The mobility of settler tourists: Firenze Leem, ‘Mobility and Immobility and the Indigenous “Sacralized” Land in Australia: From the Settler Colonial Past to the Decolonial Future of Indigenous Tourism to Uluru’, in Maximiliano E. Korstanje, Vanessa GB Gowreesunkar (eds), Anthropology of Tourism: Exploring the Social and Cultural Intersection, Apple Academic Press, 2024 | settler colonial studies blog

The mobility of settler tourists: Firenze Leem, ‘Mobility and Immobility and the Indigenous “Sacralized” Land in Australia: From the Settler Colonial Past to the Decolonial Future of Indigenous Tourism to Uluru’, in Maximiliano E. Korstanje, Vanessa GB Gowreesunkar (eds), Anthropology of Tourism: Exploring the Social and Cultural Intersection, Apple Academic Press, 2024

17Nov24

Abstract: Australia globally promotes itself as a country of diversity, immigration, and tourism, which implies that modern mobilities and travel have been actively occurring in the country. In other words, national branding in Australia cannot be separated from the modern concepts of mobility. Modern mobility and travel to and within Australia, however, can be traced back to the late 19^th century, when settler colonialization started in Australia. In other words, mobility and travel were keys to the history of Australian nation-state building, even before multi-racial immigrants started to compose the diversity and the tourist industry flourished in Australia. In this chapter, Indigenous tourism to Uluru, considered one of the most appealing tours in the Australian tourist industry, in the colonial past, post-settlement current, and decolonial future will be mainly dealt with. Exploring the tourism at Uluru in a time-linear structure, the chapter 90will further discover how the nation-state building, white Australian nationalism, and socio-political circumstances of Australia have been entangled with Indigenous tourism, with concepts of “othering” and “outsiders inside.” Tracking back to the settler colonialist era and reflecting on the current limits of Indigenous tourism, a decolonial and sustainable future of Uluru tourism will be imagined.

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