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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.
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