“I can think of no more authentic eco-tourism experience than immersing that story of 60,000 years of culture, I think we can do a lot better”.

Now which Australian political leader would have made that splendid statement of the obvious about the burning need to create opportunities to better understand the history and complexity of our First Nations cultures???

Could it be SA’s Malinauskas, who has prevaricated and delayed about the well-developed Tarrkarri project? Could it be WA’s Cook, who has tonnes of mining royalties to build anything he really wants? Could it be the ACT’s leader, where they’re not moving AIATSIS into the Parliamentary Triangle as proposed? Could it be NSW’s Minns, who’s far too busy fighting housing and the trains to notice that the tiny Museum of Sydney is now the only place designated to “celebrate the diversity, strength and resilience of Sydney’s First Nations custodians”? Or could it be the NT’s shining new Lia Finocchiaro, who diminished the Territory’s plans for what was once called the National Aboriginal Art Centre is soon as she won power?

No – it’s Queensland’s new turn-round king David Crisafulli. And he’s knocked me off my socks by a) revealing that the Sunshine State has actually been considering building an Indigenous Cultural Centre since 1998 and b) not dismissing it as an idea, as he quickly dismissed the State’s independent truth-telling enquiry underway, also repealing Labor’s Path to Treaty legislation.

According to The Australian newspaper, “Debate about a First Nations cultural centre in Brisbane has raged since 1998 when Brisbane City Council allocated a section of Musgrave Park as a site. In 1999, former Labor premier Peter Beattie allocated $5m towards early planning for a centre but it never progressed after cost blowouts and a land title dispute. The Palaszczuk government began scoping an “iconic centre” again in 2018 and the 2022 Southeast Queensland city deal, between all three levels of government, allocated $3m for a detailed business case. In 2020, Brisbane’s LNP Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner had earmarked $1m in funding for the project and lamented that “the time to do this was 10 years ago; we are really behind the times now”.

Who knew??? What’s more, State cabinet is poised to consider within weeks a detailed business case that reportedly recommends a new First Nations cultural centre be built in Brisbane’s inner south to showcase the art and history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It helps that the 2032 Olympic Games are happening in Brisbane, and the promotion of Indigenous culture (not to mention the signing of a treaty) was a key selling point for the city’s Olympic bid. So an audience of millions is possible as the city becomes the centre of world attention. And the Premier is under pressures from Cameron Costello, deputy chair of the Brisbane 2032 Legacy Committee and head of the state’s First Nations Tourism Council, who reckons that an Indigenous cultural centre would be “uniting” for Queensland after the failed Voice referendum and the axing of the treaty and truth-telling inquiry.

Not that The Australian’s readers would approve. Despite positive reporting, an online readers’ vote was firmly 88 to 12% against the idea!

Meanwhile, a little further north than Briso, on Cape York, the Olkola people are rather more dynamic than southern politicians. It‘s even possible that an Olkola Cultural Knowledge Centre (OCKC) has actually been built! For on the 869,822 hectares of Olkola Aboriginal Corporation-owned Country with a further 1.4 million hectares as per the registered Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Body, lying between Laura and Kowanyama, there’s already been a million dollars delivered for a Ranger base to manage all that land. And an eco-friendly building, designed to suit the Country by Olkola Traditional Owners in partnership with Melbourne University staff and students, volunteers, Arup Engineers and Monash Uni’s Centre for Appropriate Technology was certainly photographed under construction in 2023.

Olkola leader Uncle Mike Ross wants the Centre to embrace the idea of writing new creation stories to counter the spiritual and psychological disruption caused by European colonisation. Connecting “back to the knowledge of the old world to bring it into the new world”, the OCKC would also highlight the traditional Indigenous belief that the pursuit of knowledge is a duty “to discover and teach in cooperation with others, acknowledging the potential of all individuals to contribute”. This active, relationship-based understanding enhances feelings of belonging, and ensures cultural continuity while encouraging progress.

The Centre will be the first of its kind in Australia, offering a unique and culturally significant tourism experience, and act as a gateway to Cape York.