Interpreting 'nature': the politics of engaging with Kakadu as an Aboriginal place

Abstract

Beginning with a general contextual analysis of the cultural politics of `nature' in Australia's Kakadu National Park and culminating in an analysis of the ways in which two interpretative centres contribute to the discursive production of the Park, this article is concerned with how differently constructed notions of `nature' converge and conflict in the production of place. It examines the tensions and interplay between settler Australian understandings of Kakadu National Park based on what are perceived to be its natural and cultural heritage values, and the efforts made by Bininj/Mungguy to encourage the understanding of the Park as an Aboriginal place. By drawing out the tensions between a discourse of universal nature and the production of an overtly socialized local nature by Bininj/Mungguy, the article explores how different kinds of nature are constructed and contested in a particular place based context. By politicising the public representations made of `nature' in the joint management of Kakadu National Park, this article reveals a site of discursive struggle where the established norms of the national park institution work to naturalize place, paralyse politics and entrench the dominant order of things.