Remote Australia Online

Recent ethics guidelines and policies are changing the way health research is understood, governed, and practiced among Aboriginal communities in Canada. This provides a unique opportunity to examine the meanings and uses of such guidelines by Aboriginal communities themselves. This qualitative study, conducted in Labrador, Canada, with the Innu, Inuit, and Inuit-Metis, examined how communities and researchers collaborate in a co-learning environment whereby mutual interests and agendas are discussed and enacted throughout the entire research process—a process referred to an authentic research relationship. The purpose of this study was to answer the following questions: (1) Why are authentic research relationships important? (2) What is authenticity in research? (3) How do we achieve authenticity in research with Aboriginal peoples? This shift to more wholistic methodologies can be used in various contexts in Canada and internationally. This is the first study by an Aboriginal person to examine the perspectives of Aboriginal people, in an Aboriginal context, using Aboriginal methodologies.

Research is often viewed with suspicion by Indigenous peoples, as it is implicated in the process of colonisation. Qualitative research undertaken by Indigenous people within an Indigenous framework has an enormous role to play in challenging the traditions of quantitative research by de-colonising research and all its implied values and assumptions.

This paper describes the methodological challenges and innovative outcomes of a multi-site South Australian project investigating the use of medicines by Aboriginal people with mental health disorders (the full report of the research including outcomes of its various components appears elsewhere). Participatory action research using multiple methods and the epistimology of critical social science, enabled Indigenous research ethics to underpin the project-ensuring cultural relevance and respect throughout. Particular challenges encountered involved navigating mainstream and Indigenous bureaucratic structures, recruitment and training of Aboriginal research assistants from local communities, issues of confidentiality of individuals and families, time management that did not encroach on already stressed communities and workers, and leadership and internal research team issues. Meeting these challenges within the dynamics of a multi cultural project spanning urban, rural and remote Indigenous settings led to the development, implementation and articulation of a ‘partnership model’ for conducting Indigenous research. This model, together with its four key features-Respect, Collaboration, Active Participation, Meeting Needsis presented for consideration and potential use by other researchers and Aboriginal groups. As no previous research had investigated medication use by Aboriginal people to the depth and extent of this project, the model was necessarily innovative and developmental.

A recurring theme in Indigenous affairs in Australia is a tension between maintenance of Indigenous culture and achievement of socio-economic 'equity': essentially 'self-determination' versus 'assimilation'. Implicit in this tension is the view that attachment to traditional cultures and lifestyles is a hindrance to achieving 'mainstream' economic goals. Using data from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, stronger attachment to traditional culture is found to be associated with enhanced outcomes across a range of socio-economic indicators. This suggests Indigenous culture should be viewed a part of the solution to Indigenous disadvantage in Australia, and not as part of the problem.

The collective aim of many of this Journal's readers is to provide Indigenous Australians with a sound education to allow us (Indigenous Australia) to take a more active role in Australian society. My personal research interest is in business studies, training Indigenous Australians in management and business principles. I continually face the question of am I training my kin in a Western science that is often at the opposite end of the spectrum to Indigenous thought and practice?

There is little published literature available on urban contemporary Indigenous entrepreneurs in Australia. The paper defines the Indigenous Australian entrepreneur and provides an insight into the contemporary environment in which these entrepreneurs operate. Through case study analysis, the Indigenous cultural paradigm of success in entrepreneurial activity is examined. It explores commonalities among the participants, examining their educational and training expertise, their sacrifices and survival techniques in business, and investigates what makes them different from non-indigenous Australian entrepreneurs. The study provides a framework or foundation for future research on Indigenous entrepreneurs.

This paper takes as its starting point the enormous and long-standing interest in undertaking historical studies with Aboriginal people. Whether motivated by curiosity, events or issues, the author argues that the outcome of this research has been that Aboriginal Australians are amongst the most researched people on earth. This can become problematic when research into Aboriginal communities does not work for the benefit of Aboriginal people themselves; and so, in the words of Vine Deloria Jnr (1991), there is a need 'to eliminate useless and repetitive research and focus on community needs; it is both unethical and wasteful to plow familiar ground continually'. Systematic ethical guidelines to undertaking research with Aboriginal people, developed over the past decades, are outlined in this paper, which then sketches an exemplary oral history project being undertaken in Queensland. Designed along ethical guidelines, the project demonstrates how historical research can be conceived and framed in ways which will promote active benefits for Indigenous communities, in this case, changing the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Indigenous Australians have poorer self-assessed health than non-Indigenous Australians, have higher rates of hospitalisation and higher prevalence rates for many diseases, experience an earlier onset of disease, and suffer a burden of disease that is two and a half times greater. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also suffer higher rates of mental illness, are twice as likely to report high to very high levels of psychological distress, and are likely to have higher General Practitioner encounter rates (Pink & Allbon, 2008). Notwithstanding the above and the obvious need for research to help address these appalling statistics, Aboriginal peoples have long argued that research conducted in their communities does not benefit them or lead to improvements in their health (de Crespigny, Emden, Kowanko & Murray, 2004; Eades SJ, Read AW & Bibbulung Gnarneep Team, 1999; Henry et al., 2004; Holmes, Stewart, Garrow, Anderson & Thorpe, 2002; Hunter, 2001). In this article we look at some of the reasons why research may not have achieved the improvement in Indigenous Australian health that was hoped for, and propose some ideas about how research methodology and Australian Indigenous cultures can be better matched, and therefore be more likely to address their health needs.

This paper argues that in the current neo-liberal era, the discourse of tourism as an “industry” has overshadowed other conceptualisations of the tourism phenomenon. An argument is developed that this discourse serves the needs and agendas of leaders in the tourism business sector. However, the author desires to revive an earlier understanding of tourism that predates the neoliberal era. Tourism is in fact a powerful social force that can achieve many important ends when its capacities are unfettered from the market fundamentalism of neoliberalism and instead are harnessed to meet human development imperatives and the wider public good. Examining the human rights aspects of tourism, investigating phenomena such as “social tourism”, exploring a few “non-western” perspectives of tourism and outlining some of the tantalising promise that tourism holds, this paper attempts to revive and reinforce a wider vision of tourism's role in societies and the global community. It is argued that it is critical for tourism academics, planners and leaders to support such a vision if tourism is to avoid facing increasing opposition and criticism in a likely future of insecurity and scarcity.

Indigenous peoples have been seen as a tourist attraction for many years, but they have little control over the tourism activities that are generated nor do they reap many of the potential benefits. However, in conjunction with recent gains in other spheres of their existence such as their success in traditional land claims and more general empowerment in the realm of their sociopolitical standing, they have begun to take more active roles in the tourism economy. Since the publication of <I>Tourism and Indigenous Peoples</I> by Butler and Hinch over a decade ago, indigenous tourism activity has continued to grow, as have the debates about its merit. At the most fundamental level, these debates pit tourism as an agent for indigenous peoples' economic independence and cultural rejuvenation against arguments of hegemonic subjugation and cultural degradation. For indigenous people, the essence of their competitive tourism advantage lies in their unique cultures. This article reviews the conceptual foundation of indigenous tourism as first articulated by Butler and Hinch in 1996 and then focuses on specific themes and issues identified in Butler and Hinch in 2007 that relate to the present and future nature of indigenous tourism. It draws heavily on the introductory and concluding chapters of that volume, and the case studies contained within it. After briefly discussing the problems of definitions and empowerment, the article examines the topic from the standpoint of a number of key issues and themes: image, vulnerability, education and training, knowledge, linkages, ownership and control, ideology, and relationships. The conclusions argue that the prospect for indigenous tourism is uncertain, despite its many positive attributes. It is likely to remain a niche form of tourism, mostly small in scale, dependent on mainstream tourism elements for access to and from markets, but of increasing importance to many indigenous communities as a supplementary form of income and, perhaps, and as one form of economic and cultural empowerment.

The Influence of Socially Embedded Myths on the Domestic Market for Aboriginal Tourism

The canons of good praxis in the social sciences are changing. Along with the linguistic and hermeneutic (interpretive) challenges to ontology and epistemology exerted by continental philosophers and social theorists in the 20th century, have come dynamic changes in travel and tourism. We start this paper by tracing five important dynamisms in the phenomenology and constructive power of tourism and travel. These five encompass tourism as an agent of seeing, an agent of being, an agent of experience, an agent of cultural invention and an agent of knowing. But are tourism studies equipped with the research tools, approaches, strategies and techniques to explore the proliferation of new communal orders, marginalized voices in the third spaces in-between cultures and spaces, the overstimulation and fluid images cast by media, technology and urban intrusions, and the rapidly changing margins of tourist–host encounters in performative sites? The paper goes on to outline some of the twists and turns that qualitative research has undergone in its attempts to shake itself free of the inheritances of positivism and scientism. The confusion in the meaning of `interpretive research’ is one of the several challenges that are discussed and related to qualitative inquiry in tourism studies. The loss of the `body’ in tourism is another such issue. While foundationalist assumptions of truth, objectivity, and validity are being slowly relinquished, how are qualitative researchers to deal with the new textualities, multi-vocalities and `situated knowledges’ of participant voices and experiences in the ambigious and uncertain interstices of human–societal/tourist–touree encounters? In relating the above issues of and about the so-called `forbidden zone’ of qualitative inquiry to tourism studies, we focus predominantly in this paper on the place and value of `messy texts', `engaged interestedness', `locality/local knowledges’ and the `confirmability’ of qualitative inquiry.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide instructional guidance on how to increase validity and reduce subjectivity in qualitative studies, such as grounded theory. The paper also demonstrates how different techniques can help management research by including informants/managers in a time efficient way. Design/methodology/approach – This paper describes how three complementary triangulation methods can be used for validation and exploration of concepts and themes in qualitative studies. Tree graphs, concept mapping, and member checking are applied in a managerial case study, complementing a conventional grounded theory approach. Findings – The paper suggests that naturalistic inquiries, such as grounded theory and thematic analysis, can use mixed methods and multiple sources and coders in order to offset biases and to validate and sort findings. The case study presents three different perspectives on how an organization comprehends diversity as a strategic issue. Originality/value – The paper suggests a mixed methods design that addresses some of the potential shortcomings often found in grounded theory and other qualitative studies, their theory development and their documentation of processes. It positions the approach over the range of the triangulation literature and it argues that it is important to be aware of different triangulation mindsets, and these they are not necessarily contradictory.

This article focuses on the qualitative methodologies employed in a research project developed in collaboration with Aboriginal advisors and gaining an in-depth understanding of Aboriginal Victorian peoples’1 connection to their ancestral lands. It outlines why qualitative methodologies were used and highlights the ethical dimensions of working with Aboriginal Victorian communities. A research partnership was developed between Aboriginal Victorian communities and the non-Aboriginal researcher and this process was emphasised because in the past Australian Indigenous people have been grossly exploited in health research. The methods of semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to gain a better understanding of this topic. The novel point of this article is that it provides an honest reflection of the benefits and limitations of this qualitative research process from the perspectives of a non-Aboriginal researcher and an Aboriginal participant, when emphasis is placed on a collaborative approach. The paper outlines what a successful qualitative research project looks like in Victorian Aboriginal communities. This can be used as a blueprint not only for working with Aboriginal Victorian communities, who have been marginalised within Australian society, but may also be relevant to other culturally diverse communities throughout the world

In 2007 the former federal government introduced a far-reaching ‘intervention’ into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. The government claimed that the coercive measures outlined in this policy were aimed at combating child abuse and welfare dependency, arguing that ‘old approaches’ – such as self-determination – had ‘not worked’. In contrast, Sarah Maddison argues that meaningful self-determination has never in fact been tried in Australia, and is likely to be far more effective in addressing indigenous disadvantage than the overtly xenophobic and paternalistic approaches evident in the current policy approach.

Purpose – The paper proposes enhancing the understanding of the complex challenges inherent in the development of tourism destination brand slogans. Design/methodology/approach – Prior to completing a tourism marketing PhD, the author spent almost two decades working in the tourism industry, mostly in destination marketing organisations (DMOs). In this paper he laments a significant gap in the literature in the area of tourism destination branding, a field that has only attracted academic attention since the late 1990s. Findings – While interest in applications of brand theory to practise in tourism is increasing, there is a paucity of published research with which to guide DMOs. There has been relatively little discussion on the complexity involved in capturing the essence of a multi-attributed destination with a succinct and focused brand position, in a way that is both meaningful to the multiplicity of target audiences of interest to stakeholders and effectively differentiates the destination from competitors. Practical implications – The paper will be of interest to tourism practitioners with a vested interest in the marketing of their destination, as well as research students and supervising academics interested in destination marketing. Originality/value – The paper summarises six issues that make the application of branding theory to destinations a complex undertaking, and which are worthy of increased research attention.

In a rapidly globalizing world, indigenous knowledge is in mortal danger, and it will require new forms of intellectual property protection to save it. There are fundamental incongruities between Western intellectual property law and indigenous knowledge that prevent the current international intellectual property framework from fully comprehending or addressing the contexts and needs of indigenous knowledge. This article will review the history of international and regional initiatives to develop protection for indigenous knowledge. It will consider the geopolitical context that has informed discussions about protecting the intangible wealth of indigenous peoples, including the recent addition of articulate and impassioned indigenous voices to the conversation. Finally, this article will discuss some of the concerns that have been raised about subjecting indigenous knowledge to a system of formal legal regulation.

There is a continuing policy debate about whether it is possible to have sustainable small settlements in outback regions of Australia, where there is low and variable primary production and a sparse and mobile population. This debate is focused largely on Aboriginal settlements, but applies equally to all desert dwellers. In this contribution, we review the sources of economic flows through settlements occupied by different communities with common livelihood sources, whether based on mining, grazing, tourism, cultural resources, welfare or services, concluding that most desert livelihoods depend directly or indirectly on temporally variable inputs. Individual remote settlements tend to be dominated by one such ‘community of livelihood’, and differ in nature according to the source of that livelihood. These create types of settlement and service aspirations which are alien to more densely settled regions. Settlement ‘viability’ is a measure of the short-term balance between aspirations for services (technical, social, but also for livelihoods and well being) and the costs of fulfilling these aspirations, and consequently is not a simple on/off switch – the community can adjust both its aspirations and the cost factors involved in meeting them. We define a resilient settlement as one that is viable in the long term in the face of its variable inputs. Thus, we determine that the concepts of settlement viability and resilience must be analysed differently according to the strategy adopted by different resident communities. In particular, Aboriginal (and pastoral) communities are particularly dependent on social and natural capital, yet these are not monitored. The whole analysis emphasises the importance of taking a demand- rather than supply-driven approach to services in desert settlements. Our conclusion is that, if top-down solutions continue to be imposed without appreciating the fundamental drivers of settlement in desert regions, then those solutions will continue to be partial, and ineffective in the long term.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to encourage consideration of the multiple factors affecting dual use of case studies for both research and teaching, and conversion between the two types; to encourage development of a case transformation protocol to add rigor to this process. Design/methodology/approach – Literature review with discussion. Findings – Noting that insularity diminishes the potential contribution of the research underlying either teaching or research cases, this paper advocates establishment of more formalized conversion approaches. Practical implications – Dual use of case studies can provide economies of scale for academics, conserving time, effort, and funding, but involving greater care and advance consideration of the implications of differences between teaching and research cases. Originality/value – By highlighting key issues and proposing solutions, this paper advances understanding of the potential for transformation of cases and the importance of advance consideration of their purpose(s).

Interviews with tourists in the remote regions of Outback Australia reveal that interactions with others are integral to their experience as tourists and an important mechanism for dealing with their occupation of a landscape whose mythical status in the Australian imagination renders it simultaneously culturally familiar and alien. The role, significance and characteristics of relationships forged with people encountered while travelling in this environment were examined. Because of the rigours of the travel in this setting, tourists were found to be keen to be in the company of others. Their relationships and interactions were bounded, free of the obligation of ongoing attachment and consisting, for the most part, of ritualised interchanges. Interactions between tourists enriched their understanding of this ambivalently perceived cultural and physical environment, offering comfort and companionship.

This article provides a new definition for case study research. Achieving deep understanding of processes and other concept variables (e.g. actors’ perceptions of their own thinking processes, intentions and contextual influences) is identified as the principal objective of case study research. Using multiple methods to “triangulate” (i.e. confirm and deepen understanding by using multiple sources all focusing on the same process/event) within the same case is described. The article outlines the core criticisms made by case study researchers of large sample surveys. A need exists for a paradigm shift in research on organizational behavior (including modeling the antecedents of new product performance). The article outlines the telling weaknesses of case study research as seen by other researchers. The article examines Senge’s core propositions related to the “mental models” of decision participants. Details illustrate the use of specific research methods for case studies to achieve different research objectives and the combination of objectives. Finally, the article illustrates basic concept variables in a case study and 12 propositions are reviewed briefly. This report reviews classic and recent contributions in the literature on case study research.

This discussion paper is a brief summary of a number of intellectual endeavours undertaken in 2001. First and foremost, it is an attempt to progress a research collaboration between the author-a social scientist based at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research-and a number of biological scientists based at the Australian Research Council ARC Key Centre for Tropical Wildlife Management at the Northern Territory University. It is hoped that it also further progresses our joint collaboration with an Indigenous organisation, the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation in central Arnhem Land. The broad aim of this wider collaboration is to generate creative ideas about new development futures for Aboriginal people living on Aboriginal land. The paper seeks to broaden the notion of the economy and development to include the customary economy. A number of other issues are discussed in the process, some in a very cursory and exploratory way. These include the debate about Indigenous development encapsulated in extreme ideological positions taken by so-called 'progressives' and 'conservatives', as well as more conventional debates about the shortcomings of notions of development that are embedded in the market mentality and have limited analytical capacity for considering cross-cultural and sustainability issues. There is a linked debate about land rights and native title and whether the restitution of property rights (in land and species) to Indigenous groups will have a positive (or negative) future development impact. The paper begins by outlining the economic development problem that is faced by Indigenous people living on Aboriginal land in remote and regional Australia. It then describes the hybrid economy, made up of market, state and customary components, that is a distinctive feature of such situations, and argues that a big part of the development problem is that this type of economy is poorly understood-by politicians, policy makers and Indigenous people and their representative organisations alike. Consequently, important Indigenous contributions remain unquantified and unrecognised in mainstream calculations of economic worth. This shortcoming is generated in large measure by inadequate analytical approaches that fail to ask how development based on market engagement be delivered to communities that are extremely remote from markets, in both locational and cultural terms. A proper understanding of the hybrid economy requires a hybrid analytical and intellectual framework that combines science, social sciences and Indigenous knowledge systems. The paper argues for such a framework, and concludes by providing a few examples of how this different approach might enhance greater sustainable development on Aboriginal land in the twenty-first century.

The small rural communities in Australia’s tropical savanna landscapes depend upon the region’s natural resources for income and employment. Historically primary industries – including mining, grazing and, in the case of coastal communities, fishing – have been the pillars of economic activity in those regions. More recently, tourism has emerged as an additional nature-based industry, which offers new development and employment opportunities for populations in remote regions. Net benefits from tourism accrue from the balance of economic, social and environmental interactions of tourists with a destination. This paper presents a model of tourism impact in the Carpentaria shire of North West Queensland. A methodology is developed for tracking and quantifying social, economic and environmental impacts. Data from an in-progress research project are presented and analysed to test the hypothesis that community benefits could be improved without an increase in visitor numbers, by changing the composition of visitors to the region. Interpretations are offered as to how both, sectorial and regional planning and management can effect improved community benefits from tourism.

The objective of this research was to examine the competitive structure of the international tourist market, to establish how and with whom destinations compete. Instead of adopting traditional perceptual methods for identifying and describing competitors, this thesis takes an empirical approach by applying the behaviourally grounded Duplication of Purchase Law.The Duplication of Purchase (DOP) Law is an empirical generalisation that illustrates the structure of competitive markets through simple patterns of repeat purchase (Goodhardt, Ehrenberg et al. 1984). It states that brands share their customers with other brands in line with penetration levels, where penetration is the proportion of people who buy an item at all in any given time period (Uncles, Ehrenberg et al. 1995; Ehrenberg, Uncles et al. 2003). This means that any brand will share customers more with other bigger brands and far less with the smaller brands. Consequently, it is a very useful tool that can help identify and predict the competitive market structure, by simply knowing each individual brand's market share.This research specifically addresses whether the DOP Law can be successfully applied to the international tourist market using destinations as brands. It analyses and predicts how brands such as 'Destination France' or Destination USA' compete on an international scale, and discusses the instances where the competition is identified as being substantially more, or less, intense. Such exceptions to the DOP Law are often referred to as 'partitions'.

Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods 7e is a highly regarded text that presents a comprehensive and balanced introduction to both qualitative and quantitative approaches to social research with an emphasis on the benefits of combining various approaches. Contents Pt. One. Foundations 1. Why do research? 2. What are the major types of social research? 3. Theory and research 4. The meanings of methodology 5. How to review the literature review and conduct ethical studies Pt. Two. Planning and preparation 6. Strategies of research design 7. Qualitative and quantitative measurement 8. Qualitative and quantitative sampling Pt. Three. Quantitative data collection and analysis 9. Experimental research 10. Survey research 11. Nonreactive research and secondary analysis 12. Analysis of quantitative data Pt. Four. Qualitative data collection and analysis 13. Field research and focus group research 14. Historical-comparative research 15. Analysis of qualitative data Pt. Five. Communicating with others 16. Writing the research report and the politics of social research