Manuela
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Remains of Colonialism in European Botanic Gardens
Educational zine, made in colaboration with Maxe den Boer and Surud Arif
The zine aims to educate and reflect on the past of European Botanic gardens, and their colonial roots. Our main focus was to reflect on the history of Botanical Gardens in the Netherlands and how these spaces can re-contextualise their Colonial past.
We mainly focused our research to the Botanic Garden in Leiden, doing fielt trips there and collecting information about that institution.
The images shown in the zine were taken by me, mostly from the garden in Leiden but some from the Botanic garden in Rotterdam.
It was very interesting for me to add my knowledge of colonization and the point of view of someone who understand a bit more about the bitter feeling left from it. I really liked especially that I was able to share the story of Vitória Régia in the zine, and it was fun to do research about it as well, since it’s something very known in Brazil.
“The process of musealisation - the collection of an object and its insertion into an exhibition narrative - occurs differently for plants as living objects. By considering both plants and the greenhouses of European botanical gardens as forms of “imperial debris”, this thesis explores how the colonial history of botanical gardens inform their contemporary methods of display and the narratives which are communicated to visitors. "
- Evie Evans, Cultivating Colonialism
“They were geared toward increasing economic crops (tea, coffee, cocoa), but were also
places of knowledge that improved classifications and herbariums. These gardens were showcases of colonial power but also disputed sites, enclaves of ordered nature where the tensios specific to colonial societies revealed themselves, and where work often took the form of coercion.”
- Blais, Helene. “Botanical Gardens in Colonial Empires.”