Ecology - David Noonan

Fiona has told us of her experience about learning from botany. There is also a key question about who do we learn from in terms of environmental sustainability. The senior traditional women of northern South Australia and they have been opposing the Federal Government's planned position of a national nuclear waste dump on their traditional lands. They say 'We have been talking over and over and where are the Governments ears?" South Australians have the opportunity to make key choices as to who we accept to learn from in ecological terms and who we will support. We need to realise that environmental issues can also be key issues of human rights. It is certainly a matter of cultural and human rights to these people that they have the right to reject the imposition of nuclear waste on their traditional land. James Darling is a visual artist, a writer and a conservationist. His work has recently been exhibited in Finland and Spain. His reputation for installation art is based quintessentially on his Australian series of life size mallee foul nests made from distinctive and resonant roots of the mallee gum. The art of James Darling is eco-centric. It defiantly rejects the cool inward looking art about art scrutiny and deconstruction in favour of real physical presence which anchors human experience firmly within the natural world.