Emily O’Gorman focuses on the Australian pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus) of the Coorong region of South Australia to examine how historical and contemporary ways of protecting these birds have been entangled with class politics, cross-cultural relationships, and the law. The story begins with a mass killing of young pelicans on islands in the Coorong lagoon in 1911, and continues to weave together the conflicts between pelicans, ornithologists, fishermen, egg collectors, and conservationists from colonial times until today.
DOI: doi.org/10.5282/rcc/7773