Full Description
This unique book is the only fully interdisciplinary and comprehensive study of the Australian desert and its pivotal role in the cultural history of Australia.
Beginning with the prehistory of the continent, it engages with geology, the Aboriginal Dreaming narratives of origin, the arrival of the first Australians, Aboriginal culture of the Dreaming, anthropology, colonial history and the cult of the inland explorer-hero, and integration of the central deserts through the responses of writers, artists, and filmmakers into the national identity. Chapters explore the unique way Indigenous artists have evolved a method of expressing their spiritual relationship to Country, while hiding from uninitiated eyes the secret-sacred meaning beneath the paint. It takes us on a journey through the politics of Land Rights for First Nations peoples, the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and an analysis of Indigenous ecological principles which may suggest a new and radical approach to navigating climate change in the Anthropocene.
The Australian Desert is written for scholars of fine arts, anthropology, literature, film studies, cultural history, Indigenous studies, ecology and tourism, and for anyone interested in deserts.
Contents
INTRODUCTION. PART I: THE GIVEN 1. Two Creation Stories 2. The Diversity of Australian Deserts PART II: THE FIRST AUSTRALIANS 3. The Mystery of the Gwion/Bradshaws 4. Arriving and Surviving 5. Dreaming the Land 6. Narrating the Land in Song and Dance 7. Traditional Aboriginal Art of the Desert PART III: ENCOUNTER: EXPECTATION, EXPLORATION 8. A Clash of Cultures 9. European Myths of the Desert 10. 'Footprints on the Sands of Time': Imperatives for Exploration 11. Geography is never Innocent: How the Explorers created a Landscape 12. The Art of Exploration: Visualising the Desert 13. Heroes for the Nation: Mythologising the Explorers 14. Boys' Own Adventures at the Edge of Empire Part IV: ENGAGEMENT 15. From Dead Heart to Red Centre: Tales of Travel and Reefs of Gold 16. Getting over the Colour Green: Western Artists Discover the Desert 17. The Gothic Desert: Psychodrama in Fiction and Film 18. Figures of the Subconscious: Re-visioning the Explorers 19. Transforming Myths: Re-telling the Stories of Exploration 20. The Language of Landscape: Nature's Self-Portrait 21. The Lure of the Desert: Self-Discovery and Renewal 22. Hidden in Full Sight: Indigenous Desert Art 23. Selling the Centre: Desert Tourism 24. What can we Learn from Aboriginal Culture in the Anthropocene?
