Representations of the dingo: contextualising iconicity

Abstract

Iconic species can present particular political and management imperatives and often shape national identities, and are shaped by them. More importantly, in the case of K'gari-Fraser Island and the dingo, shape the perceptions of iconicity in that landscape. Iconic species are used to represent diverse human valuing such as commercial, recreational, national, conservation and cultural. The dingo is contested as an introduced species in social evolution, is identified as a pest animal in contemporary land management, raises ancient human fears of predation and is, at the same time, the iconic representative of a World Heritage Listed landscape, due partly to the alleged genetic purity of K'gari-Fraser Island dingoes. Iconic species are viewed differently depending on epistemological biases and disciplinary frameworks, but these multiple constructions are rarely acknowledged or articulated. This paper searches for commonalities in constructions of the dingo across three literatures: scientific, anthropological/cultural analyses and tourism geographies. We find that each of these disciplinary literatures is divided. Within this contestation the dingo remains a liminal being in human perception defined by a predominantly anthropocentric vision. But there are two participants in any gaze, and future research might seek to understand how the dingo looks back at humans.