckland?
