From God-head to Bin Chook: Ibis in the Australian Cultural Imagination

Allatson, P; Connor, A

From God-head to Bin Chook: Ibis in the Australian Cultural Imagination

Allatson, P

Connor, A

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Publisher:: Artlink
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Artlink: Australian Contemporary Art Quarterly, 2018, 38 (1), pp. 66 - 71
Issue Date:: 2018

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Allatson, P https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2248-1605	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Connor, A	en_US
dc.date.issued	2018	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Artlink: Australian Contemporary Art Quarterly, 2018, 38 (1), pp. 66 - 71	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0727-1239	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/122291
dc.description.abstract	From the early 1970s, driven by drought and degradation of interior wetlands, the Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis moluccus) began migrating to the nation’s coastal cities, towns and inland centres from north Queensland through to Perth. Ibis have flourished in urban spaces, where there is a ready food supply guaranteed by our endemic over-consumption. Their robust colonisation and presence has garnered the bird a reputation as unwelcome pests and interlopers, reflected in the quotidian idiom: dumpster diver, flying rat, tip turkey, pest of the sky, trash vulture, dump chook, bin chicken, bin chook. As their vernacular names suggest, the much-maligned ibis has achieved an ambivalent status in the Australian imagination, ranging from disparagement and disgust to a begrudging admiration and affection for their tenacity and adaptability in the urban-wilds of Australian cities. The iconic representation of the ibis is also historically and ecologically significant as the Australian White Ibis is a sister species of the African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus). Though extinct in Egypt today, the Sacred Ibis enjoyed an exalted status in ancient Egypt, whereby the God Djehuty or Thoth was often portrayed with an ibis head, and ibis themselves were commonly mummified. Australian artists have picked up on these genetic and cultural resonances to engage in the bird’s evolving and precarious celebrity status as it occupies our urban-suburban waterways and built environment	en_US
dc.publisher	Artlink	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Artlink: Australian Contemporary Art Quarterly	en_US
dc.title	From God-head to Bin Chook: Ibis in the Australian Cultural Imagination	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	1	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	38	en_US
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies	en_US
utslib.for	1299 Other Built Environment and Design	en_US
utslib.for	1901 Art Theory and Criticism	en_US
utslib.for	1905 Visual Arts and Crafts	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	1	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	38	en_US

Abstract:

From the early 1970s, driven by drought and degradation of interior wetlands, the Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis moluccus) began migrating to the nation’s coastal cities, towns and inland centres from north Queensland through to Perth. Ibis have flourished in urban spaces, where there is a ready food supply guaranteed by our endemic over-consumption. Their robust colonisation and presence has garnered the bird a reputation as unwelcome pests and interlopers, reflected in the quotidian idiom: dumpster diver, flying rat, tip turkey, pest of the sky, trash vulture, dump chook, bin chicken, bin chook. As their vernacular names suggest, the much-maligned ibis has achieved an ambivalent status in the Australian imagination, ranging from disparagement and disgust to a begrudging admiration and affection for their tenacity and adaptability in the urban-wilds of Australian cities. The iconic representation of the ibis is also historically and ecologically significant as the Australian White Ibis is a sister species of the African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus). Though extinct in Egypt today, the Sacred Ibis enjoyed an exalted status in ancient Egypt, whereby the God Djehuty or Thoth was often portrayed with an ibis head, and ibis themselves were commonly mummified. Australian artists have picked up on these genetic and cultural resonances to engage in the bird’s evolving and precarious celebrity status as it occupies our urban-suburban waterways and built environment

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/122291