Swamp : Walking the Wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain
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Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 2012 Swamp : walking the wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain ; and with the exegesis, A walk in the anthropocene: homesickness and the walker-writer Anandashila Saraswati Edith Cowan University Recommended Citation Saraswati, A. (2012). Swamp : walking the wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain ; and with the exegesis, A walk in the anthropocene: homesickness and the walker-writer. Retrieved from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/588 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/588 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. 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If the user desires to publish a paper or written work containing passages copied or closely paraphrased from this thesis, which passages would in total constitute an infringing copy for the purpose of the Copyright Act, he or she must first obtain the written permission of the author to do so. Swamp walking the wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain with the Exegesis A Walk in the Anthropocene homesickness and the walker–writer By Anandashila Saraswati (Nandi Chinna) BA Edith Cowan University, WA Grad Dip Murdoch University, WA MA Edith Cowan University, WA This thesis is presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Education and Arts Edith Cowan University 2012 Abstract This project is comprised of a creative work and accompanying exegesis. The creative work is a collection of poetry which examines the history and ecology of the wetlands and river systems of the Swan Coastal Plain, and which utilises the practice of walking as a research methodology. For the creative practitioner walking reintroduces the body as a fundamental definer of experience, placing the investigation centrally in the corporeal self, using the physical senses as investigative tools of enquiry. As Rebecca Solnit comments in her history of walking, ‘exploring the world is one of the best ways of exploring the mind, and walking travels both terrains’ (Solnit, 2000, p. 13). The context for my poetic walking project Swamp, is a local and global environment undergoing an unprecedented loss of biodiversity, mainly due to the destruction of habitat and changes in climatic conditions (Reid, Partha Dasgupta, Robert M. May, A.H. Zakri, & Henk Simons, 2005, pp. 438-442). The loss of species and ecosystems that have been a part of our earth home results in the human experience of ‘homesickness’ — a longing for the home places that we have known and which have diminished or disappeared. Before the arrival of the British colonists in 1829, the Swan River and adjacent wetlands were an integral part of the seasonal food source for the original inhabitants, the Noongar (Bekle, 1981). In addition wetland places were, and are, deeply embedded in the spiritual and cultural life of the Noongar people of the Swan Coastal Plain (O'Connor, Quartermaine, & Bodney, 1989). In less than two hundred years since the establishment of the Swan River Colony (Western Australia), the lakes and rivers of the Swan Coastal Plain have undergone extreme changes, often resulting in complete draining and in-filling of wetland areas as the city and its suburbs spread beyond the original town limits. This re–engineering of the landscape has had a dramatic and detrimental impact upon biodiversity, water quality and the sense of place experienced by residents. Swamp is a project that has three main facets: a) a body of original poetry which interprets the historical relationship between the British, European, and Chinese newcomers to Noongar country, and the wetlands lakes of the Swan Coastal Plain. The poetry contained in this thesis is copyright to the author, Anandashila Saraswati (Nandi Chinna). i b) An essay which contextualises the project within the sphere of walking art, psychogeography, and the philosophical idea of ‘Homesickness’. c) A website, www.swampwalking.com.au, which displays photographs documenting the walks I have carried out over the three year period of the project from February 2009 to February 2012. The exegetical part of this project looks at the notion of ‘homesickness’ as a philosophical condition that can be seen as a motivating force in the practice of writing on walking. I use Debord’s theory of the dérive as a starting point for my walking methodology and examine nostalgia within the Situationist International (Debord, 1958) and subsequent psychogeographical movements. I also investigate the role of homesickness in the work of other writers who walk and who write about their walking practice. Finally I discuss homesickness in the epoch of the Anthropocene (Crutzen & Schwägerl, 2011), the era in which the earth’s biosphere is characterised by human interventions which have changed the meteorological, geological and biological elements of our earth home. In the Anthropocene, the wilderness view of nature needs to be re-evaluated. I posit that walking is a way of reconnecting with the physical landscape and building relationships with small wilds that exist in our home places, and that writing about the walking allows these relationships and encounters to ripple out to readers, contributing to and enabling the development of an ethic of care for ecosystems and beings other than human. ii iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank and acknowledge the Noongar elders past and present upon whose land this project was researched and written. In particular Dr Noel Nannup whose generosity in sharing his knowledge and beliefs has deepened my understanding of Noongar culture and country. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Marcella Polain for helpful editorial suggestions and support. I am grateful to my associate supervisor Dr Rod Giblett for sharing his extensive knowledge and ideas on the cultural meanings of wetlands and his place based understanding of the wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain. Thanks to Tim Grant for his support throughout this project, for coming swamp walking with me, and for his work on my photographs and website. Much gratitude to Janet Blagg for her close reading and intelligent suggestions. Thanks to the wetlanders at the Cockburn Wetlands Education Centre for all the hard work they do in wetland conservation, and to the Save Beeliar Wetlands group for their extensive efforts to preserve the Beeliar Wetlands. Thanks also to the Interdisciplinary International Centre for Landscape and Language (ICLL), and The Centre for Research in Entertainment, Arts, Technology, Education and Communication (Createc) at ECU, for symposiums, field trips and seminars which inspired deeper insights on the Western Australian environment and connected me to other artists and writers who engage with the place of Western Australia in their work. Many thanks also to other people who helped; John Ryan, Leah Knapp, Perdy Phillips, Rex Sallur, David James, Norm Godfrey, Mary Dixon, Stan Dixon, Kevin Gillam, Sharyn Egan, Kathy Coomber, Denise Crosbie, Felicity McGeorge, Kate Kelly, Phil Jennings, Hugo Bekle, Karen Atkinson, Blandine Halle and Anna Maria Weldon. I’m supremely grateful to my partner Suzanne Smith who has walked with me through the swamps and drafts of this project. Much gratitude also to the Australian Federal Government for granting me a three year scholarship in order to complete this work. Also to Edith Cowan University for iv the academic excellence grant and travel funding which also enabled me to undertake this work. And finally I offer my deep gratitude to the swamps of the Swan Coastal Plain and the creatures and plants that inhabit them; sites of inspiration, learning, solace, death and rebirth, stop in your tracks encounters and extraordinary beauty. v Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ....................................................................................... vi Index of Figures ........................................................................................... x Index of Tables ........................................................................................... xi SWAMP ........................................................................................ 1 Disappeared .................................................................................. 3 Transit ..........................................................................................................................