Eye on Australia [antikvár]

ÉilM Introduction Beauty is said to dwell in the eye of the beholder. Every Individual makes personal judgements about beauty; some individual iudgements, of course, are commonly held and may even become universally accepted as standards within a community or even an entire culture. Unfortunately it is often the case that such perceptions become habitual, unthinking, and thus superficial, however intelligent or sensitive they may originally have been. This is as true with respect to perceptions of Australia-as a landscape, as a country-as it is for any other subject. Michael Ruetz's unique, unpreconceived vision of this land will come, therefore, as a startling revelation to many. Few would argue with some basic facts about the fifth continent-the Great South Land: • It is the smallest continent-until you have to cross it. Then its distances are immense. ¦ It is the most ancient of lands, so worn down that it appears to retain few natural barriers to movement and expansion; but the waterless sands that burn ochreous in the savage sun of the "Red Centre" are obstacles as formidable as any that exist elsewhere, Australia's is a culture that lives almost entirely around the margins of a burning inland sea. • Australia's wildlife-its marsupials and monotremes, its gaudy birds and strange reptiles-is always unusual, often unique, as are its natural habitats, covered by trees, plants, and flowers found, almost without exception, nowhere else in the world. Even the smell of the dust, especially after rain, is singularly Australian. ¦ Australian landscapes are generally monotones of olive, blue-green, or dusty yellow, changing so slowly as to appear endless. There is a hypnotic, almost magical monotony to much of the country-increasingly so as one moves "outback." These general impressions go unquestioned by the vast majority of Australians-but there consensus often ends. Responses begin to vary as different needs assert themselves. Farmers see the vast stretches of arable land as an enormous granary and produce area, capable of feeding a sizable portion of the world. Miners see an apparently inexhaustible wealth of minerals to supply an eager international community. Conservationists see a wonderland of nature that it is their duty to protect and preserve. And as valid asall these views are-each in its own way-they are of little significance to Australians of Aboriginal descent, whose very different perceptions of this land are based on forty thousand years or more of undisturbed occupancy The relationship they established with the land during that time is beyond the comprehension of most white Australians. The ancient myths and everyday lives of the Aboriginal people are intricately and intimately woven into a charter of living that accepts the concept of land as an integral spiritual part of each person. Today Aboriginal Australians have adopted-and adapted to-many of the practices of the wider culture, but their personal awareness of and relationship with the land, however shaken, still survive strongly. Indeed, a new awareness of this bond has begun to spread to other Australians and deepen their understanding. With some of their land now safely returned to their