The Feral Spectacle

Emerging as a unique subcultural phenomenon by the mid-nineties, ferals were eventually media-ted. Concentrated coverage occurred between 1994-96, the spectacular style of this mobile theatre of the weird providing the stimulus. Although there have been informative accounts,13 popular mediations have maximised the visual impact provided by the milieu's strangeness, its otherness (Murray 1994; Gibbs 1995), sometimes chronicling the exploits of intrepid reporters returning from our outer-terrestrial regions with tales (and images) of Euro-Australian primitives (Whittaker 1996), other times consigning them to a notorious leisure status. For instance, in 1995, the Nine network's Sixty Minutes sent a crew to Nimbin to probe tipi dwellers about dole bludging.14

So what constitutes the feral spectacle? They are often talented musicians, didj players, artists, dressed in recycled garb, dreadlocked, adorned with multiple piercings and folk-jewellery: feathers, birds feet, skulls and umbilical-cord necklaces (feralia). A wild rustic appearance is desirable. For many, this transpires as fabrics fade and hair tangles in unkempt locks. Others will go to great lengths to achieve a turbulent look - a 'cultivated crustiness' (Hetherington 1996a:43). The feral rig is an ensemble of materials discovered dada-esque in garage sales, op' shops, or fashioned from the hide of road-kill or dead animals found in the bush. Outfits range from the sartorial splendour of brightly imbued and offbeat garments, to dirty green and brown hued favourites. Army great coats with personalised patches sewn on the rear are not uncommon, nor are silken night dresses and fairy wings. They revel in an iconography of otherness and authenticity. The identification with various indigenous peoples and historical cultures - their cosmologies, rituals and artefacts - is apparent in multiple appropriations.

Performing wherever they go - especially hand drumming and fire dancing - these are youth for whom life is akin to theatre. They are spectacular. Hebdige's discussion (1983:86-7) of the intrinsic ambiguity in subcultural gesturing casts light on the spectacular sheen of ferality. Youth subcultures are 'insubordinate' - they 'drive against classification and control'. Yet, pleasure is derived from 'being watched', from being spectacular. There is pleasure in being watched and power is, as Hebdige (ibid:96) avers - in reference to a comment attributed to Foucault - 'in fashion'.

It could be suggested that the feral ensemble illustrates 'symbolic' resistance, their marginal corporeality, their 'fashion statements' resembling the apparently inconsequential 'rituals of resistance' which Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies researchers located in the leisure time of working class youth. This is qualified by Banyalla who makes the distinction between a 'fashion feral' (which he says he's not) and an 'alternative lifestyle feral'. Banyalla does agree outward appearance is critical, since this signals a conscious challenge to society. He says of ferals:

you can be totally fashion conscious and still not have to spend three or four hundred dollars on a fucking dress or a fucking flash pair of pants or something ... they stand out in a crowd ya'know. They're fucking stunners! ... And just by the fact of doing that ... you have to be activists in some way.

Like other subcultural ensembles, feral is an intentional sign system. Ferality 'stands apart'. It is 'a visible construction, a loaded choice. It directs attention to itself; it gives itself to be read' (Hebdige 1979:101). However, at the risk of inciting a shallow rebellion, an 'alternative lifestyle feral' must be politically active, must celebrate and defend. Ultimately, the feral spectacle must be in service of the cause. 'Weekend ferals' do not pose a threat. According to Banyalla, the 'rebellion' of the narcissistic 'fashion feral' remains substantively empty: 'they're just rebels, ya'know ... like Dean. James Dean was a rebel, but what was he fucking rebelling against? No idea, ya'know - politically fucking inept'.

Like other middle class subcultural milieux (e.g. hippies), feral resistance is not confined to the field of leisure (Cohen 1972). Nor is it merely 'symbolic' or 'ritual' (Clarke et al. 1975) and, therefore, containable. Furthermore, though edged into the media spectacle, in the large, feral remains in the subterraneous marginalia of 'immediatism' (Bey 1994a). As such, its anarchic confrontational potential has been spared the degree of 'recuperation' via commodification that is the experience of other subcultures (e.g. mod, hippy, punk and raver). This is the case as: there is no distinctively commodifiable feral literature or music; there is little evidence of an entrepreneurial ethos; clothing is DiY, inexpensive and recycled; hair is not usually styled professionally; and there have been few feral 'pop stars'. Feral signs are not converted into mass produced objects on any scale comparable to punk. They have not, at least yet, been 'rendered at once public property and profitable merchandise' (Hebdige 1979:96).15

As the feral assemblage is significant, it is abundantly clear that style cannot be easily dismissed. It 'speaks' of the values shared by adherents, radiating a transient, eco-conscious, non-material atavism. However, while ferality's spectacular aesthetic predominates in popular media representations, pivotal social, political and cultural traits have gone largely unnoticed.

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