Co-becoming with angophora

Performing more-than-human belongings in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

Bibliographic Data

ID3977708
AuthorsSarah J Bell (0000-0003-0177-7615, Discipline of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Newcastle , Callaghan, Australia, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume20
Issue5
Pages605-629
Publication date2019-06-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649365.2017.1375551
OpenAlexW2755720775
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited49

Belonging in Australian national parks has long been associated with universal ideas of nativeness or naturalness. However, these delineations have been critiqued as rooted in western, dualistic understandings of nature and culture that do not allow for other ways of conceptualising the world or for the agency of nonhumans. This paper argues for reconceptualising belonging as an ontological co-becoming where multiple contingent belongings co-emerge with bodies, worlds and place. To show how belonging co-becomes, I examine human–tree relations surrounding a special and sacred tree in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Australia, the Angophora costata. I tell three stories that shed light on the multiple ways performances of belonging are entangled with histories, stories, spirits, and present and absent humans and nonhumans. In doing so, I show how belonging is a more-than-human practice where ideas of native and natural are questioned

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Archaeology · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Geography · National park · Natural (archaeology · Naturalness · Non-human · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Philosophy · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism

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