#Indigenous homelands could be opened up in tourism plan for Arnhem Land | World news | theguardian.com

4.8.14

Indigenous homelands could be opened up in tourism plan for Arnhem Land | World news | theguardian.com: Now more than 20 Yolngu homelands have signalled interest in a plan to significantly boost cultural tourism in the region, which for many non-Indigenous Australians remains a complete unknown.

The not-for-profit Lirrwi Tourism corporation, which unveiled the new plan at the Garma festival on Sunday, said its aims were to foster economic independence for the region, as well as allowing people to continue to live on country, as their families always had.

Increased tourism in Arnhem Land would also raise understanding of the extraordinary, and also extraordinarily complex, Yolngu cultural system, which is about 40,000 years old and therefore of not just national, but also international, significance, it said.