Border-processes and homemaking: Encounters with possums in suburban Australian homes

Cultural Geographies

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 29-54

  Power, Emma R ^a  

^a MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Border processes; Brushtail possums; Homemaking; More than human agency; Nativeness

Indexed keywords

BORDER REGION; HOME RANGE; MARSUPIAL; NATURE-SOCIETY RELATIONS; RESIDENTIAL LOCATION; SUBURBAN AREA; URBAN SOCIETY;

AUSTRALASIA; AUSTRALIA; NEW SOUTH WALES; SYDNEY [NEW SOUTH WALES];

PHALANGERIDAE;

EID: 58649094668     PISSN: 14744740     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1474474008097979     Document Type: Article

References (80)

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2. D. Newman, 'The lines that continue to separate us: Borders in our 'borderless' world', Progress in human geography 30 (2006), pp. 143-61; D. Newman and A. Paasi, 'Fences and neighbours in the post-modern world: boundary narratives in political geography', Progress in human geography 22 (1998), pp. 186-207; A. Paasi, 'Boundaries in a globalizing world', in K. Anderson, M. Domosh, S. Pile and N. Thrift (eds), Handbook of cultural geography, (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, Sage, 2003), pp. 462-72.
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4. Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar'; S. Muller, E.R. Power, S. Suchet-Pearson, S. Wright and K. Lloyd, 'Quarantine matters!': Quotidian relationships around quarantine in Australia's northern borderlands', Environment and planning a (in press); E.R. Power, 'Pests and home-making: Depictions of pests in home-maker magazines', Home cultures 4 (2007), pp. 213-36.
5. A. Blunt and R. Dowling, Home (London, Routledge, 2006).
6. Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar', p. 272.
7. Muller, 'Quarantine matters!'.
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9. Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar'.
10. Martens and Scott, 'Under the kitchen surface'; Power, 'Pests and home-making'.
11. Berner, 'The meaning of cleaning'; Martens and 'Under the kitchen surface'; Martens and Scott, 'The unbearable lightness of cleaning'; S. Pink, Home truths: Gender, domestic objects and everyday life (Oxford and New York, Berg, 2004); Power, 'Pests and home-making'.
12. S. Hinchliffe, 'Locating risk: Energy use, the 'ideal' home and the non-ideal world', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 22 (1997), pp. 197-209; Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar'; E. Shove, Comfort, cleanliness and convenience: The social organization of normality (Oxford and New York, Berg, 2003).
13. Hinchliffe, 'Locating risk'; Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar'.
14. Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar', p. 274.
15. Power, 'Pests and home-making'.
16. G. Holland, 'The comfortable house: Responding to the Australian environment', in P. Troy, ed., A history of European housing in Australia (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp, 197-217.
17. Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar'.
18. Ibid., p. 275.
19. Power, 'Pests and home-making'.
20. D. Sibley, Geographies of exclusion (London and New York, Routledge, 1995).
21. Martens and Scott, 'Under the kitchen surface', p. 47; Power, 'Pests and home-making'.
22. Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar'.
23. Ibid., p. 283.
24. L. Head and P. Muir, 'Suburban life and the boundaries of nature: resilience and rupture in Australian backyards', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31 (2006), pp. 505-24; and see A. Blunt and R. Dowling, Home (London, Routledge, 2006), p. 106.
25. D. Crouch, 'Writing of Australian dwelling: Animal houses and anxious ground', Journal of Australian studies 80 (2004), pp. 43-52.
26. Ibid., p. 43.
27. For example R. Dowling, 'Accommodating open-plan: Children, clutter and containment in suburban houses in Sydney, Australia', Environment and planning a (in press); G. Rose, 'Family photographs and domestic spacings: A case study', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 1 (2003), pp. 5-18; D.J.B. Young, 'The material value of color: The estate agent's tale', Home cultures 1 (2004), pp. 5-22.
28. Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar'.
29. Ibid.
30. See B. Braun, 'Environmental issues: Writing a more-than-human geography', Progress in human geography 29 (2005), pp. 635-50.
31. Power, 'Pests and home-making'.
32. R. Fox, 'Animal behaviours, post-human lives: Everyday negotiations of the animal-human divide in pet-keeping', Social and cultural geography 7 (2006), pp. 525-37; A. Franklin, '"Be[a]ware of the dog": A post-humanist approach to housing', Housing, theory and society 23 (2006), pp. 137-56; E.R. Power, 'Furry families: Making a human-dog family through home', Social and cultural geography 9 (2008), pp. 535-55.
33. R. Hitchings, 'People, plants and performance: On actor network theory and the material pleasures of the private garden', Social and cultural geography 4 (2003), pp. 99-112; C. Philo and C. Wilbert, 'Animal spaces, beastly places: An introduction', in C. Philo and C. Wilbert, eds, Animal spaces, beastly places: New geographies of human-animal relations (London, New York, Routledge, 2000), pp. 1-34; E.R. Power, 'Human-nature relations in suburban gardens', Australian geographer 36 (2005), pp. 39-53; E.R. Power, 'Pests and home-making'; Power, 'Furry families'; J.A. Smith, 'Beyond dominance and affection: Living with rabbits in post-humanist households', Society and animals 11 (2003), pp. 181-97.
34. Muller, 'Quarantine matters!'.
35. A. Gullo, U. Lassiter and J. Wolch, 'The cougar's tale', in J. Emel and J. Wolch, eds, Animal geographies: Place, politics and identity in the nature-culture borderlands (London, New York, Verso, 1998), pp. 139-61; M. Davis, Ecology of fear: Los Angeles and the imagination of disaster (New York, Metropolitan Books, 1998); see also J. Emel, 'Are you man enough, big and bad enough? Wolf eradication in the US', in J. Emel and J. Wolch, eds, Animal geographies: Place, politics and identity in the nature-culture borderlands (London, New York, Verso, 1998), pp. 91-116 about wolves.
36. P. Gruffudd, 'On the prowl with the possum posse: Nature and nation in Aotearoa/New Zealand', presented to Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, April 2007; K. Milton, 'Possum magic, possum menace: Wildlife control and the demonization of cuteness', presented to Animals and Society II: Considering Animals, Hobart, Tasmania, July 2007.
37. For discussion of everyday practices and performativity see Hitchings, 'People, plants and performance'; R. Hitchings, 'At home with someone nonhuman', Home cultures 1 (2004), pp. 169-86; H. Lorimer, 'Cultural geography: The busyness of being 'more-than-representational', Progress in human geography 29 (2005), pp. 83-94; S. Whatmore, 'Materialist returns: Practising cultural geography in and for a more-than-human world', Cultural geographies 13 (2006), pp. 600-9.
38. P.L. Bird, 'A review of the ecology of the common brushtail possum Trichosurus Vulpecula in south-eastern Australia', in J.B. Paton, P.J.B. Alexander, P.L.F. Dal Piva, R.W.K. Inns, D.K. and R.F. Storr, eds, Seminar proceedings: The common brushtail possum in South Australia (Adelaide, Fauna Management Coordinating Committee, 1997), pp. 4-10; N.J. Hill, K.A. Carbery and E.M. Deane, 'Human - possum conflict in urban Sydney, Australia: Public perceptions and implications for species management', Human dimensions of wildlife 12 (2007), pp. 101-13; A. Matthews, D. Lunney, K. Waples and J. Hardy, 'Brushtail possums: 'champion of the suburbs' or 'our tormentors'?', in D. Lunney and S. Burgin, eds, Urban wildlife: More than meets the eye (Mosman, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 2004), pp. 159-68.
39. M. Statham and H.L. Statham, 'Movements and habits of brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula Kerr) in an urban area', Wildlife research 24 (1997), pp. 715-26.
40. Matthews, Lunney, Waples and Hardy, 'Brushtail possums'; B.M. Hill, 'The ecology and management of the common brushtail possum in metropolitan Adelaide', J.B. Paton, P.J.B. Alexander, P.L.F. Dal Piva, R.W.K. Inns, D.K. and R.F. Storr, eds, Seminar proceedings: The common brushtail possum in South Australia (Adelaide, Fauna Management Coordinating Committee, 1997), pp. 11-14; Hill, Carbery and Deane, 'Human - possum conflict in urban Sydney'.
41. DEC, Policy on the management of possums causing disturbance to residential or commercial property (Hurstville, Department of Environment and Conservation, 2004).
42. Hill, Carbery and Deane, 'Human - possum conflict in urban Sydney', p. 104.
43. Hill, Carbery and Deane, 'Human - possum conflict in urban Sydney', p. 104.; A. Kerle, Possums: The brushtails, ringtails and greater glider (Sydney, UNSW Press, 2001); A. Kerle, 'A cautionary tale: Decline of the common brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula and common ringtail possum Pseudocheirus peregrinus in the woodlands of the western slopes and plains of New South Wales', in R.L. Goldingay and S.M. Jackson, eds, The biology of Australian possums and gliders (Chipping Norton, Surrey Beatty and Sons, 2004), pp. 71-84; Matthews, Lunney, Waples and Hardy, 'Brushtail possums'.
44. Hill, Carbery and Deane, 'Human - possum conflict in urban Sydney'.
45. NPWS, Urban wildlife renewal: 'growing conservation in urban communities' (National Parks and Wildlife Service, NSW, 2002).
46. M. Duffy, Opinion: 'Hello, possums! Scourge of our roof spaces is across the Tasman, too', The Sydney Morning Herald (22 Sept. 2007), p. 35; SMH (2006) 'Possum magic', The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs, http://blogs.smh.com.au/entertainment/archives/essential/006582.html, Accessed: April 2007; S. Zeederberg, Heckler: 'Look possum, we need to talk', The Sydney Morning Herald (27 April 2004), p. 16.
47. Duffy, 'Hello, possums!', p. 35.
48. D. Haraway, Simians, cyborgs and women: The reinvention of nature (London, Free Association Books, 1991).
49. L. Instone, 'The coyote's at the Door: Revisioning human-environment relations in the Australian context', Ecumene 5 (1998), pp. 452-67.
50. In Australia nativeness and belonging is popularly ascribed to bodies that were present within the nation prior to European settlement in 1788. Contiguously it is denied to those who have subsequently arrived, drawing the status of 'alien' plants, animals and even humans into question. A further dimension of locality ascribes nativeness according to presence in a particular geographical location, as well as on temporal lines, see L. Head and P. Muir, 'Nativeness, invasiveness and nation in Australian plants', Geographical review 94 (2004), pp. 199-217; Head and Muir, 'Suburban life and the boundaries of nature'; D. Trigger and J. Mulcock, 'Native vs exotic: Cultural discourses about flora, fauna and belonging in Australia', in Sustainable development and planning II, (Boston, WIT Press, 2005), pp. 1301-10; D. Trigger and J. Mulcock, 'Forests as spiritually significant places: Nature, culture and 'belonging' in Australia', The Australian journal of anthropology 16 (2005), pp. 306-20; C.R. Warren, 'Perspectives on the 'alien' versus 'native' species debate: A critique of concepts, language and practice', Progress in human geography 31 (2007), pp. 427-44.
51. L. Head and P. Muir, 'Nativeness, invasiveness and nation in Australian plants', Geographical review 94 (2004), pp. 199-217; L. Head and P. Muir, 'Suburban life and the boundaries of nature: Resilience and rupture in Australian backyards', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31 (2006), pp. 505-24; D. Trigger and J. Mulcock, 'Native vs exotic: Cultural discourses about flora, fauna and belonging in Australia', in Sustainable development and planning II (Boston, WIT Press, 2005), pp. 1301-10; D. Trigger and J. Mulcock, 'Forests as spiritually significant places: Nature, culture and 'belonging' in Australia', The Australian journal of anthropology 16 (2005), pp. 306-20; C.R. Warren, 'Perspectives on the 'alien' versus 'native' species debate: A critique of concepts, language and practice', Progress in human geography 31 (2007), pp. 427-44.
52. K. Anderson, Race and the crisis of humanism (London and New York, Routledge, 2006); M. Langton, Burning questions: Emerging environmental issues for indigenous peoples in northern Australia (Darwin, Centre for Indigenous Natural and Cultural Resource Management, Northern Territory University, 1998).
53. Davis, 'Ecology of fear'; Emel, 'Wolf eradication in the US'; Gullo, 'The cougar's tale'.
54. Gruffudd, 'On the prowl with the possum posse'; Milton, 'Possum magic, possum menace'.
55. Hill, Carbery and Deane, 'Human - possum conflict in urban Sydney'; Matthews, Lunney, Waples and Hardy, 'Brushtail possums'.
56. Statham and Statham, 'Movements and habits of brushtail possums'.
57. Hill, Carbery and Deane, 'Human - possum conflict in urban Sydney'
58. Ibid., p. 105.
59. Ibid., p. 108.
60. Hitchings, 'People, plants and performance; Power, 'Human-nature relations in suburban gardens'; Power, 'Furry-families'.
61. All participant names are pseudonyms.
62. For example, Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar; Martens, L. and Scott, S, 'Under the kitchen surface'; Power, 'Pests and home-making'.
63. Statham and Statham, 'Movements and habits of brushtail possums' also emphasizes car-related dangers; and see also Matthews, Lunney, Waples and Hardy, 'Brushtail possums'.
64. Bird, 'Ecology of the common brushtail possum', contests this view, arguing that in some locations urban gardens ensure increased food availability.
65. For more discussion see Milton, 'Possum magic, possum menace'.
66. See Head and Muir, 'Nativeness, invasiveness and nation in Australian plants'; Head and Muir, 'Suburban life and the boundaries of nature'; Trigger and Mulcock, 'Forests as spiritually significant places'; Trigger and Mulcock, 'Native vs exotic'.
67. K. Gelder and J. M. Jacobs, Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and identity in a postcolonial nation (Carlton, Melbourne University Press, 1998), p. 23.
68. Bird, 'Ecology of the common brushtail possum', p. 8.
69. See also Kerle, Possums.
70. See also Hill, Carbery and Deane, 'Human - possum conflict in urban Sydney'; Matthews, Lunney, Waples and Hardy, 'Brushtail possums'.
71. Head and Muir, 'Suburban life and the boundaries of nature' observe that gardeners who do not like native plants express similar feelings of guilt.
72. In New Zealand brushtail possums are constructed as diseased and a threat to human health, see Milton, 'Possum magic, possum menace'.
73. For example, Head and Muir, 'Nativeness, invasiveness and nation in Australian plants'; Crouch, 'Writing of Australian dwelling'.
74. See especially Head and Muir, 'Suburban life and the boundaries of nature'; Trigger and Mulcock, 'Forests as spiritually significant places'; Trigger and Mulcock, 'Native vs exotic'; Cerwonka, Native to the nation.
75. This is sometimes the case for native gardeners, see Cerwonka, Native to the nation.
76. Statham and Statham, 'Movements and habits of brushtail possums'; Kerle, Possums.
77. Kaika, 'Geographies of the familiar'.
78. See also Power, 'Pests and home-making'.
79. Ibid.
80. Hetherington, K. (2003) 'Spatial textures: Place, touch, and praesentia', Environment and planning a 35:1933-44 similarly considers how place is made and interpreted through touch.