Material: Eucalyptus bark (paper & ink), pocket edition constitution (paper), beeswax
In this future the constitution of so-called Australia has been unconstituted, deconstituted and reconstituted by the more-than-human world. The rights of nature are enshrined into the most important legal document in Australia; embedding the inalienable property rights of the koala, the political participation of the eucalypt, the powers of the Queen-Bee, the parliamentary processes of the microbial senate, the role of the mycelium judiciary and the human entanglement within this multispecies legislature.
Legislative power
The legislative power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in a Federal Parliament, which shall consist of the Queen-Bee, a Microbial Senate and a Multispecies House of Representatives, and which is hereinafter called “The Parliament”, or ‘The Parliament of the Commonwealth”.
This future is a softer world, where trees have rights and politicians swear their allegiance to the earth, where key decisions are vested in the Queen-Bee and final judgement is held by the mycelial judicature in the Underground Court.
In Australia’s (Re)Constitution, Davies has deconstructed the current Constitution applying a multispecies lens to (re)constitute the document both materially through making a book from delicate paper made using eucalyptus bark and old constitutions – sewn together with beeswax thread and through language articulating a new power and governance structure embedded in a more-than-human world.
