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Landscapes of Our Hearts: Reconciling People and Environment
'Compelling, multifarious and essential.’
– Don Watson
‘Drink in its wisdom.’
– Andrew Leigh, MP
On this ancient continent, waves of people have made their mark on the landscape; in turn, it too has shaped them.
If we look afresh at our history through the land we live on, might Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians find a path to a shared future?
An epic exploration of our relationship with this country, Landscapes of Our Hearts takes us from the Great Barrier Reef to the Central Desert, the High Country to Canberra’s Limestone Plains. It is a book of hope and offers the possibility that a renewed connection to the landscape and to each other could pave the way towards reconciliation.
It will change the way you see this land.
– Don Watson
‘Drink in its wisdom.’
– Andrew Leigh, MP
On this ancient continent, waves of people have made their mark on the landscape; in turn, it too has shaped them.
If we look afresh at our history through the land we live on, might Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians find a path to a shared future?
An epic exploration of our relationship with this country, Landscapes of Our Hearts takes us from the Great Barrier Reef to the Central Desert, the High Country to Canberra’s Limestone Plains. It is a book of hope and offers the possibility that a renewed connection to the landscape and to each other could pave the way towards reconciliation.
It will change the way you see this land.
336 pages, Paperback
First published June 30, 2020
8 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 28, 2020
Matthew Colloff’s latest work sits alongside the very best nature writing which, from Rachel Carlson to Edward Abbey, blend the scientific with the poetic, punctuated by an unambiguous and urgent call to action.
October 15, 2020
A deliciously ambitious book cram packed with more information that you thought you'd ever need to know.
Colloff applies the clarity of an outsider to the core challenge that has been facing so-called Australia for too many generations, genuinely reconciling the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and the the ancient lands we're custodians of. The risks of not pursuing this fearlessly are becoming more and more evident.
Landscapes of Our Hearts doesn't supply all the answers but it asks the right questions.
Read it.
Colloff applies the clarity of an outsider to the core challenge that has been facing so-called Australia for too many generations, genuinely reconciling the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and the the ancient lands we're custodians of. The risks of not pursuing this fearlessly are becoming more and more evident.
Landscapes of Our Hearts doesn't supply all the answers but it asks the right questions.
Read it.
November 8, 2020
Good literature review of what’s been happing in Australia in the past few years. Could have benefited from some discussions with those quoted (there’s 27 pages of notes) rather than relying so much on published sources. For example, a parallel in experiences is drawn with a published story of Ngambri elder Paul House which would have benefitted from discussing this with him, don’t they both live in the Canberra area? Obviously the author is an expert in his own right and adds many of his own insights amongst the pages.
September 3, 2020
An absorbing read, tackling two of the big, intertwined, issues of our time here in Australia:
1) The non-indigenous inhabitants of this land must address and come to grips with our brutal, frontier and colonial settlement history, and the fact that the land was stolen; and
2) Contemporary society's lack of concern and care for this country's unique and rich biodiversity.
The author - a valued colleague of mine - tackles these twin issues from a deeply personal perspective, starting with his own origins in England and formative interactions with nature there, the strikingly different landscapes and cultural history he found in his new home (the ACT), and then through a series of regions and environmental issues he has researched and written scientific papers about.
Each environment and region he writes about - from the canefields of north Queensland to the mighty river red gum forests of the Murray River and western Victoria - present particular constraints to its human inhabitants whether today or 40,000 years ago. As well as illustrating how a scientific lens can be applied beneficially to current land-use problems, in each case the author probes his own values and historically-entrained perspectives as he ponders peoples' responses to these issues; he considers problem solving through the ages - how Aboriginal people, pre-1750, must have observed, thought deeply, and adapted their behaviour and environment (e.g. tool-making, burning practices), to suit ever-changing circumstances over the millenia, within a holistic spiritual framework that teaches respect for their fellow plants and animals on which their economy depended. The author proposes that the thoughtful application of similar problem solving lines of enquiry to the use and management of natural resources, i.e. primary production, should be possible today and that remaining elements of nature could be nurtured as part of a sustainable land-use ethic. Building up the natural capital (carbon, nutrients, microbes and soil biota) and health of soils across farmscapes is just one example - they don't need to be mined and diminished.
Although he doesn't state the following precisely, the reader cannot help but conclude that most contemporary farmers, graziers and land managers in the agricultural regions of Australia do not have the required respect for the land and its unique biota. Ecologically sustainable land use needs to have equal primacy with economic viability and social good.
Dominant Australian society is in its adolescence, where personal greed, influence and ambition is King. The overuse of scant water in the upper reaches of the Murray-Darling Basin by a few irrigators at the great expense of all downstream users (Indigenous people, townspeople, floodplain graziers, tourists, nature lovers) and the natural environment itself is just one illustration of this travesty. To evolve towards a mature society we must face and accept the facts of bloodshed and dispossession of European settlement, seek with open hearts and minds healing pathways towards reconciliation and negotiated treaties with traditional owners, and bring issues of sustainable use of natural resources and effective biodiversity conservation to the fore.
1) The non-indigenous inhabitants of this land must address and come to grips with our brutal, frontier and colonial settlement history, and the fact that the land was stolen; and
2) Contemporary society's lack of concern and care for this country's unique and rich biodiversity.
The author - a valued colleague of mine - tackles these twin issues from a deeply personal perspective, starting with his own origins in England and formative interactions with nature there, the strikingly different landscapes and cultural history he found in his new home (the ACT), and then through a series of regions and environmental issues he has researched and written scientific papers about.
Each environment and region he writes about - from the canefields of north Queensland to the mighty river red gum forests of the Murray River and western Victoria - present particular constraints to its human inhabitants whether today or 40,000 years ago. As well as illustrating how a scientific lens can be applied beneficially to current land-use problems, in each case the author probes his own values and historically-entrained perspectives as he ponders peoples' responses to these issues; he considers problem solving through the ages - how Aboriginal people, pre-1750, must have observed, thought deeply, and adapted their behaviour and environment (e.g. tool-making, burning practices), to suit ever-changing circumstances over the millenia, within a holistic spiritual framework that teaches respect for their fellow plants and animals on which their economy depended. The author proposes that the thoughtful application of similar problem solving lines of enquiry to the use and management of natural resources, i.e. primary production, should be possible today and that remaining elements of nature could be nurtured as part of a sustainable land-use ethic. Building up the natural capital (carbon, nutrients, microbes and soil biota) and health of soils across farmscapes is just one example - they don't need to be mined and diminished.
Although he doesn't state the following precisely, the reader cannot help but conclude that most contemporary farmers, graziers and land managers in the agricultural regions of Australia do not have the required respect for the land and its unique biota. Ecologically sustainable land use needs to have equal primacy with economic viability and social good.
Dominant Australian society is in its adolescence, where personal greed, influence and ambition is King. The overuse of scant water in the upper reaches of the Murray-Darling Basin by a few irrigators at the great expense of all downstream users (Indigenous people, townspeople, floodplain graziers, tourists, nature lovers) and the natural environment itself is just one illustration of this travesty. To evolve towards a mature society we must face and accept the facts of bloodshed and dispossession of European settlement, seek with open hearts and minds healing pathways towards reconciliation and negotiated treaties with traditional owners, and bring issues of sustainable use of natural resources and effective biodiversity conservation to the fore.
August 2, 2020
This is a fascinating, engaging, if wandering journey about our relationship to land. The author is an environmental scientist in Canberra, Australia, and while much of the book applies to the landscape of Australia, the broader questions are global. How do we think about our environment? What is it we value? How does it operate? What stories does it tell - if we know how to listen?
Part of what I appreciated in this book was it offers a fresh way of communicating about the environmental challenges Australia faces. Rather than just speak in scientific language of megalitres lost and the need for biodiversity and adaptive farming process in the face of climate change (yawn...), Colloff offers little stories of how specific environments works. For instance he describes why having enough of the right kinds of insects creates little wells in the dirt which sponge up water which then creates soil that stays damp – and thus green and full of life – even in drought conditions.
Too often when experts write we use words - such as biodiversity - which are full of meaning for those inside a community, but relatively empty for those outside it. Even if we know what it may be about, we need a sense of significance and connection to the world for it to convey its full intent. By telling these stories, Colloff helps to fill in that word, to give it a genuine meaning and convey a message. It was also encouraging to see a focus on learning from those closest to the land. The penultimate chapter offers a reframing on how the debates about land plays out, with an emphasis on encouraging local, bottom-up efforts at adaption and resilience building.
At the heart of the book is an attempt to think through what Colloff describes as a three way relationship of land, indigenous and non-indigenous people. This is a useful way of describing it. One that gives each element its equal due, and reflects the way there are patterns of action and response travelling in every direction. Colloff pushes this sense of relationship with the land in a somewhat spiritual direction at times (as also does indigenous tradition), but even if like me such notions leave you cold, you can still appreciate the wisdom and value of understanding and preserving our world.
If I may venture a small criticism it is that the book recognises the need to understand ourselves if we are to protect our land, yet explanations for political outcomes or economic views that don’t put the environment first are often reduced to ‘greed, selfishness and power’. Humans are more complex than this environmental scientist portrays us, but then again, this book is a wonderful reminder that the environment is far more complex than we humanities scholars often perceive.
Recommended.
Part of what I appreciated in this book was it offers a fresh way of communicating about the environmental challenges Australia faces. Rather than just speak in scientific language of megalitres lost and the need for biodiversity and adaptive farming process in the face of climate change (yawn...), Colloff offers little stories of how specific environments works. For instance he describes why having enough of the right kinds of insects creates little wells in the dirt which sponge up water which then creates soil that stays damp – and thus green and full of life – even in drought conditions.
Too often when experts write we use words - such as biodiversity - which are full of meaning for those inside a community, but relatively empty for those outside it. Even if we know what it may be about, we need a sense of significance and connection to the world for it to convey its full intent. By telling these stories, Colloff helps to fill in that word, to give it a genuine meaning and convey a message. It was also encouraging to see a focus on learning from those closest to the land. The penultimate chapter offers a reframing on how the debates about land plays out, with an emphasis on encouraging local, bottom-up efforts at adaption and resilience building.
At the heart of the book is an attempt to think through what Colloff describes as a three way relationship of land, indigenous and non-indigenous people. This is a useful way of describing it. One that gives each element its equal due, and reflects the way there are patterns of action and response travelling in every direction. Colloff pushes this sense of relationship with the land in a somewhat spiritual direction at times (as also does indigenous tradition), but even if like me such notions leave you cold, you can still appreciate the wisdom and value of understanding and preserving our world.
If I may venture a small criticism it is that the book recognises the need to understand ourselves if we are to protect our land, yet explanations for political outcomes or economic views that don’t put the environment first are often reduced to ‘greed, selfishness and power’. Humans are more complex than this environmental scientist portrays us, but then again, this book is a wonderful reminder that the environment is far more complex than we humanities scholars often perceive.
Recommended.
May 1, 2022
3.5 stars.
This book contains personal anecdotes from the author’s work and personal lives, as well as contemplative sections about the relationship between Indigenous Australians, non-Indigenous Australians, and the landscapes we interact with. As a Canberran born and raised, I could personally identify with many of the sections based around the Limestone Plains, as well as a few others set in areas of Australia which I have visited.
Negatives: The author has a way of name dropping both people and places which may or may not be familiar to the reader, and therefore may or may not mean anything to them. This habit made some sections more difficult to connect with, and I found myself thinking part way through the book that including a map at the beginning of each chapter to help situate that section geographically might help combat this issue. The other main negative for me was that the author sometimes had long sections musing on the relationship between people and the land, and these sections felt wafting and airy to me at times; they are important, but could have been more to the point, and the way they were written made them lose their substance for me sometimes.
Caveat: Someone who is less familiar with Australia’s landscapes and ecosystem challenges, or with Australia’s past and present struggles with the relationship between Indigenous and settler Australians, might find this book much more enlightening than I did. I learned some things from this book and I am glad that I read it, but I wouldn’t call it life changing.
Positives: The strengths of the book lay in some lovely prose describing aspects of our environment, and in the experience-backed and research-based information regarding the impacts of humans on the ecosystems around us. There are some political reflections which are insightful and well laid out. If you're also from Canberra then I would recommend it because there are some environmental and historical tidbits which you might find quite interesting, nostalgic, or relatable.
I’ve struggled to come up with a rating and have settled at 3.5 stars. While it was a worthwhile read, the author sometimes waffled a bit much for my liking, and the way that some of the places and people were introduced made it hard to connect with some of the anecdotes.
This book contains personal anecdotes from the author’s work and personal lives, as well as contemplative sections about the relationship between Indigenous Australians, non-Indigenous Australians, and the landscapes we interact with. As a Canberran born and raised, I could personally identify with many of the sections based around the Limestone Plains, as well as a few others set in areas of Australia which I have visited.
Negatives: The author has a way of name dropping both people and places which may or may not be familiar to the reader, and therefore may or may not mean anything to them. This habit made some sections more difficult to connect with, and I found myself thinking part way through the book that including a map at the beginning of each chapter to help situate that section geographically might help combat this issue. The other main negative for me was that the author sometimes had long sections musing on the relationship between people and the land, and these sections felt wafting and airy to me at times; they are important, but could have been more to the point, and the way they were written made them lose their substance for me sometimes.
Caveat: Someone who is less familiar with Australia’s landscapes and ecosystem challenges, or with Australia’s past and present struggles with the relationship between Indigenous and settler Australians, might find this book much more enlightening than I did. I learned some things from this book and I am glad that I read it, but I wouldn’t call it life changing.
Positives: The strengths of the book lay in some lovely prose describing aspects of our environment, and in the experience-backed and research-based information regarding the impacts of humans on the ecosystems around us. There are some political reflections which are insightful and well laid out. If you're also from Canberra then I would recommend it because there are some environmental and historical tidbits which you might find quite interesting, nostalgic, or relatable.
I’ve struggled to come up with a rating and have settled at 3.5 stars. While it was a worthwhile read, the author sometimes waffled a bit much for my liking, and the way that some of the places and people were introduced made it hard to connect with some of the anecdotes.
September 1, 2021
I am not particularly good at writing book review, but I feel this deserves more than just a five-star rating. This was a very good book and connected with me in a profound way. It is a deeply personal book. Colloff speaks of his experiences with nature and in the area where he lives. He frequently mentions places around Canberra, a place I have spent a great deal of time in! So that connected me to the book in a different way. It was really moving to hear the places I knew described by someone who loves and connects to the land in the way that Colloff does.
But there were two section in the book that I have to mention, as they connected me even further to the book. One of the stories he relates is going mushroom-gathering with his Russian neighbour. Strangely enough, I had been talking to my son not long before reading the book about going mushroom-gathering with my Ukrainian grandmother. My son's response was basically wasn't that dangerous (a response Matthew Colloff also received from people).
The other section I deeply connected with was the mentioning of the Indigenous Australian protesting at the 1988 Australia Day celebrations in Sydney. I was there. I was 13 and one of the things I most remember about that day were those protesters. I didn't know why they were protesting - or that there was anything to protest before that point. It made a huge impact on me. I can't remember any of the fireworks and much of the actual celebrations at all. But I remember those protestors and the emotions I had while I looked at them.
All in all, it is a fantastic book. You may not connect with the book for the same reasons I did. But I think there is something in there for us all to connect with, and for us all to form a deeper connection to land.
But there were two section in the book that I have to mention, as they connected me even further to the book. One of the stories he relates is going mushroom-gathering with his Russian neighbour. Strangely enough, I had been talking to my son not long before reading the book about going mushroom-gathering with my Ukrainian grandmother. My son's response was basically wasn't that dangerous (a response Matthew Colloff also received from people).
The other section I deeply connected with was the mentioning of the Indigenous Australian protesting at the 1988 Australia Day celebrations in Sydney. I was there. I was 13 and one of the things I most remember about that day were those protesters. I didn't know why they were protesting - or that there was anything to protest before that point. It made a huge impact on me. I can't remember any of the fireworks and much of the actual celebrations at all. But I remember those protestors and the emotions I had while I looked at them.
All in all, it is a fantastic book. You may not connect with the book for the same reasons I did. But I think there is something in there for us all to connect with, and for us all to form a deeper connection to land.
September 30, 2020
Matthew Colloff is a passionate CSIRO ecologist exploring the triangle of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and the environment we share. Seeing the different ecosystems and lands of our lives through eyes both scientific and poetic, Colloff’s work reminds me of the writings of Eric Rolls and Robert Macfarlane; warmly nostalgic, evocative and informed.
This book reads like a survey of views, ideas and glimpses, born from many minds, all converging on the land. Colloff seems to have inhaled all the great environmental writers and thinkers of our country, and exhaled this book. It is like a condensed conversation! Of course it mainly addresses the concerns of biodiversity conservation, but not without embracing necessary change and the hearts of the most dominant species, humans. It is fresh, rich and thoughtful reading. If only more scientists wrote like this!
This book reads like a survey of views, ideas and glimpses, born from many minds, all converging on the land. Colloff seems to have inhaled all the great environmental writers and thinkers of our country, and exhaled this book. It is like a condensed conversation! Of course it mainly addresses the concerns of biodiversity conservation, but not without embracing necessary change and the hearts of the most dominant species, humans. It is fresh, rich and thoughtful reading. If only more scientists wrote like this!
Read
August 28, 2020The premise of this book really excited me and some sections were great but overall I felt that this book did not deliver what was promised. I felt like the author enjoyed talking about his own experiences etc too much (which would be fine if it was advertised as more of a memoir) but found that Indigenous people were not mentioned enough and too much detail was added to dull areas, making it a boring read most of the time. You can tell the author has a lot of expertise on aspects of the environment, but I did not feel engaged by his writing and overall skimmed for parts I might find useful for my uni assignment instead of general interest in the areas of discussion. The book Treading Lightly was a much better read for me if anyone else is looking for other books along these lines.
January 4, 2021
This book offers a very inspiring reflection on the relationships between Indigenous or non-Indigenous people and their country, Australia. As I am not Australian, the book has taken me on a journey to this country that I know little about. With this journey, I have been able to discover some of Australian natural and cultural history and richness. I was also very interested in this book for its reflections on the intimate connections between people and their landscapes and seascapes, reflections that go far beyond Australia. I liked very much reading this book: Matthew Colloff speaks to us about the landscapes of our hearts with a style that moves us.
September 10, 2020
Beautifully articulates what it means to fall in love with a landscape and the people, flora, and fauna that are all connected by it. This book is an invitation for non-Indigenous Australians to learn about and take responsibility for redressing the violent dispossession of Australia's First Nations and the ravages that European colonisation has inflicted upon their lands.
July 26, 2020
Complex. Interesting. Worth a second read.
October 24, 2020
Probably my top read of 2020.
Left me with a stack of books to follow up with, some brilliant references in here.
Left me with a stack of books to follow up with, some brilliant references in here.
June 2, 2021
A thought provoking read with a relatable mix of the personal and factual.
January 14, 2022
A lovely book - an extended essay on Australians of all sorts and our relationship to land, people and country. Well worth the read.
December 11, 2023
Equally moving and twee. Potentially one to sift through chapter by chapter rather than cover to cover.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews