The Trouble with Paradise
Greg Lehman
Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University , Clayton , Australia
Abstract
From the very beginnings of European encounter, there has been a perception, or a hope, that Tasmania might offer a new paradise. What was once ‘wilderness' is today re-framed as ‘ Eden ', where the travel-weary Westerner can purchase an opportunity to ‘return to nature'. However, the danger for Aborigines is that the authenticity of cultural tourism products is compromised, and Aborigines themselves are experiencing transformations in cultural identity.
This paper explores the European colonial tradition of a search for Paradise and its implications for the authenticity of cultural transformation. The author, a descendant of the Trawulwuy people of north-east Tasmania, offers a personal reflection on Aboriginal engagement with the Indigenous heritage of Tasmania, and the authentic expression and development of Indigenous identity, by suggesting that colonial traditions inherent in the search for Paradise are again at play in Tasmania through the development of Indigenous tourism products. The experience by Aborigines of contemporary tourism is considered with reference to the Biblical mythology of Eden and the expulsion of Man from the garden.
As Tasmania increasingly commits its development agenda to tourism, and visitors to the State progressively express an appetite for an authentic Indigenous cultural product, the potential for disappointment of customers—and further alienation of Aborigines from their land—increases.
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