“In
the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are
unknown, and in between them, there are doors.” William Blake
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| 1. William Turner |
It
was the time when the
stormbird was arriving. Deep among the remnants
of subtropical rainforests where dingoes howled even during the day
time. In these dark woods it was also common to see these
native canines hanging like strange fruit from large fig trees.
Most of the time the darkness of the heavens was only pierced by the flickering of stars in this area.
One
night the star-strewn sky turned into an electrical storm.
Bolts of lightning struck the mountain chains.
Cura who lived in a tiny
hut at the bottom of these mountains was aware that she lived in times
of abrupt, persistent ecological
regime shifts made by humankind. The
time of the comfortable
Holocene Epoch, the Age of Man was over. The
cushy home of humans was irretrievably disappearing.
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| 2. Lovis Corinth |
“
Here be dragons”
She knew
that in ever shorter intervals firestorms fuelled by pollution came like
a dragon out of the sky, transferring heat and energy and unloading it
into human-made clouds that would spin above the fires and erase all life
below it. Such a
bush fire was in her view, just up the mountains where the
ancient
Gondwana rainforest remnants were melting into the soil, water,
ocean and the
stratosphere. No slayer of serpents
or
dragon slayer hero
would come along to douse this mega combustion.
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| 3. Arnold Böcklin |
“Speak , So That I Can See You”
It was when a
massive crack of thunder shook the ground, that a berserk dog-like-thing
pounced against the insect screen door barking and howling so that even
the sound of thunder disappeared under that noise. The creature had the
fiery eyes of
Blake’s Tyger and huge canine teeth. Its frantic
movements were as if it desired to jump out of its skin. With each new
thunderbolt it then appeared to metamorphose into a crouching and
submissive animal on the human's doorstep seeking a safe harbor from the
severe storm. At times it was showing the white in its eyes and
they seemed to say 'Gimme shelter hooman!'
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| 4. Francisco Goya, "Literary animal" |
Cura was overcome
by an uncanny feeling about this seemingly amorphous creature that came out of
nowhere. Its presence and behaviour oscillated from pet dog to a stray,
to
hybrid or something unknown to her. The ambience and interaction had
the certainty and ambiguity of a cloud. She decided on the spooky feeling of
the 'wolves are at the door'. She was stunned.
The
woman lived in a formless mass of green stuff called the '
bush'
that
was filled with creepy-crawlies. The small rivers in the area of Terra
Incognita were called 'Never Never' or just 'Unnamed Creek'. No one had
bothered putting names on things yet and no one noticed the
disappearance of word-less things. Previous ancient stories of the
landscape were made to fade out of the knowledge system.
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| 5. Eugène Guérard |
This
little remnant
ecotope was an island in a gigantic sea of mono-culture.
The cultural landscape of a blank slate was manufactured with the aid of
fossil fuels and a good dash of toxins where the extraction of
resources was the raison d'être. The conversion and near erasure of
local ecosystems and their guardians had led to a 'loss' of a life-sustaining diversity.
Settler culture brought their
alien oversized baggage of
weedy species, domesticated and invasive animals and set them loose
against the survivors.
Ecocide was a way of being-in-the-world, a
mind-set for the expanding masters of the universe that always planned
to move on and grab some more. Starting life as
kleptoparasites, the
developing primates went forth and plundered till they reached the
edge of their 'petri dish'
today. Omnicide is an optional choice now.
Cura
swam against the current, she took care of the self and had a
devotion to and solicitude for all other
holobionts. She was in awe, sheer
wonder, about ‘the physical basis of life’, the
protoplasm, the building
plan of the cosmic order and the web that connects all of life. Her
ethics of care extended especially to the endemic
flora
and
fauna that had been so vandalised as mere stuff. The disproportionate
growth of organisms alien to the ecosystem had to be rolled back. It
simply meant arriving in country as a non-indigenous settler in the 21st century.
Cura's worried mind sprang back into action "OMG 'I am
stuck with a dog , - a dependent pet'. Where is the owner, the ranger,
the pound? But most of all her concern was for the next day when all the
regular cohabitants would come into the day and this unpredictable
canine would occupy the space and time. Maybe next morning she
could contact far away neighbours and find out who let their dog loose.
She
was aware that in the 'dog-eat-dog' world the essence of 'humanness'
was measured by how one stood towards dogs and sometimes children. The
common parlance was: "Never trust a person who doesn't like dogs."or "If
you want a friend (in Washington), get a dog."
Worrying
In
her mind she visited the known pet enthusiasts in the area. In her doze
she came face to face with a dragon that was the black dog of the
system
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| 6. Ferdinand Hodler |
There was the one with four large pet dogs and a
large menagerie of ungulates. The once cute fluffy puppies had outgrown
the kids as toys. The teens transitioned to peers and the dog pack now
roams the home of the koalas at night. The nightly noise trespassing
from their barking exceeds their masters' borders, robbing humans of
their sleep and nocturnal wildlife of a safe home.
The
ruling Victorian elite sparked the fashion for lap dogs. Later pet
ownership became a generalised feature of the bourgeois family model in
the West. While two generations ago dogs were chained to a kennel or
worked with livestock, the beasts had now snuggled up into the humans'
beds and were kissed intimately. The culture industry cashed in on the
needs of households with a list of films with canine stars, fuelling the
desire for more pet ownership.
“
Extinction is a choice"
Margaret Atwood
By now 62% of Australian households own a pet and spend A$12.2 billion on their furry companions. (
source) The meat required is mostly repurposed Australian wild animals. Living in one of the
most bio-diverse continents with a
world record of species
extinction,
it is a
choice to promote a monoculture of introduced species over
Australian endemic species. Margaret Mead once told James Baldwin about
the interspecies divide: "The Northern identity is dependent upon whom
you can keep out". (
source)
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| 7. Paul Klee, featherless biped |
And then there is the household with the two white fluffy
dysgenic beings that
can not breathe,
but yap - all day when they are left alone for the duration of a work
day. Maybe they are lucky as many family companions are dumped in the
holiday seasons as excess baggage. Or when the going gets tough the
inconvenient load is donated to the bush.
The world is their latrine.
Many
pet enthusiasts acquire special purpose-fitted combustion engines so
that they can drive their dogs to scenic locations to deposit their
excreta. Part of the quality time with their pets is for them to go
free-range in the wild. A restrained frolicking in nature is
unthinkable. The dogs are always off the leash
encroaching on wild creatures' habitats or other people's places. On the many
no-dogs-beaches one can count
more off-leash dogs than
shorebirds.
Local wildlife and humans are repelled by the pathogenic faeces left in
their paths. Even drink fountains in parks double up to
wash the bottom of dogs.
If
one sees a human being
taken out on a leash by a dog it is usually for
the concern of the well being of the pet and not other passing beings.
Dog-free walking or cycling people are usually not granted the courtesy
of personal space integrity. Dogs charge at people and jump at them.
"They just want to play" it goes. For many this game of non reciprocity
ends in a one sided
mauling.
Mistaken as nature
In
Western culture the dog stands for nature. The well meaning animal
owner demonstrates their love for nature by pampering the dog, or better
a pack of them, thereby showing their humanity. The natural order
appears wild and apparently without rules. Complexity is simplified into
a reliable and predictable relationship of master and dependent. An
asymmetrical relationship where the other, unlike wildlife, is
effortlessly available. The property owner is rewarded with a soothing
unconditional love of someone who doesn't talk back.
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| 8. Lovis Corinth |
The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the „
moral schizophrenia“
of meat consumption. The daily industrial mass torture and
extinguishing of non human animals. Invisible and untraceable supply
chains deliver livestock or wildlife through the mincer. The well
meaning consumer is afflicted by
cognitive dissonance
when cracking open another tinnie of roo or tuna for their best friend
while fading out the exploitation of the vulnerable creatures. The
ecological “pawprint” of domestic dogs places them with cats and rodents
as the world's most damaging
invasive mammalian predators. (
source)
Soon after we left our primate niche we realised that we were a
deficient being.
(Arnold Gehlen) Megafauna, cave bears and wolves among others had
superior weapons to us. It was not the wolfe's better fangs, but their
cooperative pack hunting strategies. By domesticating the skills of the
wild gray wolf (Canis lupus) the omnivore human in alliance with the carnivorous canine became the most
powerful hunter. Neanderthals,
Denisovans and megafauna disappeared and the surviving large predators
were kept at bay till today.
In this constant cohabitation and co-evolution both species
domesticated each other.
The primates lived in a
brutal hierarchical structure, while the rules
of conduct were cooperatively agreed upon in the wolf pack. The leader
of the group is not a despot but sets limits in their group. The
domesticated wolves became wanderers between two worlds, shapeshifting
from human society to a wolf-like being in cute Chihuahua clothing.
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| 9. Paul Klee |
A panacea
The
wolves like other animals had to serve the 'pinnacle of creation' for
many purposes. From hunting, herding livestock, protecting property,
utilisation in lab experiments, shot into space, sniffing for
explosives, illegal drugs, wildlife scat, currency, and blood. Hero
dogs sell products and serve as therapeutic crutches for the fading
human's mental resilience.
In 1542 the Spanish missionary
Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote a
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. (
PDF)
He reported how the indigenous peoples and black slaves of Latin
America were chased and fed to the dogs by the colonisers, sometimes
even for 'sport'.
In Decisive Moments in History, Escape to Immortality
Stefan Zweig described how the Spanish
conquistadors used dogs to tear the bodies of bound indigenous people apart.
The act of hunting with dogs entailed violence against other beings
then and now. In the Europeanisation of the globe the dog served to keep
wildlife out.
'
The Dogs that Made Australia'
are deeply ingrained in the national psyche. British
colonial settler cultures brought their baggage of dogs, horses and guns to the hunt. "Hunting
dogs soon became incredibly valuable in the colonies, trained for the
purpose of killing and sold at high prices. Hunting for recreation was a
way of consolidating settler ownership of large pastoral properties; it
was a triumphant announcement of the absolute dispossession of
Aboriginal people and the end of the frontier...The kangaroo hunt (was)
a formative experience for a young male settler, a colonial rite of
passage." (
source) "Europeans had almost wiped out emus within 25 years of arriving in Van Diemen's Land." (
source)
The
dog as a weapon was probably not just used to clear the land of
Australian endemic fauna but most certainly played a role in
the terror and genocide of Indigenous Australians.
Untill
today dogs have continued to play a role in a post-colonial racial
discourse. In southern Africa, the canines are divided into 'native
dogs' and 'white settlers' 'pet' dogs. In Australia there are settlers'
pets and working dogs and on the other hand there is the 'native dog',
the
dingo, which is treated as a pest.
Pastoralists who made the
thylacine extinct continue their eradication
work on the
native dingoes, known as '
wild dogs' today. Trapped dingoes
are mauled by settler dogs, while their masters yell “Get it!”. (
source) Hunting
pig dogs, in packs of nine 'flush out' not just
feral pigs but endemic wildlife. Even
domesticated pigs
on
private properties are torn apart by hunting dogs. Pets on lifestyle
blocks and suburbia do their bit to keep Australian animals at bay.
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| 10. Adalbert Stifter |
In
Afro-Dog, Blackness and the Animal Question,
Bénédicte Boisseron
investigates why white America cares more about pets than about black
people. Police dogs are used against protesters during the civil rights
movements. Threats of “
vicious dogs and ominous weapons” against (Afro American) protesters are omnipresent.
In today's asymmetrical
war context in
Afghanistan, an Australian dog handler lets a patrol's assault dog chew
on a dead man's head and the animal's handler says "Let him have a
taste." (
source)
In Nazi concentration camps in the 20th century, crimes against humanity were also conducted by dogs handlers. Many people on
death marches in history were rounded up by dogs and their handlers.
Reality has no chance under the doona
In Cura's sleepless night all these demons snuck from under her bed and
fought off peace of mind. Cura ended her nocturnal
reality attack with the fading of darkness. The 4 am
Yellow Robins
pinged in the daylight and ended her doze. She hesitated
to approach the front door afraid to find the canine beast that
triggered the torment still at her doorstep. Having to confront it again
face to
face, looking it in the eyes. But it was gone! With a sigh of relief,
worry
could end and a new day could start populated with all the regular
cohabitants.
"...The
most beautiful thing about my burrow is the stillness. Of course, that
is deceptive. At any moment it may be shattered and then all will be
over. For the time being, however, the silence is with me." Franz Kafka, The Burrow
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| 11.Hieronymus Bosch |
Cura
grabbed a book and pursued her regular
birding from the window. The
Eastern Whip Bird couples were performing duets by exchanging whip crack calls. The
Green Catbird rarely seen in the camouflaged foliage emitted a loud cat meowing also reminiscent of a toddler crying. The
Satin Bowerbirds were aggregating. Male gangs of Bowerbirds gorged hot chillies and picked pretty flowers for
their architectural designs to impress the females and competitors. The male
Regent Bowerbird's plumage blended in with the citrus.
Golden Whistlers patrolled their area with loud vocalisation. The Eastern
Spinebills got a drink before the
Lewin’s Honeyeaters intervened.
Blue Wrens hopped in large groups through the ferns. Large groups of
Firetails took collective baths. Out of the blue, flocks of hundreds of
Scarlet Honeyeaters were grazing on the
Syzygium paniculatum flowers. Amongst all that a mass of little brown birds. Small groups of
Glossy Black-Cockatoos could be heard squeaking and cracking Allocasuarina fruit. Higher in the canopy, the
Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove and the
Wompoo Fruit-Dove could be heard but rarely seen. The
Bar-shouldered Doves took off with the slightest sound. Waddling along was the
Emerald Dove that likes a long foot bath with a view. Nervous plump
Wonga Pigeon couples walked by and peeped into windows. The
Brush-turkey was re-arranging the leaf litter. The female
Paradise Riflebird rarely makde an appearance.
By the time the sun had warmed the tiles and it was time for her first cup, a cavalcade of
Lace Monitors
of all sizes were doing their crocodile walk across the front door. The
larger lizards brought associations of the ancient seven-metre-long Goanna,
Megalania that lived 40,000 years ago. The shy
Land Mullet dashed noisily out of the sun with the slightest movement. Egernia Skinks scuffled along edges and
Blue-tongue Lizards flattened under the
Midgin bushes. The
Eastern Water Dragon
was snapping up the neighbour's livestock, the honeybees.
Tree snakes rustled through the understorey when the pythons were
absent. Pythons of all sizes met up and shed their skins on the verandah beams.
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| 12. Hieronymus Bosch |
Cura
immersed herself in the daily sound ecology of birds and
reptiles. She looked up from her book and really appreciated the
ecological assemblage that was possible without introduced pets,
livestock or neophytes. It is magic to see how the omission of
introduced species allows endemic diversity
to flourish as a system. 'Living with wildlife' brochures often sounds
like,
living with diabetes or TB. Narration of the rich biodiversity of
Australia is often relegated to kids' fairyland or First Nation
narratives. Occasionally Australian icons come in handy as fundraisers.
One species takes all
A pox called man (Nietzsche) is
running amok in their one and only home. The new landlords' insatiable system
is on the path to the annihilation of nature's Wunderkammer and their own species. A
web of perpetrators, victims, spectators and witnesses act as agents in this
devastation. The radical and rapid planetary transformation known as the
Anthropocene is calling into question the preconditions of existence for all the
beings that have evolved on this planet for millions of years. The uncanny (
un-heimliche) end game of homelessness (un-heimische) in a world of scaffoldings, rigs and prosthesis steers towards a
novel ecosystem (technosphere).
"
All Who Follow in Our Wake"
will be deprived of the right to unfold their potentialities. Trauma is
the generalised condition that is experienced by all living beings as
they progress in a collapsing system. The state of living
becomes a path between sheer survival or extinction, a journey between
Scylla and Charybdis. The
wise man's sleep of reason has produced many monsters in our
lifeworld and in the global
ecology
(Greek: οἶκος, "house") in the last decades. Many are mourning the
violent
extermination.
Adriana "Cavarero proposes the name "horrorism"
for those forms of
violence that are "crimes" which offend the human condition at its
ontological level... Horrorism is, so to speak, a radical rejection of
care". (
source)
For
our species it is time for (un-)learning and transforming our
stewardship of our home and relationships to all other beings. The option is between care or violence.
Cura closed her book and went weeding.
