Clare Archer-Lean, Sandra Phillips

Reading Beyond Extraction?: More-Than-Human Regions in Melissa Lucashenko’s Mullumbimby (2013)

Introduction

Reading beyond extraction?: more-than-human regions in melissa lucashenko’s mullumbimby (2013). Analyze Melissa Lucashenko's Mullumbimby, exploring "more-than-human regions," interspecies complexity, and Indigenous relationality, challenging colonial and patriarchal spatiality.

Abstract

The novels of Goorie author Melissa Lucashenko are consistently read through the confluence between regions and gender. Lucashenko creates work that disrupts patriarchal and colonial resonances of spatiality and place. This article extends the critical insights on Lucashenko’s oeuvre to consider how layers of regional specificity speak to relational interspecies and intraspecies complexity. Knowledge in and of a region is held and carried by many subject positions in Lucashenko’s writing, through a deep waiting and listening beyond species boundaries. This article is informed by Kombumerri writer, Mary Graham’s ontological and epistemological insights into Indigenous relationality, taking up Phillips et al.’s provocation to employ Indigenous relationality as a new frame for reading.

Review

This article proposes a timely and significant re-evaluation of Melissa Lucashenko’s *Mullumbimby*, moving beyond established critical paradigms that primarily focus on the interplay of regions and gender as disruptions to patriarchal and colonial spatialities. The authors introduce an innovative framework by conceptualizing "more-than-human regions" within the text, promising to unveil layers of regional specificity that account for complex relationalities across species boundaries. By grounding its analysis in Kombumerri writer Mary Graham’s ontological and epistemological insights into Indigenous relationality, and drawing on Phillips et al.'s provocation for this new reading frame, the abstract clearly articulates a sophisticated theoretical underpinning designed to extract deeper meanings from Lucashenko's nuanced portrayals of place and belonging. The proposed approach holds substantial promise for enriching scholarship on Lucashenko and Indigenous literatures more broadly. The emphasis on "deep waiting and listening beyond species boundaries" offers a compelling methodology for understanding how knowledge is distributed and sustained across various "subject positions" within a region, extending the concept of agency and connection far beyond anthropocentric limits. This expanded critical lens is particularly vital for appreciating Indigenous narratives, which inherently embrace holistic and interconnected understandings of land, spirit, and community. By adopting Indigenous relationality as its primary analytical tool, the article has the potential to illuminate previously unexamined textual dimensions and ethical implications, fostering a more nuanced and culturally informed engagement with Lucashenko's work. To fully realize its ambitious aims, the complete article will need to meticulously demonstrate how these theoretical insights translate into concrete textual analysis of *Mullumbimby*. Reviewers will be keen to see specific examples of how Lucashenko’s prose manifests "interspecies and intraspecies complexity" and how "deep waiting and listening" is enacted by characters or implied by the narrative structure. Furthermore, while the Indigenous relationality framework is compelling, the article should clearly articulate how its unique contributions distinguish it from existing eco-critical or post-humanist readings, particularly in its capacity to reveal distinct Indigenous perspectives on human-nonhuman entanglements. A robust, evidence-based application of its theoretical apparatus will be crucial for solidifying its original contribution to the field.

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