THE DARK VIRGIN JUNGLE

The rainforest was often described as mysterious, uncomfortable and inaccessible. "It's very hard to get through!" laughed Tanya, a young woman living in an open, organically-designed house in the middle of the rainforest. Adam, an artist living in an open valley surrounded by rainforest, said it's "probably not a very comfortable place to live in, a very beautiful place but not very comfortable." Linda Thomson, an environmental activist, described the rainforest as "something very impenetrable and very mysterious."

"Virgin rainforest" was also a commonly used phrase, and relates to the descriptions (such as Judy's) of it being untouched and whole. The 'virgin' to which the participants referred, however, was more similar to the 'black madonna' or 'pregnant virgin' described by Jungian psychoanalyst Marion Woodman⁽¹⁴⁾ than to the more familiar meaning of 'virgin', associated with innocence and naivete.

When I asked participants to describe a rainforest and how it functions, they would often launch on in-depth descriptions of the physical components of the ecosystem, marvelling at the complexity of its functioning, being clearly impressed with its 'sophistication'. In this context, descriptions of its 'separateness' from people and its lack of personal 'welcomingness', suggest that there is an inherent respect for nature as 'other'. These people were valuing rainforest for its intrinsic worth, not for its instrumental value, its 'user friendliness'. 'Wild nature' or 'wilderness' has growing symbolic importance⁽¹³⁾.

References to the gender of nature and the rainforest were only occasional, but were consistently feminine. Gender was more frequently referred to in relation to the destruction of the forests. Both male and female participants referred to men as the violators of virgin nature.

"Rainforest is just a jungle, where no man's had a chance to reek havoc on it."

said Jeff Wojcicki, a 35 year-old tradesman living in the suburbs of Cairns. Rather than "virgin", he used another image to refer to the mysterious impenetrable nature of the rainforest - the "jungle" - which resonates as a place for masculine adventures of the Tarzan variety. (When he was younger, he did in fact go on adventures with his mates up through Cape Tribulation to Cape York.) As he continued, Jeff illustrated the contemporary re-evaluation of the patriarchal relationship with nature.

FOOTNOTES
(13) See Len Webb's 'Beyond the forest' in L.J. Webb & J. Kikkawa's edited 'Australian Tropical Rainforests: Science, Values, Meaning' (1990, CSIRO)
(14) See Marion Woodman's 'The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation' (1985, Inner City Books, Toronto)

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