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Among the most productive ecosystems on earth, wetlands are also some of the most vulnerable. Australian Wetland Cultures argues for the cultural value of wetlands. Through a focus on swamps and their conservation, the volume makes a unique contribution to the growing interdisciplinary field of the environmental humanities.
The authors investigate the crucial role of swamps in Australian society through the idea of wetland cultures. The broad historical and cultural range of the book spans pre-settlement indigenous Australian cultures, nineteenth-century European colonization, and contemporary Australian engagements with wetland habitats.
The contributors situate the Australian emphasis in international cultural and ecological contexts. Case studies from Perth, Western Australia, provide practical examples of the conservation of wetlands as sites of interlinked natural and cultural heritage. The volume will appeal to readers with interests in anthropology, Australian studies, cultural studies, ecological science, environmental studies, and heritage protection.
List of contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Credits
Pt I Australian Wetland Cultures
The Swamp Nandi Chinna
Racecourse Lagoon, Uralla, New South Wales John C. Ryan
Ch 1 Introduction to Australian Wetland Humanities: Thinking About (and With) Swamps
John Charles Ryan and Li Chen
Ch 2 Rainbow Serpent Anthropology, or Rainbow Spirit Theology, or Swamp Serpent Sacrality and Marsh Monster Maternity?
Rod Giblett
Ch 3 Artist and Swamp: Wetlands in Australian Painting and Photography
Rod Giblett
Ch 4 Poet and Swamp: Wetlands in Australian Verse
John Charles Ryan
Ch 5 Plant and Swamp: The Biocultural Histories of Five Australian Hydrophytes
John Charles Ryan
Pt II Western Australian Wetland Cultures
Beeliar Nandi Chinna
Three Wetland Poems by John Kinsella, Dedicated to J.P. Quinton
Poem for the Gathering
The Trees Along Bibra Lake
Resisting from Within the Green Tent at Bibra Drive, Beeliar (For James)
Ch 6 Environmental Activism and Wetlands Conservation in Western Australia
Philip Jennings
Ch 7 Where Fanny Balbuk Walked: Reenvisioning Perth's Wetlands
John Charles Ryan, Danielle Brady, and Christopher Kueh
Ch 8 The Cultural Significance of Wetlands: Perth's Lost Swamps to the Beeliar Wetlands
Danielle Brady and Jeffrey Murray
Ch 9 Swamp-philia and Paludal Heroism: The Passion of Wetland Conservationists in Australia and Elsewhere
John Charles Ryan and Li Chen
Power of Deluge Glen Phillips
Ch 10 Epilogue: Twenty-Five Years of Wetland Studies in the Humanities
Rod Giblett
About the Contributors
About the author
Edited by John Charles Ryan and Li Chen - Contributions by Danielle Brady; John Charles Ryan; Li Chen; Rod Giblett; Christopher Kueh; Philip Jennings and Jeffrey Murray
Summary
This book examines the vital role of swamps in the making of Australian culture, history, society, community, and language. The volume highlights the importance of the wetlands to indigenous Australian cultures, nineteenth-century European explorers and settlers, and contemporary conservationists and ecologists.
