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Panel 6

NATIVE COMPANIONS

By the late nineteenth century, European Australia was self-consciously seeking out bush friends and national symbols. Children's stories told of competitions for 'best national bird' and all wild birds were becoming 'native companions'. Overcoming the naturalistic restrictions of scientific illustration, ‘native companions’ could fly freely into the expressive arts.

Acclimatisation societies, which sought to impose British cultural models on a new society, became less popular as people began to identify with the land and perceive in native creatures, especially birds, embodiments of their own character. By the mid-twentieth century, there were birds for art's sake and birds for stories' sake, birds to be mythologised and birds to be used as metaphor for human affairs.

William Wyatt Evan A.J. Lumme Hardy Wilson

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