Australia is the world's most arid continent. The drying began in the time of the late Pleistocene, about 35,000 years ago, when the amount and reliability of rainfall and the availability of permanent surface water decreased; and it extended up to the beginning of the Holocene. From then until about 250years ago, the drying stabilized and biodiversity flourished. Australia today is in the midst of another massive drying. Its beginnings trace to the pastoral traditions that Anglo-European colonizer–settler people introduced in the eighteenth century and to the birth of industrial mining in the late nineteenth century. The word “desertscapes” evokes post-1788 pastoral and mining activities, the primary focus of this chapter and reading of two films by First Nations film director Ivan Sen: Mystery Road (2013) and Goldstone (2016).
關聯:
Desertscapes in the Global South and Beyond 1st edition
