John Kinsella: rape, destruction and conquest
If the landscape is often a labour of love at the hands of the photographer or the landscape designer, or the indigenous Anangu as they cultivate and carve the secret knowledge in their hearts, John Kinsella depicts the rape and destruction of the landscape of those who become imprisoned by their own guilt and anxiety.
- Nature appears as a hostile phenomenon: a product of the disrespectful interests and desires of its owners; the sun had bleached the walls; “They stripped the last trees from the banks of this creek twenty years ago”; the water ran a “stale sort of red earth”. ; a long stream of unhealthy blood
- Instruments of destruction abound; there’s the chain saws, the rabbit rippers, the chains ; the new machinery and the silver filled bins.
- The “heavily bolted door” of the old silo reminds the farmer of the loss of the old as he becomes imprisoned by the new, weapons of mass destruction.
- The farm turns into a prison as a reflection of the hostility of the landscape ; and as a consequence of the rape and exploitation, the horror, the frustration and exasperation is evident as the salt pervades personal aspects of the farmer’s life – the bath..
According to Kinsella, cutting down the eucalyptus trees in the wheatbelt area has created insurmountable problems with regards to the salinity table and erosion. An abandoned farm is testimony to man’s failed dreams. The “swords” and “ploughsheds” are now “rank jokes” that show the inability of the family to adjust to the rising salt table. “The run-off from fertile paddocks makes deltas in the salt’s centre”…
The farmers view the land as livelihood in the sense of cash transactions. As Kinsella notes in Wild Radishes, the farmer’s attitude is dominated by the “Bills to be paid, deals to be sealed”. The fact that the radishes are “ripped from the soul” captures a certain harshness in the attitude of the farmer to his conquest. He knows that the radishes “missed will destroy the yield” and affect his profit.
Similarly the farmer in Goading storms out of a darkening field “cursing the dry, cursing the bitter yield” reflects an inherent bitterness with a landscape that resists the farmer’s pastoral husbandry-“Sheep on their last legs. Dams crusted over” It is a landscape where “prayers and patience” fail in the face of harsh conditions, and for the farmer there is no escape from this reality. The fears of the farmer mount as he is at the mercy of a ravaged landscape; the poem builds a sense of doom and a pervasive feeling of fear. But rather than quit, the farmer would rather be bound to the land in resilience.
Similarly, by extension, Mr Glenn Ford, one of the last farmers on the fringes of Melbourne’s west, draws attention to the increasingly ruthless and soulless exploitation of the land by those who have a complete absence of relationship…
Mr Glenn Ford describes himself as the “last man standing” in Plumpton because as a wheat farmer, their properties have now been overtaken by suburbia. He does not want to leave because he is proud of his identity as the “last of the people still trying to make a living off the land”.
He believes that rape and exploitation of the land is clear by many “faceless land owners” who are never seen. “They’re your neighbours, but they’re like ghosts. They’re overseas investors who are just land-banking to cash in when the subdivision laws allow it”.
Ford believes that even the “hobby farmers” exploit Melbourne’s green wedge policy. Many ask him where the native grasses are “not to protect them – they want to dig them up and get rid of them, so the authorities have no cause to monitor their property. They have total disrespect for the land.” Illegal rubbish dumping in people’s backyards is also a problem.
They are like the farmers in Wild Radishes (Kinsella), who are dominated by the “bills to be paid, deals to be sealed”. The fact that the radishes are “ripped from the soul” captures a certain harshness in the attitude of the farmer to his conquest.
Ford believes that even the “hobby farmers” exploit Melbourne’s green wedge policy. Many ask him where the native grasses are “not to protect them – they want to dig them up and get rid of them, so the authorities have no cause to monitor their property. They have total disrespect for the land.”
The white settlers and the farmers who came after them displayed what Kinsella identifies as a typical attitude of ownership, control (domination) and exploitation. Some people believe that the land can be owned, exploited to gain wealth and power. They interpret the land as a place where they can selfishly making a living on their own terms. According to the poet, theirs is an arrogant attitude. Because of their desire to own and control the land, they often end up destroying it. As a result, they have become victims of their ignorant attitudes and inability to make the land work for them. In Silo, the farmer and wife have experienced difficulty with nature. Consequently they see nature as an overwhelming force that can threaten and disrupt their livelihood at any time. At any time the vicious storm can dash their hopes. They conclude that there is no “hope for parole, petition, release”.
They are victims of a precarious nature that reflects their anxieties… … as Kinsella points out, cutting down the eucalyptus trees in the wheatbelt area led to insurmountable problems with regards to the salinity table and erosion. An abandoned farm is testimony to man’s failed dreams. The “swords” and “ploughsheds” are now “rank jokes” that show the inability of the family to adjust to the rising salt table. “The run-off from fertile paddocks makes deltas in the salt’s centre”… Whereas the family cannot survive, the animals return in their place.
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