Paper short abstract:

This paper locates recent conflict between Aboriginal tourism gatekeepers and unifying traditional custodians they seek to silence within an Australian tradition of contested patrimony that begins with Spencer and Gillen coining the term 'dreamtime' and includes early touristic renderings of Uluru.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws historical links between Spencer and Gillen's transmission of the concept of 'totemic' landscapes to Australia from the United States and coining of the term 'dreamtime', controversy surrounding early touristic renderings of Aboriginal 'dreamings' at Uluru and contemporary conflict in Sydney between traditional custodians and Aboriginal organisations who have been empowered by governments to act as knowledge gatekeepers in the packaging of Aboriginal cultural heritage. It raises issues including the silencing of traditional owners and cultural re-invention, and explores some creative responses that have emerged out of collective introspection.

A case study shows how Indigenous usurpers of land and culture within NGO's supported by local and state governments have used the concept of 'The Dreaming' for their own political, financial and social gain at the expense of traditional custodians. It reveals that Aboriginal people who relocated from rural to metropolitan NSW now control the packaging of Indigenous cultural heritage for the tourism industry and outlines how once adversarial clan groups of the Sydney basin are beginning to unite to contest this generalist approach to Aboriginal knowledge and the claims that Sydney's original peoples are extinct.