Cultural living landscapes

Name: Codi
Price range: $

I think if you spend enough time in these sorts of places, you begin to understand what it means that it’s alive. The bird life, the river, what’s in the river, the forests and everything that goes with that. Back for as long as this place has been here, humans have been part of it as well. In a cultural landscape we’ve got all those values.

We can try and describe what a cultural landscape is, but mainly you will learn what it is the more that you place yourself in it, and you allow yourself to be a part of it, rather than just look at it like a postcard.

To think back 500 years ago, what this island was like, unbroken land from coastline to coastline. It was just one living landscape.

Lyndon O'Neil by Tilde Bergstrom 1432 — Lyndon O'Neil, photo by Tilde Bergstrom

It’s pretty fascinating to just sit and ponder on what it would have been like. And to think what it was like for the people at that time. They were definitely not separate from the landscape.

They were a part of it, integral to it.

That’s very much what a cultural living landscape means. To realise that we are all part of this together. It’s not just about loving trees, or loving birds. It’s about what that living entity actually does to keep the planet alive. And to keep humans alive.

Because we are not separate. We rely on it, and therefore it relies on us to look after it.

Tree, Tilde Bergstrom 1478 — Culturally modified tree by Aboriginal people. Photo: Tilde Bergstrom

We’re stewards and guardians.

We’re the feet on the ground that know when something’s not right. We’re looking after the landscape, and I think that’s been our role, just like any other critter plays its own unique role as well.

We need to return back to that sort of understanding of stewardship. We don’t really have another choice.

To think back 500 years ago, what this island was like, unbroken land from coastline to coastline. It was just one living landscape.

It’s pretty fascinating to just sit and ponder on what it would have been like. And to think what it was like for the people at that time. They were definitely not separate from the landscape.