I've been thinking about the Sonic Acts conference that I went to a couple of weeks ago and which has had a lot of criticism for including contributions from 75 men and only 7 women, and for not allowing any dialogue at all from the audience who were actively discouraged from asking questions. I found both of these issues deeply frustrating and in a way kind of summed up the whole problem with dealing with the question of The Anthropocene. The first talk at the conference was an informative lecture by geologist Mark Williams on how human civilisation has impacted on earth’s geology. The most striking thing about this talk was that the history he described was that of western civilisation, led of course by white men, obliterating elements of the natural world and dominating and destroying indigenous populations in the pursuit of 'progress' or religious dogma. I’ve been thinking about the discussion around when this period The Anthropocene started (see previous blog entries), with some scientists declaring the start during the 1940s - when it began to be noted that things were going wrong with planet earth - and others saying it started with the industrial revolution and others insisting that it started when the first human created a tool. But what if The Anthropocene started with Columbus’s voyages to the Americas? Or Europe's ruthless suppression of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific islands? In other words, when white European men ended a period in human history where indigenous populations lived in accord with the natural world. In a conference that was dominated by white European and American men, those of us who were there to find answers - or at least a shared recognition that we all play a part in doing something to improve things for future populations - were left feeling disappointed by a missed opportunity. Although that disappointment has inspired action, at least for me anyway. If we are to re-think the future in any meaningful way, maybe it’s time to look again at what we lost during that period when those alternative ways of living with nature were decimated. They are still on this planet, just about, those people who believe in the Dreamtime, and others like them.

Tags: anthropocene |  dreamtime |