Drama and ecological understanding : reflections upon ecology, performance, place and indigenous knowledge systems

It was an academic retreat just to the north of the McDonnell Range, which is itself to the north of Alice Springs in what is characterised so inappropriately as the ‘dead heart’ of Australia. It was physically, intellectually and emotionally confronting. The location was a deserted cattle station 5 kilometres along a dirt track, off the road to Yuendemu, the site of the modern rebirth of Australian Aboriginal art. I was there, along with twenty or so academics, several Aboriginal ‘custodians’ and half a dozen non-Aboriginal locals absorbed by, learned in, and in some instances confronted by their commitment to Aboriginal culture. My initial response was to the diversity of the place: the richness and variety of plant, insect and bird life, the array of colours and the unmistakable presence if the imposing mountain range to the south. Of significance early also was a story, told by ethno-botanist Peter Latz, of the watercourse that runs beneath the sandy riverbed that traverses the property and feeds the underground forest that nudges its branches above the red-brown earth. Our reason for being there was to reflect upon ‘place’ through reference to this particular location. Some of this was done through performance, some was done through story but most was done through absorbed participation in the environment and the relationships generated through that participation