Memory keepers, map makers, and material thinkers: the sustained offerings of craft objects

Abstract

This paper draws upon the landscape memoir work of intellectual Tamsin Kerr and the ecoregionalism of fine furniture designer/maker, Ross Annels. It brings together an emerging body of theory around the arts and environment from Australia with a contemporary placebased craft practice. Becoming more native to place is a deeper ecoregionalism, both multicultural and more-than-human, that remembers the past and shapes our future. This is how natural materials think, exposing the language of place.
This is the potential and the potency of both artisan and natural resource: to teach the memory of elders, to map out more sustainable lifestyles, and to speak the material’s voice. Here is how we might use the everyday of craft objects to reconnect with an expanded conception of the world. By adding the depth of cross-cultural understandings of environment and place, we live a richer connection to country. Craft draws down our gaze to more human scale change, uplifting regional identity along with (self)sustainable cultural models. Herein lies the power of craft.