The Land Where the Crow Flies Backwards
(2021)
Text and images published in Hapax Magazine, Issue Two (2022)
My broader photographic practice is driven by a desire to engage in ongoing conversations around land, place and time within Australia. While inspired by the Australian landscape and its histories, I am deeply motivated by the desires of myself and my friends – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – who feel a strong affinity to this country but still seek a deeper sense of belonging and understanding.
I now share my time between Darwin (Larrakia country), where I live, and Melbourne (Naarm), where I am undertaking my PhD. Each city sits on opposite sides of the country, 3,700 kilometres apart. This ongoing series of works has been created during my drives between Darwin and Melbourne along the Stuart Highway.
The Stuart Highway is the only road that stretches north to south across central Australia. While in theory, it should not be easy to get lost, the highway is disorientating in its vastness and length. The landscape alongside this highway unfolds like a map across the numerous days of the journey. Once you become familiar with this highway, you can start to orientate yourself based on the subtle changes in your surrounds:
The dried rivers of Arrente country,
The stifling heat when you reach Waramungu,
The rocky cliffs of the Barkly Region.
Somewhere just past the Tropic of Capricorn, termite mounds start to appear, dotting the landscape like tombstones, or people watching the cars and road trains pass by at 130km/h. Many of these termite mounds have been elaborately dressed in t-shirts, hats and accessories, adding even more to their mystique – like a natural ‘uncanny valley’ in the Australian Outback.
I’m not exactly sure when, or why, but I began to photograph these termite mounds each time I drove to or from Darwin. In the Northern Territory, these ‘figures’ have become somewhat of a phenomenon. I have never seen anyone stop to create one and I am always left to ponder on how and why they came to be – local teenagers on the weekend? A bored truckie stopped on the side of the road? Tourists wanting to leave a more permanent reminder of their journey? Some of the clothing looks old, while others look relatively new; some have even been added to over the years.
European settlement weighs heavily on the landscape in the Northern Territory. It is unlikely that these mounds were created by local Aboriginal people – who commonly believe that disturbing termite mounds may lead to ill health. Instead, they are an example of settlers and visitors needing to establish familiarity in an unfamiliar landscape.
