Micro-Landscapes of the AnthropoceneMain MenuMarginal WorldsPlant WorldsAnimal WorldsAmy Huang, Natasha Stavreski and Rose RzepaWatery WorldsInsect WorldsBird-Atmosphere WorldsContributed by Gemma and MerahExtinctionsMarginal WorldsSam, Zach and AlexE-ConceptsAn emergent vocabulary of eco-concepts for the late AnthropoceneSigi Jöttkandt4115726eb75e75e43252a5cbfc72a780d0304d7d
A real history of Aboriginal Australians, the first agriculturalists | Bruce Pascoe | TEDxSydney
12018-10-05T12:21:00-07:00Sigi Jöttkandt4115726eb75e75e43252a5cbfc72a780d0304d7d309861Indigenous writer and anthologist Bruce Pascoe draws on first-hand accounts from colonial journals to dispel the myth that Aboriginal people were hunters and ...plain2018-10-05T12:21:01-07:00YouTube2018-07-24T16:18:03.000ZfqgrSSz7HtwTEDx TalksSigi Jöttkandt4115726eb75e75e43252a5cbfc72a780d0304d7d
1. Dream Tracks by Peter Sculthorpe After a turbulent and disruptive 2020, the Australian Ensemble 2021 season opened as planned at the Clancy Auditorium on Saturday 10th April. My friend Janet booked me a front row seat (which I would refused to take had it been for lectures), a perfect spot to immerse myself in the Dreaming, amidst the soothing sounds of the piano, violin and clarinet. This piece of music is meditative, and phenomenology came to mind; I closed my eyes, transcended the auditorium and situated myself in the sweeping beauty of Arnhem Land. I was in the good company of many ancient spirits, singing the charming indigenous melody of "whistling duck on a billabong." The following is a long interview with Sculthorpe, but you can fast forward to 13:05 just for the music. It is only 15 minutes long. Aboriginal Traditional Music and Dance – instruments and initiation Bruce Pascoe in TED Talk – indigenous history River in the Kakadu – a light-hearted moment Strauss Alpine Symphony
12018-10-05T12:19:40-07:00Plants with Intersectional Power11Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian academic Bruce Pascoe questions the Western-imperialist dialogue that has long-dictated Australian history through Australian plantsplain2018-10-07T09:04:51-07:00 It is worth asking yourself how you think Indigenous Australians survived on this landmass for over 60 000 years, the oldest continuous civilisation on Earth, by stumbling across the odd witchetty grub here and there.
They didn't.
Recently a stone found in Arnhem Land has been found to have 65 000 year-old grains embedded in its surface. The grains were embedded through a process over many years of continual seed grinding with the purpose of making flour. This places Indigenous Australians as the first bread makers, some 60 000 years before the Ancient Egyptian civilisation was even founded.
In a powerful presentation at TEDxSydney, academic Bruce Pascoe synthesises some of the most salient findings revealed in his book, 'Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident' (2014). In re-reading and re-interpreting the diaries of early European explorers, Pascoe effectuates a new-historical revision of the contemporary understanding of Australian Indigenous agricultural practices. In accentuating the way Australian plants are perceived only through a Western teleology, Pascoe introduces "plants that teach us a truer history". Attempts to visualise and establish flat ontologies therefore not only question the basic categories of being, relations and hierarchies between the human and non-human, but remind us to be continually cautious of the narratives we are socialised to believe about each other, as human-kind, within our own socio-cultural contexts.
It shouldn't be through plants that non-Indigenous Australians collect 'proof' of the considered and sophisticated cultures that were thriving with this country prior to colonialisation, but it is a powerful reminder of the assumptions we make daily, and the categories that we uphold, within the contexts we believe to be the most familiar to us.
Always Was. Always Will Be.
Pascoe, Bruce. Dark Emu: Black Seeds : Agriculture Or Accident? Magabala Books, 2014.