Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Edited by Ashley Hay, Text Publishing, $27.99.
Action on climate change is at the forefront of world attention more than ever today.
Writing the Country is a timely publication. It celebrates the ‘unique beauty of the natural world’ as the environment changes radically.
“Place. Land. Country. Home. These words frame the settings of our stories. Griffith Review 63: Writing the Country focuses on Australia’s vast raft of environments to investigate how these places are changing and what they might become; what is flourishing and what is at risk.”
Griffith Review 63 examines the unique beauty of the world around us, and asks what we can do to treasure, nurture, preserve and enhance the earth we share as the consequences of the climate crisis continue to unfold. Editor Ashley Hay is right.
“Reusable shopping bags and Keep Cups are now on trend, yet entrenched human behaviour continues to impact our planet’s remaining natural splendour, and climate change alters the Earth’s ecosystems faster than predicted. Seabirds consume plastic, glaciers in East Antarctica are melting, species’ habitats are disappearing – as are so many species themselves – and Australia’s greenhouse emissions continue to rise. As the potential for intervention appears to be tangled up in political and economic agendas, the need to renew our approach to our relationship with our world becomes more urgent.”
Co-editor Julianne Schultz says, the “enduring connection between people and nature remains, and is its own reward”. By writing this book, Schultz and Hay seek to restore the sense of “agency and optimism. To cherish the unique beauty of country and environment at a challenging moment, and to reinforce the point that we do not need to be on suicide watch, that there are lessons to be learnt and things to be done to ensure that a century from now the land, sea and air can continue to be enjoyed and provide sustenance for life and human civilisation”.
