AustLit

'Postmodern ecocriticism, given its broad range of perspectives, offers an agreeable platform for articulating a new, advanced and inclusive framework for a decolonising theorisation of literature and the environment. This article seeks to identify Australian Western decolonising poetry that sits in harmony with Indigenous aural and literary versions of communicative engagement with Country. The concept of human embeddedness in ecological relationships and biological processes as part of a complex matrix of interdependent things is embraced. In particular this article focuses on inclusivity and interconnectedness of all life forms to illustrate aesthetic and conceptual interfaces between Aboriginal Australia and Western poetics. Ethnic and national particularities are recognised but attempts are made to transcend cultural and national boundaries. I am suggesting that present-day neo-colonialism can be resisted if we find common ground upon which all humans and other-than-humans can coexist, cooperate and flourish.' (Publication abstract)