Affective Ecological Restoration, Bodies Of Emotional Practice

Ecological restoration is an emotional practice. Through restoration, practitioners engage in personal and palpable relationships with their local ecosystems. This paper draws on participatory social research with volunteer groups on the south-east coast of New South Wales, Australia. Here, ecological restoration volunteers react to the cumulative impacts of agriculture, mining, forestry and fishing on local ecosystems. Five affective experiences within the practice—loving, labouring, learning, limiting and letting go—convey the significance of emotions in renegotiating relationships with place. Colonially framed social and ecological imaginaries are unravelled through the cultivation of reciprocal, attentive and caring encounters with the environment. As well as reframing the past, comments such as ‘this whole project in a way is looking after a landform which in all likelihood will totally disappear’ suggest the importance of commitment in the present, amidst an uncertain future. This paper contributes to discussions about the changing role of history in contemporary ecological restoration. Histories of human–environment relationships extending back to colonial visions of Australia are repeatedly encountered and complicated through engagements with material ecologies and the affective experiences of restoration work