Jasmine Thomas-Girvan
In November 2023, I had the privilege of spending two months in a sustainable sculpture residency, immersed in the forest’s rich biodiversity in Maroon Town, Jamaica — a sovereign community established by individuals who escaped enslavement to create communities in the dense, forested interior of the island, known as Cockpit Country. Later, at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, I came across the Hortus Siccus Jamaicensis, an extensive archive of botanical drawings of 600 plants collected in the Cockpit Country, which facilitated research on the plants found in these forests before it was irreversibly disturbed by outside forces. Created in the late 18th century by Dr. William Wright while on a mission as a doctor to the then-Governor of Jamaica, the archive uses the scientific categorical Linnaean system. Such a system documents organisms in a hierarchical system, imposing an epistemology that negates Indigenous knowledge.
In examining the archives through a decolonial lens, this body of work privileges a Taino/African cosmology where ecological and spiritual worlds intertwine. Spiritual energies and ways of knowing that transcend the scientific are valued. Indigenous and African cosmologies view the biodiversity found in forests as an interconnected system, recognising the life, reciprocity, and sentience of the life forms present in the area. This interconnectedness fosters a sense of unity and harmony, a stark contrast to the Western and colonial worldviews that view this biodiversity as separate from human life, as objects to be controlled and extracted.
As I experienced, lived, and learned, I came to understand the lush ecology that sustained our ancestors in the complex ecosystem of the Cockpit Country. I communed with plants, animals, birds, and energies that together formed a fertile sanctuary. I have created a body of work that honours this ecosystem, decentring accepted colonial systems of classification in favour of immersive engagement that taps into Taino and African cosmologies, grounded in care and reciprocity, embracing the unity of all life. The work that emerges from integrating experiential and scientific knowledge reveals stories that help deepen our connection with ourselves and our environment. The diorama boxes offer a unique perspective on the environment of Maroontown and beyond. The boxes are an invitation to commune with many elements — the light, animal presences, spiritual energies, and other intangible elements that exist in our environment. They are an invitation to attune oneself to multiple sources of knowledge, fostering a more meaningful relationship with the land, and inspiring the process of ecological restoration with a focus on caring, conserving, protecting, and ultimately restoring our ravaged natural environment.
Featured in the diorama is the Cacoon vine. It is a notable example of the potential of engaging with lost or subsumed material as a source of wisdom. My discovery in the forest of Maroon Town of the Cacoon vine, which produces large seeds, is a testament to this. These seeds, which are used commercially for tourist curios, were crucial to the survival, thriving, and sovereignty of the Maroons. Large, round, and smooth, they served multiple functions: as a source of food, a container for precious items and amulets, and water purification. The vines were ingested as a sacred hallucinogen in preparation for guerrilla warfare and used for camouflage. The Cacoon vine stands as a symbol of reverence and respect for the wisdom of the past.
In Resistance Science, a Cacoon seed floats in the mysterious forest canopy, enveloped by a mysterious light source, in the company of recognisable plant life; Taino Zemis stand guard and Anansi African Spider deity hovers. An enigmatic energy streams charge the air. This is an invitation to experience the Cockpit country in its totality through the Indigenous Worldview. It offers a generative archive beyond the capture of a reductive binary record. To decolonise the archive with sincerity, these complex elements — previously absent — must be acknowledged to help recalibrate our understanding of the botanical realm.
Archives need to be read for the potential — lying dormant, not in a capitalist extractive sense but for potential outside of the established systems of value, to help us to read the landscape beyond the human. I am trying to find stories that help deepen our relationship with ourselves and our environment in an attempt to unearth subsumed histories. This knowledge could offer the opportunity to engage in the process of ecological restoration by being in a more meaningful relationship with the land, with a focus on conserving, protecting, and ultimately restoring our ravaged natural environment. The diorama boxes seek to nurture a renewed understanding of the environment of Maroontown and beyond. These boxes are an invitation to commune with many elements — the light, animal presences, spiritual energies and other intangible elements which exert influence on our environment.