A Conversation with Carsten Wergin, Author of "Tourism, Indigeneity, and the Importance of Place"

Document Type

Seminar Presentation

Publication Date

5-1-2024

Abstract

In this edition of Lexington Books' "Anthropology of Tourism: Heritage, Mobility and Society" Author Conversation webinar, series editor Michael A. Di Giovine talks to Carsten Wergin about his book, "Tourism, Indigeneity and the Importance of Place: Fighting for Heritage at Australia's Last Frontier." A vivid, sophisticated ethnography, Wergin's book analyzes what is one of the largest environmental protest actions in Australian history: the Walmadany/James Price Point conflict. The discussion ranges from Indigenous Heritage and Indigenous Tourism, to the ways in which heritage preservation and resource extraction are both opposed to each other, but, in many ways, coexist in a transecological sense. They discuss the Lurujarri Heritage Trail and the ways in which Indigenous culture and Indigenous learning is cultivated among foreign and domestic tourists, and how such indigenous tourism initiatives can work to destabilize outside forces, as well as create avenues for collaboration and mutual understanding. A lively Q and A with critical heritage studies students from West Chester University addresses ethnographic methods and ethics, the future of these environmental protests, and the relevance of transecological and indigenous conceptions of heritage on current-day conflicts in which various groups around the world produce differing heritage claims on contested land.

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