Waalegh: Writing, Walking the Bibbulmun

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference paperChapterpeer-review

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 languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEcology and Partnership Studies in Anglophone Literatures
EditorsAntonella Riem Natale, John Thieme
Place of PublicationUdine
PublisherUniversity Press Italiane
Chapter8
Pages145-156
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9788832832068
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2020

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