Re-imagining urban bird-human relations in South East Australia

• In Event: Messing with Methods in More-than-Human Worlds III

Abstract

In this paper I respond to Kirksey and Helmreich's (2010, p. 558) call to investigate species flourishing and struggling in the Anthropocene. In these 'urgent times' (Haraway 2016) it is important to reconsider human relations with animals (Rose 2015) for 'earthly survival' (Terranova 2016). Building on Haraway (2003), my research begins with domestic companion bird-human relations (including relations with technology). By asking, 'What matters to a pet bird?', I begin to work with my companion bird, following his interest in relating to other parrot species, expanding our research to bird-human encounters in urban areas in south-eastern Australia. The bird and I establish kinship between species. Methodologically working across the fields of the environmental humanities and animal studies, I include emergent feminist artistic practices to disrupt the dominance of language.

References
Haraway, D. (2003). The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, people, and significant otherness (Vol. 1). Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press.
Kirksey, S., & Helmreich, S. (2010). The emergence of multispecies ethnography. Cultural Anthropology, 25(4), 545-576.
Rose, DB. (2015). The Ecological Humanitites. In K. Gibson, DB. Rose, & R. Fincher (Eds.), Manifesto for Living in the Anthropocene (pp. 1-5). New York: Punctum Books.
Terranova, F. (2016). Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival, Environmental Film Festival Australia (17 October 2017). Melbourne, VIC.

Author

• Miriam Potts, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia