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From the Bush to the Sea: Aussie Bodies, Aussie Cossies.
Jennifer Craik, Griffith University
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This paper investigates the specificity of Australian modes of dress in terms of the way it relates to notions of space and landscape and how Australians negotiate these spaces. The argument of the paper is that Australians since settlement have developed a distinctive yet ambivalent relationship with their environment that has fed into myths about national identity. These myths have, in turn, influenced the emergence of distinctively Australian lifestyles as the basis of national culture. Of these, the place of the bush and the beach are central. In this paper, I compare and contrast how these two mythic concepts of place have shaped Australian bodies and their practices of bodily comportment. In this process, bush wear and swimming costumes have become the key icons of identity and sense of self.
