The Representation of Indigenous Cultural Identities in Australian and New Zealand Tourism Campaigns

Elena Maydell – Massey University of New Zealand

Keywords

Aboriginal identity, Indigenous heritage, Australian and New Zealand national tourism campaigns, cultural appropriation, visual discourse

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the visual representation of identities of minority (Indigenous) cultures juxtaposed to the majority one/s in promotional tourism videos on YouTube. This study follows the “liquid” conceptualisation of culture proposed by Bauman (2011) and aims at deconstructing the essentialised representations of cultural identities, bringing together the scholarship in postcolonial studies, critical cultural studies, intercultural communication, and critical public relations. While the discourse of a “white man’s mission” in bringing ‘culture’ to ‘uncultured’ populations of colonised societies is no longer a part of common parlance (Bauman, 2011), the construction of cultural identities of non-white populations is often still rooted in the Eurocentric perspective of engagement with the ‘exotic’ Other, aimed at exaggerating the differences between these identities. The language of binary oppositions (Hall, 1997) is then deployed by power structures to assert the right of domination over those whose identities are degraded and marginalised. Scherer (2013) argues that the power relations in neo-colonial societies allow for ‘Cultures’ of production, where the Indigenous symbols and rituals are commodified and mythologised to represent national identity as embracing the culture of the Indigenous people. This “commercial trading of the Other clearly has deep roots in colonialism and conquest” (p. 55). Accordingly, only selective, specifically fitting the Eurocentric perspective, images and symbols are harnessed for commercial gain, often criticised for their “pseudo-historical depthlessness and superficiality” (p. 50), while at the same time reproducing “a stereotypic discourse of racial primitivism” (Hokowhitu, 2005, cited in Scherer, 2013, p. 49). Scherer argues that instead of broader education about Indigenous cultures and promotion of respect for their values and traditions, the commercialisation of Indigenous knowledge facilitates ‘cultural heritage tourism’, where ‘exotic’ imaginary is used to construct “racialised spectacles of consumption” (p. 44), in order to bring more international visitors and more profit to tourism providers.To satisfy the desire of wealthy tourists for ‘exotic’ locales and ‘unspoiled’ scenery, some Australian and New Zealand organisations engage in exploiting the Indigenous imagery and heritage. This study analyses the visual discourses (mis)representing Indigenous people in Australian and New Zealand tourism campaigns, including the Australian campaign Where the Bloody Hell Are You?, Air New Zealand and Qantas safety videos and advertising.The Australian campaign Where the Bloody Hell Are You? contains 11 video segments depicting popular tourist destinations. The last segment shows a group of Aboriginal dancers, with one of them saying, “We’ve been rehearsing for over 40,000 years” – as if still waiting to be ‘discovered’ by (white) visitors and then, at last, be able to perform. The visual representation of virtually naked Aboriginal bodies with white paint markings, in a desert environment, with no signs of ‘civilisation’ present, is contrasted to other segments showing (clothed) white Australians across cities, beaches and other locations representing a ‘cultured’ life (Bauman, 2011). Similar degrading constructions of cultural identities of the Australian Aboriginal people are recycled in Qantas safety videos and advertising materials. The Air New Zealand safety video Safety in Paradise engaged Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models to promote tourism to the Cook Islands, a small semi-independent Pacific nation. In one of the shots, three local men, paddling a wooden boat and wearing no clothes other than leaves and the traditional cloth around their hips, are juxtaposed to European-looking and dressed in ‘modern’ clothes models and airline crew members; again creating the image of ‘wild savages’ awaiting their discovery (and consequent emancipation) by ‘civilised’ white people. This campaign caused an outrage on social media and was heavily criticised for objectifying women. The depiction of the models in bikinis and their mannerisms were considered sexist and demeaning, and following a petition of an Australian woman, Air New Zealand removed it from the in-flight use. It received a lot of media attention, with one New Zealand academic slamming the airline for producing highly sexualised images of women (Chapman, 2014). However, the culturally insensitive depiction of the Indigenous people, as primitive and savages, was not discussed in any critical media reports on the video.The identity constructions deployed for promoting international tourism to Australia and New Zealand entail virulent commodification of Indigenous imagery and heritage that are (mis)appropriated to enhance the ‘exotic’ view on Indigenous people and entice international tourists to ‘go native’. The analysis demonstrates the exaggeration of the differences between the majority (white) and minority (Indigenous) cultural identities, contributing to essentialising these cultural forms. Thus, the production and recycling of simplified and degrading images of Indigenous people solidify their marginalisation and facilitate the neo-colonialist agenda focused on the Eurocentric fantasy of ‘noble savages’.

Selected Bibliography

Author’s Bibliography

Maydell, E. (in press). “And in Israel we became Russians straight away”: Narrative Analysis of Russian-Jewish Identity in the Case Study of Double Migration. Narrative Inquiry.

Maydell, E. (2018). “It’s Just Seemed like Your Normal Domestic Violence”: Ethnic Stereotypes in Print Media Coverage of Child Abuse in New Zealand. Media, Culture & Society, 40(5), 707-724. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0163443717737610

Tuffin, K., Brittain, E., & Maydell, E. (2018). Psychology, community and the recovering racist. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 1-18. DOI: 10.1002/casp.2360

Zafra, N., & Maydell, E. (2018). Facing the information void: A case study of Malaysia Airlines’ media relations and crisis communication during the MH370 disaster. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, 19, 41-65. http://novaojs.newcastle.edu.au/apprj/index.php/apprj/article/view/109

Maydell, E. (2017). “We Need Engineers, not Russian Brides”: Cultural Stereotypes in New Zealand Print Media and What the Engineers Have to Say. Communication Research and Practice, 3(4), 335-357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2016.1228995