In The Wild
...ons between the nature and humanity. The latter mentioned group, with the exception of Mr Archer, do not even try and understand the outcasts in any way. They remain completely ignorant of their language and culture. “The cabinet has decided that the public is not to know about these people until the war is over”. This quote is used by Nowra to show the ignorance displayed by ‘humanity’ toward nature. The destruction of the natural world is also explored in Tim Flannery’s Throwim Way Leg. A technique he uses to explore this is the inclusion of photographs. In the centre of his documentary, a series of photographs have been included, depicting various relationships between humanity and the natural world that he discovered on his journeys across Paupa New Guinea. One of these pictures shows an indigenous person, roughly dressed in western clothes, and wearing a plastic hard hat, walking along a constructed road. In the background is a forest of dead trees, stretching to the horizon of the photograph. The caption reads “a vast are of lowland forest will eventually be smothered by tailings from Freeport mine. Here, dying forest along the tailings levee, near Timika, has been clear-felled”. This picture blatantly depicts the rape of the natural world by humanity. It is presented in a very clear cut way that is easy for anyone to understand. The caption states what couldn’t be determined from the photograph – that the forest was destroyed by mine tailings from Freeport mine. The picture is a bold statement about the relationship that humanity has with the natural world. Another photograph shows further destruction of nature, but in a different form. The picture is a close-up of a young indigenous child, with bone-like arms and legs, but a bloated stomach. His skin appears to be covered in a flaky, powder like substance. The caption states “This tiny boy, sitting below Anaru’s drum, has been recently orphaned. His distended belly indicated malnutrition, malaria or both. His skin is covered in grile”. Flannery uses this photograph to show that the destruction of nature is not just about the environment, but the people and animals and inhabit it. This is used to shape our understanding of the concept of In The Wild. Another technique that Flannery uses is anecdotal evidence and personal reflection. “When I last visited the grove in 1992, a great Araucaria lay by the path – its trunk hewn into segments with a chainsaw. Had the tree fallen before it was cut up? Yet a decade before, the cutting of even a fallen tree would’ve been unthinkable”. This passage shows the destruction of nature in two ways. The tree had been cut down with a chainsaw. This is the destruction of the environment by westerners – humanity. The passage also shows the destruction of the traditional culture, since it has come under the influence of the west. This can be linked back to The Golden Age. The demise of the Telefol at the hands of the Europeans, as shown by Flannery, is parallelled by Nowra’s gradual destruction of the outcasts after being imprisoned in the mental asylum. Another theme explored in both texts, which shows the tensions between humanity and the natural world, is the negative influence of the western culture. In his documentary, Throwim Way Leg, Flannery uses the dedication as a technique to show the negative effect that western culture has had on indigenous people of Paupa New Guinea and Irian Jaya. “I dedicate this book to Jim-Bob Moffett, his successors and all other CEO’s of mining companies with interests in Melanesia, in hope that, through reading it, they will understand a little better the people whose lives they so profoundly change”. This statement is targeting who are robbing the indigenous people of their land, culture and dignity. This dedication is evidence of the way the people are treated by the western culture, a technique that further shows the relationship humanity has with the natural world. Another technique Flannery uses to show the negative influence is a quote. “There ...