Decolonisation Practices

Gilbert, Isabel (2025) Decolonisation Practices. In: BGEN Annual Conference, 6/02/2025 - 7/02/2025, Botanical Gardens of Wales. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

There are myriad overlaps between the world of botanical gardens and that of museums. Both are often borne from collections sourced via complex and oftentimes violent histories. Plants and botany in particular have long been connected to scholarship benefitting from the transatlantic age of sail, and in many cases the actions of figures actively engaged in exploitative, colonial endeavours. If botanical gardens educators are to work towards creating spaces which seek not to perpetuate white cultural hegemony and legacies of colonial violence, they must learn from the efforts and mistakes of the heritage sector in doing so. Gardens, as much as museums, have the capacity to bring communities together in a way which transcends and critiques rigid, hierarchical approaches to learning rooted in white supremacy.

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