Mr Nicholas Hall

Program Coordinator, IPPHA

T: ( +61 2 ) 612 55887


E: nicholas.hall@anu.edu.au

Research School of Humanities
College of Arts and Social Sciences

Short biography:

Nicholas Hall undertakes work and research in the fields of heritage conservation and Indigenous economic development. His interests centre focus on the contemporary use of cultural heritage, new forms of Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural production, cultural heritage conservation and management methods and the role of Indigenous cultural heritage in sustainable development. Nicholas is currently completing a PhD in sustainable tourism development in Indigenous communities with Charles Darwin University. The Industry-based project is funded by the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre and Tourism NT. During three years in the Northern Territory as part of this research, Nicholas was based at ANU’s North Australia Research Unit (NARU). Over the last four years Nicholas has developed Stepping Stones for Tourism, a tourism development program for Aboriginal communities and emerging enterprises that helps set a sound foundation for enterprise development based on natural and cultural heritage. Over this time, Nicholas has been working with Indigenous groups in northern Australia to prepare tourism development plans for Indigenous enterprises and management and tourism plans for Aboriginal land and protected areas. The experiences of this work is the subject of Nicholas’ PhD thesis ‘Following the footsteps: The evolution of a framework for tourism development in Indigenous settings’, currently being completed.

Research Interests:

Cultural site conservation and management systems – Since 2000 Nicholas has been researching international best practice in field and database systems for maintaining archival records of heritage places, and online systems for undertaking condition assessments and conservation work, particularly on rock art sites. This work has resulted in the practical application in the development of a Cultural Site Management System for Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park (see http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/csms/index.html) now being utilised as the basis for systems at other World Heritage Sites in Australia and overseas. Gurindji Heritage - Since 2003 Nicholas has been working with Gurindji people in the Victoria River District of the Northern Territory trying to gain greater recognition of the significance of the 1966 Wave Hill Walk Off in Australia History. This has included fieldwork and research with Gurindji people and included working on the Northern Territory and National Heritage Listings, working with the community to establish the Gurindji Heritage and Tourism Project and assisting in staging the 40th Anniversary Freedom Day Festival in August 2006 (see www.freedomday.info). Pieces of Place – Nicholas maintains an interest in researching visitor interaction with place, particularly in the form of mark making and souveniring. Forms of souveniring of both natural and cultural objects from place and the meaning given to these objects are the subject of ongoing personally funded research.

Selected Publications:

Journal articles

2000 ‘Tufala kev blong devil’ – People and spirits in North West Malakula, Vanuatu – implications for management, Wilson, M., Sanhambath, J., Senembe, P., David, B., Hall, N., Abong, M., Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, Vol.4, pp 151-166.

1999 Building blocks and stepping stones: some key foundations in the development of rock art conservation in Australia, Archaeology in Oceania, Vol.34, No.3, pp.161-170.

Reports

2004 Steps to Sustainable Tourism: Planning a Sustainable Future for Heritage, Tourism and the Environment, Principal contributing author, Commonwealth of Australia.

2003 Going Places: Developing Natural and Cultural Heritage Tourism in Australia, Issues Identification Paper prepared for the national Tourism and Heritage Taskforce, reporting to the Environment Protection and Heritage Ministerial Council, February 2003. Contributing author.

2001 Successful Tourism at Heritage Places: A guide for tourism operators, heritage managers and communities, Australian Heritage Commission and CRC for Sustainable Tourism, Canberra, 2001. Contributing author.

Theses

1998 The Aboriginal Use of Molluscan Resources on the ClydeRiver Estuary, South Coast, New South Wales.  Unpublished BA (Hons.) Thesis, Australian National University, 1988.

Other

2002 Making Tracks: Key issues about the heritage of Australian routes and journeys, paper for the International Congress ‘Cultural Routes and Intangible Heritage Within a Universal Context’ of the ICOMOS CIIC, Pamplona, Spain, June 2001, Blair, S., Hall, N., James, D. and Brady, L, 2002. Historic Environment, 16 (2): 43-46.

2001 Protecting Heritage Places Information and Resource Kit – Website, Workbook, CD-ROM and Presenters and Trainers Kit, Australian Heritage Commission, 2001. Conceptual development, contributing and coordinating author and project manager.

Disciplines:

cultural heritage, rock art conservation, archaeology

Teaching:

Nicholas has conducted lectures seminars and cultural heritage management training programs for universities here and overseas, national park bodies and World Heritage Areas and international organisations such as UNESCO, the World Monuments Fund and the East West Foundation based in Hawaii. In conjunction with Sharon Sullivan, former Executive Director of the Australian Heritage Commission, Nicholas has planned and co-presented four two-week Heritage Management Training courses run on-site with Indigenous communities at major heritage sites such as Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park, The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and Carnarvon Gorge National Park. Nicholas is the co-author of a tertiary course ‘Protecting Heritage Places’ offered through Curtin University and Open Universities Australia and delivered in online mode. In 2002, this course won a Curtin University Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellence for being an exemplary model for professional online learning. Nicholas has assisted in coordinating Visiting Scholar Programs for the Centre for Cross Cultural Research. From 2005 to 2007 assisted in staging two major field workshops in Kakadu National Park for the Sharing our Heritages Program, a collaboration of four Australian and four European Universities, funded by the Australian Government and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (see http://www.uws.edu.au/about/acadorg/cste/heritage/soh).

Conferences:

Land, family and business: Appropriate skills development for Indigenous tourism, AIATSIS Conference, 23 – 27 November 2004, Canberra.

Land-based content: Aboriginal land issues in the development of Indigenous tourism, Proceedings of the CAUTHIE Conference 2005: Sharing Tourism Knowledge, 1 – 5 February 2005, Alice Springs.

Pieces of Place: Exploring the personal souvenir, Sense of place: Exploring concepts and expressions of place through different senses and lenses, NationalMuseum of Australia and University of Tasmania, 5 – 8 April 2006, Hobart.

Telling the story: Performance and Narrative as reflective frameworks for Indigenous tourism, Proceedings of the CAUTHIE Conference 2007, Past Achievements, future challenges, 11 – 14 February 2007, Manly.