A metonym is a figure of speech that transfers the meaning of a word to another based on a relation of proximity, either material, spatial or causal. For instance, ‘breaking a sweat’ meaning ‘to work hard’, ‘Canberra’ to signify the Australian government, or ‘he turned red’ to indicate the embarrassment that causes a white person […]

In cities across Australia and elsewhere, individuals and groups are experimenting with initiatives to link urban dwellers to local ecologies and strengthen the relation with and awareness of the environment. Community and street gardens, bush regeneration working bees, botanical and bird-watching expeditions in city parks and green areas are examples of this renewed interest in […]

Civic ecologies are stewardship activities that combine care for the environment and care for place. The Green Square Atlas of Civic Ecologies shares stories of environmental champions who live and work in Sydney’s Green Square precinct, along with simple tips to green and nourish your neighbourhood no matter where you live. The Green Square Atlas is […]

Published in The Conversation and The Guardian Does anything beat the experience of finding a wild mulberry tree and stuffing a handful of fresh juicy berries in your mouth? Have you ever roasted potatoes with a sprig of rosemary taken from an overgrown nature strip?

with Shannon Foster Published in The Conversation  Sydney’s Green Square is one of Australia’s biggest urban renewal projects. But it’s much more than a construction site. First Nations people know it by another name: nadunga gurad, or sand dune Country.  

  We were honoured and excited to present our research to the Livingmaps Network with Linda Knight and Alys Longley last month. We wrote about this presentation earlier, and now the webinar is available on Livingmaps’ YouTube.   Livingmaps Network writes: the webinar features three presentations by artists located in lands deeply impacted by colonisation […]

This is a guide to three plant-led walks in Marricville. A Non-Traditional publication, this work is published by Frontyard Projects, Sydney, Australia, 2018, ISBN–13: 978–0–994625–1–3 and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-SA It was designed by Ella Cutler, and supported by funding from Inner West Council.

In April we presented Migrant Gardens, a video essay at the Biennal Meeting of The Society for Cultural Anthropology, Displacements. The conference engaged with different kinds of displacements, as it explains on its website: Displacements are in the air: episodes of profound political upheaval, intensified crises of migration and expulsion, the disturbing specter of climatic […]

Last month I presented a paper on gardens and transculturation at the conference Living Transcultural Spaces, organised by Co.As.It in Melbourne. The presentation is available on the conference YouTube channel here, and this is the abstract: Gardens have been identified as significant locations of place-making and environmental negotiation for migrant communities in Australia. Gardens are […]

Alexandra Crosby co-authored a report on Carrington Road, an area of Sydney’s Inner West Mapping Edges has been exploring in our research on disturbed landscapes in industrial zones of the city. The report is part of a broader project: ‘Urban Cultural Policy and the Changing Dynamics of Cultural Production’. Sydney is one of three Australian […]