Description
Considering the devastating impacts of climate change, and especially rising sea levels on coastal communities in Australia and the Pacific, there is a pressing need to understand not just the environmental, but also the socio-cultural impacts of these changes. This interdisciplinary project aims to detail the effects of rising sea levels on indigenous culture and the arts, with a specific focus on human-plant relationships, a topic that has historically been ignored, as plants are often seen as something to conquer, domesticate, and channel for economic profits (e.g., Brennan, 2000; Leiss, 1994; Merchant, 1980). But what if one considers the intimate relationships between plants and humans, and how plants, turned into cloths and garments are intrinsically connected to the human body and self? Then what are the impacts of rising sea-levels on human-plant relationships, and consequently, on people’s notions and experiences of clan identity, gender and self when these plants can no longer grow in their increasingly inundated and salinized habitats? What does it mean to be no longer be able to harvest specific types of pandanus, to weave its prickly leaves into mats, that are used to sit and sleep on, wrap the death in? What does it mean to no longer be able to make garments out of tree bark, and design them with pigments sourced from local plants, exchange these, wear these during festivals and place them on their wearers’ graves? What does it mean for a culture to lose its most significant material marker of identity?| Period | 30 Nov 2023 |
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| Event title | Australian Anthropological Society Conference-AAS 2023: Vulnerabilities |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Sydney, AustraliaShow on map |