Creating social capital and new knowledge through leisure: the Baby Dreaming Tourism project, Arnhem Land
Creating social capital and new knowledge through leisure: the Baby Dreaming Tourism project, Arnhem Land Journal Article
International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure
Abstract: This paper examines the creation of social capital between tourists and the residents of a remote outstation in western Arnhem Land and the role of casual leisure in breaking down barriers. The new knowledge generated includes the importance of providing the right environment for the creation of social capital (‘safe ground’), and of having the right people as facilitators, mediators and catalysts – in this case senior, well-travelled visitors of both genders, Kunwinjku elders, and children. Using a narrative approach based on nearly three decades of participant observation as an adopted family member of the Kunwinjku people, and a similar amount of time as a tour guide, I investigate the role that leisure activities played in the creation of social capital between Bininj (a collective term for Kunwinjku and related peoples) and visitors, in particular birdwatching couples. I also examine a modification of the meaning of ‘casual leisure’ given that visitors to Kudjekbinj, even when participating in such activities, could be unaware for example of dangerous dreaming sites or sometimes the presence of crocodiles or large snakes, thus increasing the need for vigilance of accompanying residents. The paper presents a number of lessons for the Post Covid era, including the importance of safe places and people, and of vulnerability and accepting in creating social capital between diverse groups, the use of casual leisure in nature as a vehicle for building trust, and new ways of doing tourism that are not so Western-centric including the role of children as facilitators.
- Urls: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41978-021-00101-7
- Keywords: Social capital: leisure, New knowledge, Kunwinjku, Bininj, Birdwatchers