Cross-kingdom encounters: journeys to the New England tablelands

This thesis is about human relationships with the more-than-human world, analysed through the frame of the New England tableland region of New South Wales, Australia. I spent my childhood in New England, and it is where I first developed intimate connections with nonhumans. My central aspiration for this work has been to promote environmental and social justice by mobilising locally-based perceptions of ecological connectivity. In the wake of the environmental and social devastations of colonisation, I tackle the question of how we are to live ethically in places which are both damaged and beloved. The research is divided into five parts, with each exploring cross-kingdom encounters between humans and a particular 'genre' of nonhuman life in New England. The following pages are peopled with stones, trees, animals, waters, and skies. Inspired by the work of Gregory Bateson, this study is predicated on the notion that the organismplus-environment is an inseparable unit, and that the self is permeated by the "outside world". Adopting a relational approach to place-based study, this thesis avers proximity as a kind of methodology which acknowledges our entangled position in connected, living systems. In the contact zones between flesh and fur, skin and bark, lies the potential for reworking the way we understand responsibility and commitment in a postcolonial country.