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Transformative Landscapes: Postcolonial Representations of Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Tongariro National Parks

Space and Culture

Published online on

Abstract

Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Tongariro National Parks are arguably Australia and New Zealand’s premier iconic landscapes. This article explores how the visual representation of the parks altered following the late 20th-century transformation of Australia and New Zealand into postcolonial nations. It compares 20th-century representations evident in archival posters, tourist guidebooks, and photographs with early 21st-century government branding strategies. This comparison reveals contrasting government motives concerning land rights, the conservation estate, and tourism. Whereas Uluru-Kata Tjuta was reconceived as a landscape of cultural and economic recovery for the traditional owners, including extensive representational revisions to present an enduring Aboriginal presence, imaging of Tongariro remains ahistorical. I argue that this outcome reflects the continuance of 20th-century colonial representations that minimized Maori cultural associations in order to maximize the landscape’s capacity as a site for tourist and filmic consumption.