EMPIRE is the theme of a new exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.
Shipping Roots is Keg de Souza’s first major UK exhibition and draws on her own life to address the impact of moving plants and people between continents. As a person of Goan heritage, whose ancestral lands in India were colonised, she lives as a “settler” on unceded Gadigal land known the world over as Sydney, its colonial name and significantly the landing point for the “First Fleet” of 11 British ships carrying around 1500 people – including 700 convicts – to start a new penal colony there in 1788.
The artist said the intention behind Shipping Roots was to produce an exhibition to make people reflect on the past in order to think about the future.
“The destructive impact still witnessed today, invoked by the British Empire and accelerated by European colonial expansion, continues to massively alter ecosystems,” she said.
“We now live in a world where the legacy of colonialism on land and landscape through this movement of plants has left lasting impacts, many of which have propelled us towards climate crisis.”
The first of the three strands, Blue Haze, echoes the journey of the eucalyptus away from its culturally significant Aboriginal land to destinations around the globe, including the artist’s Indian ancestral land where it is the most common tree in timber plantations. It has been utilised for a raft of products from road cobbles to telegraph poles.
Now, covering a land mass area over 22 million hectares worldwide, in many countries these prolific trees are contributing to environmental devastation by lowering water tables and increasing fire risk.
In Green Hell, the spotlight is on the lasting impact of failed attempts to establish cochineal dye industries in India and Australia by introducing both the insect from which a bright red colour is extracted and the invasive prickly pear cactus on which it feeds.
Closer to home, Fleece Fugitives tells how the movement and spread of plants is not always intentional. When the high-quality fleeces of Australian sheep breeds were transported across the seas some were carrying hidden hitchhikers in the form of seeds and burrs.
The British wool industry inadvertently allowed these tiny stowaways to escape through wool waste or “shoddy” and in the effluent from the mills. Once released, seeds propagated and diversified the landscape along riverbanks.
A companion book for the exhibition will be published and a number of complementary events are planned. Shipping Roots runs from now until August 27 at Inverleith House in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here