1 – Gratitudes
We come to this space with an acknowledgement of the lands, waters, creatures, stones, plants and peoples whose being is bound up with our own in mutual dependence.
We honour the lives of those who have contributed so much to our human family and yet may be devalued and exploited.
We thank the rocks and stones for giving us somewhere to live and for sharing their stories, wisdom and intelligence with us.
May these words set the conditions for actions of recognition, repair and reciprocity.
Beginning with recognition and gratitude, may our actions honour our relatedness and the vibrant imagination that nourishes us.
2 – Introducing a Rock
We are pleased to introduce one of the rocks we have been working with. This rock sample is from Tarawera, Aotearoa New Zealand. It was brought to the UK just over ten years ago for PhD student Ery Hughes to use for research into the volcanic explosion of 1866, the biggest eruption that has ever happened in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This rock is one of many. Before they were taken from the mountain, geologist Geoff Kilgour approached the local Indigenous iwi (tribe), with whom he had been developing a relationship for more than a year, and asked for permission for rocks to be taken. The contract regarding the removal of rocks was verbal. There was one condition: when the research was complete, the rocks needed to be returned to Tarawera.
3 – Migrating Rocks Project Team
To better understand the process of asking for permission to move rocks, creating meaningful relationships with Indigenous custodians of land and the implications of this work in relation to a wider context we brought together a co-creative team, applied for and received funding from Brigstow Institute, University of Bristol. Funding guidelines were: What it means to be human in the 21st century – fostering co-creation and collaborative interdisciplinary research.
The focus of the project was to explore how to ethically return rocks brought from Aotearoa New Zealand for research after permission had been sought and granted by the Māori custodians of the land. Repatriation is becoming a more common practice amongst ethnographers and archaeologists. We wanted see how such a pilot project may help better understand return in the context of natural sciences collection. We intended to create a guide to good practice relevant for past, present and future collecting of rock samples.
The team consisted of the following people:
Leaders: Alyson Hallett (Freelance Poet) & Claudia Hildebrandt (Collections Manager / Curator). Alice Clough (Researcher), Lucy Donkin (Art Historian), Fiona Jordan (Anthropologist), Edie Woolf (Artist). Extended Team: Ery Hughes (GNS Geologist), Geoff Kilgour (GNS Geologist), both of whom are based in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The project is in collaboration with Ruawahia 2B Trust, Aotearoa New Zealand.
4 – Collaboration between a Poet and a Curator
Alyson Hallett had previously been a recipient of an EarthArt Fellowship in the School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol. During this Fellowship, she questioned why all of the stones on display had labels that were written in English even though they came from many different countries in the world. She decided to translate pumice into its Māori equivalent, and to use the Māori name for New Zealand. In this way, a label stating that the sample was Pumice from New Zealand became Pungapunga (pumice) from Aotearoa New Zealand.
After the Fellowship, the opportunity arose to work with the rock samples from Tarawera. Alyson Hallett and Claudia Hildebrandt worked closely together as they led a co-creative team. Alyson brought her skills as a poet and artist interested in translation, ethics and poetry as a means of research while Claudia brought her skills as a curator and collections manager. Alyson had already been working with migrating stones for more than two decades and her personal interests lay in how we might listen to rocks, work with them as beings that have agency and energy. Claudia’s personal interests lay in how rocks are cared for from a curatorial point of view, how current labelling and categorisation practices cover or exclude provenance, colonial legacies and indigenous knowledge. Together, their differences created a fertile ground for conversation, exploration and innovation.
5 – Poem
When Alyson first met the rocks from Tarawera, she held them, listened to them, sketched them, sniffed them, looked closely at their shapes and contours, researched local legends and stories. The following poem is based upon Alyson’s observations of how Claudia, after assuring that bags are correctly labelled and that the rocks are also correctly labelled and stored, considers the rock’s smaller relatives.
A Curator Worries About Dust
where it comes from
and whether or not it needs
to go back
to Tarawera too –
why would dust
be less important
than ample-
bodied stones?
grains of it
escape every time
a bag is opened –
how to curate
the uncurateable
how to host
particles that lift
and dance
and
disappear?
6 – The Wider Field
Part of our exploration of this topic involved speaking to many other people and organisations involved in rematriation and repatriation processes. These included The National Trust Hinemihi Project; Digital Return of Benin Bronzes; Bristol Museum & Art Gallery; Kayle Brandon (artist), Simbah Pile (artist), Ngāti Rānana (London based organisation for UK Māori community). Alyson undertook a short course in Te Reo Māori.
We have also discussed and researched how Aotearoa New Zealand has granted legal human personhood to some mountains, rivers and stretches of land. This, along with thinking about the difference between custodianship and ownership of land has significantly complicated our thinking and encouraged us to be aware of and question the paradigms we are working within.
Aotearoa New Zealand is significantly more advanced than the UK with regard to working with collections and establishing co-creative relationships through institutions in bi-culturally sensitive ways. For this reason, geologist Geoff Kilgour (who was interviewed by Alyson Hallett about his work processes with Indigenous Māori) has asked Alyson Hallett and Claudia Hildebrandt to be ambassadors for this work in the UK.
7 – Inviting Others into the Process
We invited members of the public and people in the School of Earth Sciences to participate in two workshops. The first workshop consisted of reading and discussing poems about rocks, making a field trip into the university basement to meet the rocks, listening to rocks and writing about this experience. Participants were then invited to create a collage about the Migrating Rocks project and how they related to it. The aim of the day was to encourage an engagement with rocks and land at both emotional and intellectual levels using creative methods. It also created a space where a new paradigm could emerge in relation to the rocks: one where they were not seen as objects but as vibrant collaborators in the work that was being undertaken.
The second workshop invited the co-creative team and public participants to visit the geological collections store at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery where geology curator Deborah Hutchinson and ethnography curator Lisa Greaves shared examples of past acquisitions of geological material and archives that link to historical mineral extraction, colonial legacies and indigenous contribution to museum collections.
Finally, the team hosted a panel discussion. It was attended by members of the public, local artists and performers and members of the School of Earth Sciences . Ery Hughes joined remotely. The team were keen to host an event that was also co-creative. Following an introduction and conversation about the project, including a detailed timeline of how it had evolved, participants broke into small groups to discuss key themes. These themes included repatriation/rematriation; how rocks migrate; how to ask for permission before removing rocks; emotional engagement with land; Indigenous rights; how poetry and science can work together; extractive practises and how to be aware of ethical questions. They were also given time to create a small zine containing images and phrases from their discussions. A member of each group was then invited onto the stage to present their work. This was an incredibly successful, fun and radical way to present and discuss work. Many different voices and viewpoints were invited into the room and this led to a complexity of thought and conversation that was both nourishing and affirming. By sharing the stage with participants, we consciously tilted the placing of power in the event by refusing to let it only reside with those of us who were already involved in the project. By inviting the public to take the stage alongside us, we created a more equal space for conversation and provocation.
8 – Outcomes
We set out in the hope of creating pragmatic, helpful and culturally sensitive guidelines that may inform people who deal with past, present and future collecting of geological material. We aimed to provoke an awareness of what it means to take stones and rocks and whose perspectives, rights and opinions need to be taken into consideration first. We have created a list of questions that are worded in a way that makes them accessible to a wide and diverse audience. Students and academics in Earth Sciences can use them to prepare for fieldtrips to collect samples. The public can use them with regard to collecting and taking fossils and pebbles from beaches. Artists can use them when sourcing raw materials for their creative practises.
Some of the key questions have been distilled into five thought provoking postcards. Each one contains an image and a provocation. Here are three of them.
9 – What Next?
We are currently in the process of finalising how the rocks need to be returned to Aotearoa New Zealand. We are waiting to hear whether or not a ritual and blessing need to be performed by the Māori iwi (tribe) or by proxy via the London based Māori community Ngāti Rānana) before they can travel.
A publication is in the final stages of being prepared. The book draws together many different aspects and expressions that have arisen from the project. These include poems, an essay on the portability of soil, reflections on legal human rights for land in Aotearoa New Zealand, an interview with a geologist about creating relationships with an iwi (tribe) in Aotearoa New Zealand and reflections on what it means for a curator and poet to work together in an Earth Sciences department. There is also a bibliography of useful resources.
We have received further funding to develop a UK network of people, projects and organisations that engage with the ethical return of rocks to create a platform for best practice sharing.
Alyson Hallett & Claudia Hildebrandt
(Freelance Poet and University of Bristol Curator)
If you are interested in our work and what comes next, please contact us on the following email addresses:
alysonhallett99@gmail.com – poet
c.hildebrandt@bristol.ac.uk – curator
