Feral is a characteristically confrontational attitude intimately connected to the critical discourse and practice of radical ecologism in Australia. It has appeared at the crossroads of several historical trajectories: the local confluence of hippie, punk and pagan youth cultures, the emergence of a nomadic squatting/activist movement, and the valorisation of indigeneity. Via discussion of this relatively immediate and largely non-commodified spectacular/activist subculture, special note has been made of its efforts to celebrate and defend natural and cultural heritage.

We are witness to a contemporary transition which indicates detachment from the domestic 'parent culture' and identification with the natural environment. This Australian eco-radical project promises to bequeath similarly disenchanted individuals with an understanding of their kinship with the natural world, an attendant range of responsibilities, and a defensible place in the scheme of things. For those embarking upon co-operative eco-tribal trajectories, this subcultural career is rewarding, a risk worth taking, a source of belonging and purpose. Evidencing a subterranean process of reconcilement (with ecology and indigenes), ferals are antipodean terra-ists seeking (re)connection with place.

For many alternates, ferality has become an authentic category of human being - evoking disorder, unpredictability, wildness, otherness - freedom. Its desirability lies in the transitional/trespassory status achieved by the straddling and undermining of an established Nature/Culture boundary. Permissive and immediate, ConFest is a site wherein ferality can be accessed and performed. It contextualises the expression and realisation of principal elements of ferality - spectacular aestheticism and life theatre (art); eco-spirituality and activism (religion/politics); and a quest for belonging in community (sociality) - discussed here and elaborated upon in the remaining chapters.

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