Abstract
This work negotiates the possibilities in taking the act of writing as a form of mapping. It offers an ecopoetic response specifically to the experience of walking the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia, taking up an ethics of attention to mediate the colonial structures of the guide-map which constrained my passage of travel through that space. Focusing on the ‘Waalegh’ camp-site, (a Noongar word, pronounced ‘Wallich’), this work considers the possibilities of using writing as an entry point to an ecocritical deep mapping of the space, allowing for a consideration of the colonial history inherent to white Australian presence on Country, the conditions of privilege around the act of walking there, and the environmental and ecological effects this history has created. In referencing deep mapping, this work moves across multiple forms of creative engagement with the space, drawing poetic and critical responses into contact through the frame of geolocation, signalled by the use of guide-map markers. As such, it has been written to directly connect to specific ecological sites within the real world.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Ecology and Partnership Studies in Anglophone Literatures |
Editors | Antonella Riem Natale, John Thieme |
Place of Publication | Udine |
Publisher | University Press Italiane |
Chapter | 8 |
Pages | 145-156 |
Number of pages | 11 |
ISBN (Print) | 9788832832068 |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2020 |