• Colour drawing of a staged theatrical scene framed by two symmetrical classical structures with niches containing gilded statues, flanked by trees. At the centre, a painted backdrop shows an island within an archipelago, with a visible settlement; in the foreground, a vessel approaches the shore. Four figures stand before the backdrop holding branches and other objects. The composition is enclosed within a thin rectangular gold border.

A flying fox landing on water

Shimmer: The Kiss of Life Includes Us, Too

An extract from Shimmer: Flying Fox Exuberance in Worlds of Peril by Deborah Bird Rose Australian anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose’s remarkable final book is a landmark piece of interdisciplinary, multi-species scholarship based on fieldwork with the zoologists, conservationists and Aboriginal…