Australian Aboriginal Ecotourism in the Wet Tropics Rainforest of Queensland, Australia

The United Nations, which designated 1993 as the International Year for the Indigenous Peoples of the World, identified indigenous peoples as "minorities and tribal populations with special problems related in particular to discrimination and deprivation of basic human rights, and with special needs concerning education, health, economic development, and the environment" (United Nations General Assembly resolution 46/128 of 17 December 1991). The UN noted that foremost among the distinctive characteristics of indigenous peoples is the special relationship which indigenous peoples have with the land and nature, and their long-established practices of sustainable and harmonious development. Although the United Nations failed to mention the potential role of ecotourism in addressing indigenous minority poverty and marginalization, it is an area of significant potential because of its sociocultural "fit" with indigenous society's oneness with the environment. Indigenous ecotourism and the mountainous tropical wet rainforest region of northern Queensland, Australia may be viewed as "perfect partners" given the interdependency of the biophysical environment and its original Aboriginal inhabitants, which goes back approximately 40,000 years in time. This paper gives a brief introduction to the issues related to Aboriginal rights and tourism in Australia and examines the way in which ecotourism has provided a revitalization of that interdependency and extended the human-biosphere relationship in new directions in northern Queensland.