I will probably never visit Tasmania

But thanks to Miriam Margolyes in a recent TV series, I have been there in my mind. From relatively narrow early horizons, I've long been fascinated by places "on the edge", typically where the land ends. My first home of Portsmouth is a port of course, as is my current home of Porthmadog. Several people commented when I moved from their familiarity of inland middle England to northwest Wales, that it was as if I too was now living on the edge, on the extremity. Friends originally from the West of Ireland point out that actually I am right in the centre of the British (and Irish) Isles. So much for being on the edge. Like politics, it's a matter of perspective; it depends on where you happen to be standing, and I'm trying hard to avoid being ethnocentric.

I've done a fair amount of travelling, but in the current climate, from the desire to do so sustainably, and seeing the border controls post Brexit, it's now too much trouble for both my partner and for me. Indeed, trawling online through popular destinations around the World, the lure of celebrating diversity through travel is anyway lost in globalisation. No need to travel for the food; menus are much the same the world over. I can get a vegan mock-meat steak with fake blood almost anywhere, with sweet potato fries of course. I can enjoy the variety of authentic 'world cuisine' with a good recipe at home (World Cuisine, World Music and cultural appropriation will be the subject of future blog posts).

No, my vision of minimum impact travel is in exploring via Google Earth, with plenty of other online options for exploring, understanding and appreciating the cultures of the local people. Internet radio helps the ambience, although I confess to the challenge of finding Indonesian wine in ALDI to accompany this week's menu. Exploring the hospitality “infrastructure” (restaurants and bars) of far-flung places is an enjoyable pastime, even in the face of increasingly globalised menus. There's also a frisson of delight to find Y Ddraig Goch (the Red Dragon), the flag of Cymru, proudly displayed in pubs in places as far flung from here as the north Pacific island of Sakhalin (Russia), or the south Pacific island of Guam (USA).

Back to Tasmania. I find myself in Hobart. No doubt the centre of the world to those who live there. To me, there's a familiar unfamilarity to the street scenes with their big skies and wide streets. Places on the edge (from one perspective). Some places in New Zealand (which I have visited) and the USA conjure the same impression. I'm not sure if it's the big skies, or the low-built buildings and the prominent tangle of electricity cables. I have a similar impression of the settlement on Mars in the allegorical tale The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury, book 1950; TV series 1980). But if you know the story, remember what happened to the original inhabitants; wiped out by the Common Cold as I recall. Tasmania was, in Britain, seen as penal colony and frontier territory, but was always home to Palawa Kani, the original inhabitants. Miriam met with members of the Palawi commmunity who relayed their clear message "We are still here", in concert with the original people of America, Tibet, Cymru and elsewhere. 

Other places "on the edge" have much in common to a psychogeographic imagination, due, if not to remoteness, then to some otherworldliness or just having interesting edges (strange borders). My list would include Portland (Dorset), Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha (S Atlantic) and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (France, but in North America by Newfoundland). Imagining borders inside-out as it were, others of endless fascination are those enclaves of elsewhere, surrounded by other countries, states or counties. Baarle-Hertog is a Belgian village in the Netherlands. Llívia is a Spanish town in France. Campione D'Italia is an Italian town within Switzerland. Microstates (eg Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, Vatican City State) have existed for centuries within the bounds of other countries. London too was cast as being "on the edge" by band St Etienne in 2003, referred to metaphorically as Finisterre [end of the land] in a song from their eponymous album/film.

Finisterre [Land's End, World's End] is the name of many places. Finisterre (Capo Finisterra) is in Galicia, Spain, a destination of early pilgrims in awe of the sun disappearing into the sea off the "Coast of Death", the Final Frontier. Finistère is a department of France. Finisterre is a mountain range in Papua New Guinea. Finisterre is in Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico. There are places called World's End including in Sri Lanka, Australia, London (aka Chelsea). In Cymru I still recall today from a family holiday 60 years ago, visiting Pen Draw'r Byd (World's End) near Llangollen. Did that spark the imagination? Cymraeg, the language of Cymru, is spoken across many borders (see links), including Tasmania. Maybe everywhere is "on the edge", depending on where you are standing.

LINKS

We Are Still Here (nzfilm.co.nz)

"We Are Still Here" --- A Documentary on Today's Young Native Americans - Bing video

'O HYD' - Sage Todz ft. Marino x Cymru - YouTube

(17) Finisterre - YouTubeBBC iPlayer - 

Miriam Margolyes: Australia Unmasked

Welsh Societies across the world (walesbooks.com)