The Bush Quotes

“For Hindus, banyan trees are sacred. For Buddhists, bodhi trees; for the Arabs, certain date palms. To be stalwart in a ‘tree-like’ way was to approach goodness, according to Confucius. The Normans built chapels in the trunks of yew trees. Many other cultures attached religious significance to particular trees and groves and forests. Adonis was born of a tree. Daphne turned into one. George Washington confessed to cutting one down and the United States, as a result, was all but immaculately conceived. The tree is the symbol of the male organ and of the female body. The Hebrew kabbalah depicts Creation in the form of a tree. In Genesis, a tree holds the key to immortal life, and it is to the branches and fruit of an olive tree that God’s people are likened in both the Old and New Testaments. To celebrate the birth of Christ his followers place trees in their sitting rooms and palm fronds, a symbol of victory, commemorate his entering Jerusalem. A child noted by Freud had fantasies of wounding a tree that represented his mother. The immortal swagman of Australia sat beneath a coolabah tree. In hundreds of Australian towns the war dead are honoured by avenues of trees.”
― Don Watson, The Bush

“Yet it remains a commonplace of the official Australian worldview that all that is distinct and admirable in the national character and belief comes from the bush. It made Australians what they are.”
― Don Watson, The Bush

“Kitsch and tourism are inseparable partners. Perhaps it is because, by definition, both are inauthentic.”
― Don Watson, The Bush

“Across the continent since Europeans first arrived, 92 per cent of old-growth forest has been destroyed. The”
― Don Watson, The Bush

“Nimbin now continues life in its post-Aquarian form as an icon of alternative living, or, taking the view from the street as a measure, a fossilised relic of hippiedom, a marijuana-pickled, bad-taste rural slum.”
― Don Watson, The Bush

“The prolonged solitary exposure to the bush that makes some people odd or crazy might in others bring the active and contemplative life into perfect harmony or grace.”
― Don Watson, The Bush