Djabugay Culture

Is it possible to combine efforts to Care for Country with tourism and achieve Indigenous Australia aims? In relation to a specific case study, this essay evaluates Djabugay culture by discussing pro-poor tourism and how it can help the case study, the potential positive and negative impacts, and the impacts the culture faced in the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. In a study conducted by Bottoms (1999), the Djabugay peoples have lived in the rainforest for at least 5,1000 years, and recent evidence has shown the Djabugay peoples have possibly belonged, and still do, there for the last 40,000 years. In 1938, "Djabugay" and "Tjapukai" were namd and "spelt ... by anthropologist, Norman Tindale in 1938" (Tindale, 1974). It was noted by Tindale

An $8.8 million grant was provided to "promote education and understanding ... in a society that had largely ignord the history of its original inhabitants" (The Cairns Post, 1996). Pro-poor tourism is an approach to sustainable tourism that was applied to the Park to increase economic income and value to the Djabugay culture. It should be noted that "pro-poor" does not necessarily refer Djabugay peoples as 'poor ', but rather a strategy to increase net benefits to the area. Pro-poor tourism was first established as an approach to ecotourism in 1999 by the United Nations Commission in a meeting on Sustainable Development. Pro-poor tourism is a subject of debate because it has been argued that it is controlled by private sectors and foreign companies, enhancing leakage in the Multiplier Effect. Although, it can help Djabugay peoples by providing income to set up improved infrastructure and, skills and

To summarise, pro-poor tourism aims "to enhance ... positive impacts ... and reduce the costs it can place" (Roe & Urquhart, 2001). Pro-poor tourism has positive impacts as it "[strengthens] local economy" and Djabugay peoples work actively with "interest and devotion", which can instill pride and motivation (Roy et al.