What is mind and where is it located
The chunk of land bordering Western Australia South Australia and Queensland is known as Namatjira For most of us it is remote geographically and metaphorically it is the heart of Australia After a period of loss and much change Saskia Beudel was inspired to begin long distance walking Within 18 months she had walked Australia s Snowy Mountains twice along the South Coast of Tasmania the MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs the Arnhem Land plateau in Kakadu the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales and in Ladakh in the Himalayas Throughout the course of her journeys she experienced passages of reverie of forgetfulness of absorption in her surroundings of an immense but simple pleasure and of rhythm The book that emerged contrasts her internal landscape with the external landscape considering her relationships with her family in the context of environmental and anthropological histories It champions the history of Australia s Namatjira country and conveys social and environmental issues A Country in Mind is a narrative memoir of one woman s reflections on home family and belonging while traversing remote and ancient landscapes The Australian Outback is depicted with such gorgeous language in Beudel s book that it almost feels as though you re seeing it with your own eyes There is however to this book than just description The history and spirituality of the region is the glue that binds this alluring memoir together and turns it into a journey through Australia unlike any other World Literature Today Jan Feb 2015 A Country in Mind Memoir with Landscape
This book was featured in the Nota Benes section of the January February 2015 issue of World Literature Today Magazine. A country in mindkong org 2 A Country in Mind Memoir with Landscape Beautiful A wonderful exploration of her family s history woven amongst histories in Australia Wonderfully written A Country in Mind Memoir with Landscape A Country in Mind is in part about the author s father who as a child was interned as a prisoner of war of the Japanese Early chapters explore how this experience shaped the author s father s psyche and affected his family and make fascinating reading As the book unfolds its focus expands to look at how human populations are shaped by historical forces and by the environment and follows the author s travels in Central Australia which are also given in vivid detail A Country in Mind is particularly original in its drawing together of diverse narrative and cultural threads it is interested in the displacement and environmental changes experienced by aboriginal people as well as the experience of colonists Towards the end it looks at ecological changes wrought by colonists on the landscape of Central Australia It s a well written inventive and interesting read Disclaimer Saskia is a friend of mine and because I know her it s hard for me to be entirely objective here A Country in Mind Memoir with Landscape
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