Abstract
A team of researchers set off on a journey to track the remains of Australia's extinct Tasmanian tiger scattered across the UK. On a cold, dark night in the winter of June 2017, hundreds of people gathered on the lawns of Hobart’s parliament house to join a procession that carried an effigy of a giant Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) to be ritually burnt at Macquarie Point.
In an act called “the Purging”, part of the Dark Mofo festival, participants were asked to write their “deepest darkest fears” on slips of paper and place them inside the soon-to-be incincerated thylacine’s body. This fiery ritual, a powerful cultural moment, reflects the complex emotions that gather around this extinct creature.
In an act called “the Purging”, part of the Dark Mofo festival, participants were asked to write their “deepest darkest fears” on slips of paper and place them inside the soon-to-be incincerated thylacine’s body. This fiery ritual, a powerful cultural moment, reflects the complex emotions that gather around this extinct creature.
Original language | English |
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Type | Magazine Article |
Media of output | Online |
Publisher | Australian Geographic Society |
Number of pages | 13 |
Place of Publication | Sydney, NSW |
Publication status | Published - 6 Apr 2018 |
Keywords
- Extinctions
- Thylacine
- Tasmanian tiger
- UK
- England
- Australia
- Museums
- Animals
- Earth sciences