cameron muir
I am an environmental historian undertaking doctoral studies at the Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University. Between 2001 and 2005 I volunteered for ReconciliACTION, a youth anti-racism activist network, and I've worked at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning and the NSW Reconciliation Council. I currently maintain the Australian and New Zealand Environmental History Network website coordinated by Libby Robin, as well as the Centre for Environmental History website. I have published fiction as well as nonfiction in various Australian journals.
Projects
After Agriculture
The world humans had known for millennia changed radically after agriculture. Much of the history of agricultural societies and the environments in which they are embedded could be viewed as the struggle to take advantage of the benefits of agriculture while contending with the vulnerabilities that are inherent in agricultural systems. This research project examines the wider history of knowledge for agriculture and place through the story of the Darling and Macquarie River country after European agriculture first came to the semi-arid plains of inland Australia. It explores how nineteenth and early twentieth century ideas about biology, race and population – at once productive and generative, but often dark and unstable – played a role in shaping modern agriculture and food production.
An example from this research: Pera Bore Experiment Farm – discussion with Michael Cathcart on Bush Telegraph (ABC Radio National, 19 April 2010). Direct link to audio.
Wounded Rivers
A collaboration with anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose and Ngemba traditional owner and National Parks Officer Phillip Sullivan about Aboriginal cultural values for water.
Further information about this project: Wounded Rivers page
Selected Publications
- Muir, Cameron, Deborah Bird Rose, and Phillip Sullivan. 'From the Other Side of the Knowledge Frontier: Indigenous Knowledge, Social–Ecological Relationships and New Perspectives.' The Rangeland Journal 32, no. 3 (2010): 259-65.
- Muir, Cameron. 'Feeding the World.' Griffith REVIEW Edition 27: Food Chain (February 2010): 59-73.
(Winner of the 2010 Griffith REVIEW Emerging Writers' Prize for Non-fiction) - Muir, Cameron. 'The Opera House of the West.' Australian Humanities Review no. 47 (2009): 55-65.
- Muir, Cameron. 'Vigilant Citizens: Statecraft and Exclusion in Dubbo City.' Media/Culture Journal 9, no. 3 (2006).
- Muir, Cameron. 'Is Your History My History?.' Griffith REVIEW Edition 13: The Next Big Thing (2006).
- Muir, Cameron. 'Cents.' Voiceworks, No. 48, Autumn (2002).
Book reviews
- Muir, Cameron. 'Lessons from Lanark', Review of The Untrained Environmentalist: How an Australian Grazier Brought His Barren Property Back to Life by John Fenton. Inside Story, November (2010).
- Muir, Cameron. 'Review of Crawford Munro: A Vision for Australia's Water by L. Ross Humphreys.' Historical Records of Australian Science 20, no. 2 (2009).
- Muir, Cameron. 'Review of Lost Waters: A History of a Troubled Catchment by Erica Nathan.' Historical Records of Australian Science 18, no. 2 (2007): 293–95.
- Muir, Cameron. 'Review of Where the Rivers Meet: New Writing from Australia Edited by Frank Stewart, Larissa Behrendt, Barry Lopez, and Mark Tredinnick.' Australian Humanities Review no. 42 (2007).
