This paper considers whether learning from indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) might support the un-writing of settler colonial traditions that continue to influence both wine making as an agricultural area and its related discourses.
Long abstract
This paper will discuss an artistic response to a wild and fallow zone of a former vineyard as an entry point into a consideration of the relationship between wine making and colonial expansion and the degree to which confronting violent pasts and learning from indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) might support the un-writing of settler colonial traditions that continue to influence this agricultural area and its discourses. The paper asks whether acknowledging the importance of indigenous medicinal, spiritual and cultural understandings, some of which connect to wine-making, might support a reconceptualisation of the notion of terroir, a concept which has come to dominate the marketing of grape-based wine (Taplin), producing an “instant connotation of quality… without requiring much explanation” (Charters and Harding) and producing notions of national identity that largely promote the interests of elite vineyard owners over producers (Demossier).