No Fixed Address: Nomads and the Fate of the Planet: Quarterly Essay 24

Robyn Davidson has spent a good part of her life with nomadic cultures of various kinds (in Australia, north-west India, Tibet and the Indian Himalayas), and she herself calls three countries ‘home’ - Australia, England and India. In this scholarly yet personal and passionate essay, she explores the paradoxes and strengths of nomadism, in both its traditional and modern forms. For Davidson, nomadism is not so much a political organisation or world-view as a strategy that permits access to resources. It is a resilient, rational response to circumstances. There is much to be learned from it, and Davidson shows this as well as offering a lament and an evocation for the worlds we seem to be losing.