Blogs

In an essay on the practice of exotic mushroom foraging by the Polish community, Max Kwiatkowski argues for a deeper understanding of what he terms 'ethnoscape', the ethnic-specific interaction with landscape, its values and cultural returns.

The act of foraging has been exercised by indigenous and non-indigenous people alike, the latter focusing on non-indigenous flora. With this paper I will present the need to acknowledge the social imperative of environmental belonging, a necessary step to consider when fostering care and empathy in these times of disconnection and alienation. I argue that the process of simplistic labelling of spontaneous exotic species’ as good or bad- needs to address the reality of the Australian social and ecological make-up.

Tim Low in his book Feral Future presents the Australian landscape, as defined in media and politics, as a cultural construct, not objective and grossly used to outline a unified national identity.

How unfortunate is it when with generalising statements humans dismiss resources and good traits? The word weed is now used primarily to describe an attitude towards resilience, and it applies to all plants that we as human decide undesirable. Many a writer and cultural critic engaged with this notion of culpability towards a resilient specie, pointing out that the use of emotive language is related to the fact that emotions are involved, even if unconsciously. The words used both reflect and compound emotions such as fear and anxiety, which distort our thinking about weeds.

At the same time, there is a growing criticism towards the use of the generalising appellatives that preclude and problematise taking advantage of many botanical resources, which are not critically disruptive of agriculture and/or biodiversity. These species are instead a missed opportunities in Australia due to the current antagonistic behaviour promoted by government bodies and some scientific communities when it comes to weeds. Of the 2,800 naturalised exotics in Australia, only 71 are recognised as having an economic and environmental impact of significance. In this paper, I will present examples of how popular culture is embracing pioneer species in an attempt to grow resilient societies. Is generalising on spontaneous flora a good thing to do at such times of environmental urgency? As Head and Muir suggest: we should start teasing the concept of non-native and invasiveness apart for more effective environmental management. As I speak, people from various cultures gather for road trips to the edges of cities to pursue a practice of environmental belonging: foraging for weeds. 1- Dwyer, J. (2011). Weed psychology and the War on Weeds (Plant Protection Quarterly. 26[3]) 2- Coutts-Smith, A.J. and Downey, P.O. (2006). 'Impact of weeds on threatened biodiversity in New South Wales.' Technical Series no. 11, CRC for Australian Weed Management, Adelaide. 3- Head L. (2012). Decentring 1788: beyond biotic nativeness Geographical Research 50 166-178.