The Dreamtime Cultural Centre: A grounded theory of doing business in an Indigenous tourism enterprise

The Dreamtime Cultural Centre in Central Queensland began operation in Australia's Bicentennial year, 1988. Over the 22 years of its operation, the enterprise has grown to provide a range of services and facilities including the original cultural tours, three venues for conference facilities, a 31 room motel, restaurant and conference centre, a SkillShare Hospitality Training Centre, kiosk, Bimbi Artefact Shop and a theatrette. The grounded theory model accounting for the success of the Dreamtime Cultural Centre demonstrates complex and highly interdependent processes. As an Indigenous tourism enterprise, the Centre is structured to reflect and reinforce the integration of social structures and processes that accommodate the dynamics and relationships arising from the cultural mores, traditions and expectations of a complex community. The success factors incorporate adaptations of Western organisational principles and concepts characteristic of small-medium enterprises overlaid against Indigenous foundations of family structures, kinship roles, traditions, cultures and heritages. There are two critical factors that underpin and drive success for the enterprise: the constructs of the 'Family' and the 'Entrepreneur'. The core of the enterprise is grounded in the Family relationships, connectedness and kinship frameworks which reflect Indigenous Australians' ways of being and doing. These frameworks are reflected in the organisational structure, organisational culture and rules guiding practices and processes respectively.