Ferals: Terra-ism and Radical Ecologism in Australia - [API] Network

10 An understanding of the abuses of ecological rights is closely linked with a growing knowledge of
human rights abuses, suffered especially by indigenes.
11 For an introduction to DiY culture, see G McKay (ed.), DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties
Britain, London, Verso, 1998.
12 A Melechi, ‘The ecstasy of disappearance’ in S Redhead (ed.), Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in
Contemporary Youth Culture, Avebury, 1993, p 29-40.
13 From interview conducted December 1997. Pseudonyms are used throughout.
14 From interview conducted September 1996.
15 From interview conducted April 1998.
16 From interview conducted January 1995. Om Shalom was the location for the first Australian
Rainbow Gathering in November 1996, where I noted there were probably more ferals gathered,
and tipis erected (about fifty-five), than had ever been seen in one place in Australia.
17 For a discussion of this, see L Hume, Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia, Carlton South,
Melbourne University Press, 1997, p 56.
18 J Lindblad, ‘Alternative Australia: where the dropouts are’, Bulletin, March 1976, pp 32, 34.
19 Interview conducted March 1996.
20 F Earle, A Dearling, H Whittle, R Glasse and Gubby, A Time to Travel?: An Introduction to
Britain’s Newer Travellers, Enabler, Dorset, 1994.
21 C Stone, Fierce Dancing: Adventures in the Underground, Faber and Faber, London, 1996, p 193.
22 I Cohen, Green Fire, Angus and Robertson, 1996; J Kendell, and E Buivids, Earth First: The
Struggle to Save Australia’s Rainforest, ABC, Sydney, 1987.
23 Cohen, op. cit., p 189.
24 Cohen, op. cit., pp 182-3.
25 B Hoare, ‘A passion for protest: an insider’s view’, Protest! Environmental Actions in NSW: 1968-
1998, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, 1998, pp 19-27.
26 I wish to avoid a fixed image of ferals as incontrovertibly heroic. Hitting the road, many youths
have taken their substance, including heroin, addictions with them. Addicts at the fringes of
festivals and blockades have been a persistent problem. Om Shalom is itself renowned for its
population of heroin users.
27 Stanner 1979, quoted in D Rose, Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape
and Wilderness, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra, 1996, p 18.
28 K Armstrong, ‘Confessions of a green blockader — from Jabiluka (June 22nd - July 10th 1998)’,
notes accompanying his film Interstate Ferals for the Planet.
29 For informative print media reportage, see: J Woodford, ‘Wild at heart’, Sydney Morning Herald,
7 December 1994, p 17; K Hill, ‘Wild thing’, Age, 1 February 1996, p 18; F Sheil, ‘The flowers of
the forest are not shrinking violets, Age 3 January, p 6; J Belmonte, ‘Ferals on the frontline’,
Weekend Australian’s Orbit 14-15 August, pp 2-3. Also, the incisive documentary Going Tribal
(produced by M Murray) was broadcast on SBS TV in May 1995.
30 See Murray ibid; and W Gibbs, ‘Feral Aussie families: they live in trees and eat wattle seeds’,
Woman’s Day, 13 February 1995, pp 12-13.
31 See M Whittaker, ‘They’re hippies with attitude and a grab-bag of spiritualism’, Australian
Magazine, 17-18 February 1996, pp 45-50.
32 In 1995, for example, the Nine network’s Sixty Minutes sent a crew up to Nimbin to probe tipi
dwellers about dole bludging.
33 K Hetherington, ‘Identity formation, space and social centrality’, Theory, Culture & Society, vol
13, no 4, 1996, p 43.
34 Though a complicated matter, the automatic dismissal of cultural borrowing as pernicious should
be avoided as appropriations often promote respect for, and strengthen political alliances with,
indigenes. See B Taylor, ‘Earthen spirituality or cultural genocide?: radical environmentalism’s
appropriation of Native American spirituality’, Religion, vol 27, 1997, pp 185-215.
35 There is a certain extropian edge to these postcolonial primitivists. Although mixed feelings
prevail, ‘trancing out’ to a persistent electronic beat at dance parties in the bush does not ordinarily
compromise respect for nature.
36 ConFest possesses a unique combination of festive celebration and consciousness raising. See G
St John, ‘Alternative Cultural Heterotopia: ConFest as Australia’s Marginal Centre’, PhD thesis,
La Trobe University, 1999; and, G St John, ‘Going feral: authentica on the edge of Australian
culture’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol 8, no 2, 1997, pp 167-89.
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