A small group had a vision…a dream combining a love of theatre with our rich and ancient culture. Tjapukai, the very first Aboriginal tourist attraction in Australia, began.

Born of a need to portray Aboriginal culture with dignity and pride, Tjapukai started as a co-operative partnership between six young men from the Tjapukai (people of the rainforest) tribe and Don & Judy Freeman, international theatre artists with a global background in producing community theatre.

Together, the group created the longest hit in Australia's theatre history - Tjapukai holds the Guinness Book of Records entry as the longest running show in the country. Tjapukai's presentation style blends age old tradition with modern theatre techniques. Traditional dances and the telling of Dreamtime legends merge with modern drama, illusion lighting, popular music and an ironic sense of humour.

When we first began in 1987, no-one knew what it meant to present this indigenous culture through tourism. We only knew what we didn't want - to trivialize or exploit it. Using theatre art as a medium, and forging a strong partnership between black and white like-minded Australians, we were successful in showcasing this culture to a global audience, and in the process won back the pride of an entire community.

The company has toured extensively. In 1990, Tjapukai completed a world tour playing 58 shows in 9 countries and 4 continents in 60 days. A documentary of this tour won the New York Critics Award. Tjapukai have performed before Queen Elizabeth II at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, and have played at famous venues such as the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC and the Sydney Opera House, Australia.

In 1996, we left our original home, the Tjapukai Dance Theatre in Kuranda, to move the project into another dimension with the creation of the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park in Cairns.

It is both a magnificent attraction and a milestone accomplishment - a privately owned business with the majority shareholding forever in the hands of the Aboriginal tribal councils themselves. The park is funded by the admission price, its food and beverage outlets and retail shop, and by producing evening events for the conference and incentive market.

Our 25 acre park combines the latest in theatre and technology, interactive activities with Aboriginal people, and features authentic traditional culture and customs. Live actors combine with holographic images in the Creation Theatre to tell the wondrous legends of the Storywaters, the origins of the Tjapukai. Dance and music comes alive in the Tjapukai Dance Theatre, and the cultural village has interactive demonstrations of boomerangs, didgeridoos and bush foods.

Culture and language lessons play a daily part in the life of the staff at the park, and Tjapukai is the largest private enterprise employer of Aboriginal people in Australia today. We have proved to both white and Aboriginal people that it is okay to present our culture for profit if it is done with sensitivity and awareness.

A generation ago, Tjapukai was an unknown word. Now it is the most famous tribe in Australia, often cited as an example to others. The accomplishments of the Tjapukai people and the cultural revival brought about by the theatre's success have engendered even more than pride; they have resulted in economic prosperity which is felt throughout the community.

Seven separate arenas allow visitors to experience all aspects of this incredible culture, while the park's majority shareholders are the Aboriginal tribal councils, ensuring that the benefits of cultural tourism are conferred directly back to the people, the bama, of the Rainforest.

In 2000, Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park received a National Australian Tourism Award for excellence in tourism. It is the seventh time Tjapukai has been honoured with the national award.

In 2002, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip saw the Tjapukai perform for the second time when they visited the park in Cairns.

Also in 2002, Tjapukai embraced another era when the park opened on regular evenings with an all new show, Tjapukai by Night.

Tjapukai enlightens and entertains audiences, crossing cultural barriers and engendering a feeling of warm simpatico and positive regard for a rich and ancient culture, and its descendants in a modern world.