Indigenous tourism operators across the country are confronting uncomfortable truths and sharing stories from one of the oldest living cultures.

According to Tourism Australia, holiday-makers are increasingly seeking cultural experiences as part of their Australian holidays.

It said the number of visitors who engaged in cultural activities across the country increased by almost 30 per cent from 2019 to 2022.

Tourists to South Australia spent $228 million on Aboriginal experiences last year, up $47 million from 2019.

University of Adelaide tourism researcher Freya Higgins-Desboilles said tourism was a way for non-Indigenous and Indigenous people to build personal connections that could bridge a historical divide.

"This form of tourism is actually really conducive to building those personal connections that will make non-Indigenous people able to listen," she said.

"And it hurts, you know, it's difficult to talk about these things.

"Part of it is about how do we heal the relationships that come from the way that Australia was created and the historical damages that we've done as Australians, and then come to a pathway to a shared future?"

Uncomfortable truths

The healing journey has produced a new tourism venture on the Eyre Peninsula.

Port Lincoln Barngarla woman Emmalene Richards has spent the past two years creating a cultural tour of a region that was the scene of some of the most violent encounters between First Nations groups and European settlers in South Australia.

She was partnered through the First Nations Tourism Mentoring Scheme with a local tourism operator to learn about the existing market and how to deliver an effective Indigenous tourism experience.

"It has been a bit of a journey, it's taken nearly two years just to get it to where we are now, and the future looks really exciting," tourism mentor Craig Haslam said.

Ms Richards' family was changed forever in 1967 when six of her father's siblings, aged between two and 10, were taken from school and their home at Mallee Park and became part of the Stolen Generation.

That history of forced separation from culture and country was the force driving Ms Richards' passion for reconnecting to Barngarla history and culture.

"Tourism plays a really important role in Aboriginal people being able to continue their culture, being able to tell their stories, being able to share their knowledge, and being able to make those connections with people from different places," she said.

'It's about sharing'

According to a University of Adelaide project mapping colonial encounters between Aboriginal people and European settlers in South Australia, Eyre Peninsula was the scene of the most intense and protracted frontier conflict in the state after white settlement began in 1839.

Violent clashes between Barngarla and Nauo communities and colonists even resulted in some early settlers suspending agriculture activities and taking refuge on Boston Island while awaiting military back up.

A mission in nearby Poonindie was established in the 1850s by the Church of England as a so-called training institute for young Indigenous people across the state.

It meant families from around South Australia had connections to the area.

The events formed the basis of a wide-ranging cultural tour embracing the dark side of the region's story as well as the legacy of Indigenous survival and ongoing cultural.

"It's the real, genuine, first original story of Australia," Ms Richards said.

"It creates opportunities to start looking at how can we work together in truth telling and storytelling and listening to each other and acknowledging each other and having that respect for each other's story.

She said it was a legacy of cultural preservation she hoped to pass on to the next generation.

Her daughter Kiandra Richards said her mum wanted her children to reconnect to the country because she didn't get a chance to do it when she was child.

Ms Richards said she hoped other tourism operators across South Australia would capitalise on the growing demand as an opportunity for Indigenous employment and cultural appreciation.

"If it's done the right way with good intentions and open hearts, we've got endless possibilities of how we can change the future for everybody," she said.