This is the edited text of a lecture that was given as part of the series ‘Writing, Gender and the Natural World’ on 18 August 2022 on Kaurna country, at the University of South Australia, not far from the banks of karrawirra pari, the river that gives the city of Adelaide its shape. I want to acknowledge the Kaurna people whose sovereignty was never ceded. I acknowledge Kaurna elders past and present, and the labour of all those who have cared for the land and its stories.