The negotiation of identity and belonging in Kakadu National Park

Heritage sites are regularly understood to be one of the social spaces within which people construct and negotiate identities; Kakadu National Park easily qualified as such a site, having found its way onto both Australia’s National Heritage List in 2007 and the World Heritage List in 1981. It thus appeared to be a useful site through which to examine both comfortable and challenging notions of national belonging and identity, including how they are mediated and ultimately accepted or resisted. To make my case in this chapter, I draw from a combination of structured visitor interviews carried out on-site at two of the main rock art galleries within Kakadu National Park — Ubirr and Nanguluwurr — and in-depth, semistructured interviews undertaken with a selection of visitors some months after their initial visit. The questions participants were asked centered upon eliciting an understanding of how they understood Kakadu as an Australian heritage site, identifying in particular how they used the messages contained within the park to negotiate their own identities and shape their conduct toward others.