Mahalina Dimacali
Pronouns: she/they
Research Mentor(s): Ivana Lopez Espinosa
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: UM Botanical Gardens / Other
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 1 – 10am – 10:50am
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Mahalina Dimacali, Ivana Lopez-Espinosa, David Michener
Presenter: 92
Abstract
This research explores the creation of a flexible decolonizing framework that can be adjusted to reflect community-specific needs in botanical gardens. Museums exist in a symbiotic relationship with society. As we collectively reevaluate our histories and relationships with each other, we expect our public education spaces to reflect these perspectives. Botanical gardens, living museums, have been the long-held attractive front window into colonial exploration, displaying remnants of atrocities committed in the name of expanding empire. However, unlike encyclopedic or art museums, living collections have remained ultimately untouched in the reevaluation of public learning spaces. In doing so, this continued lack of attention and action furthers the issues that contributed to the creation of botanical gardens in the first place. For this project, we will be conducting a case study on the impacts of a framework for the display of Filipino plants and land relationships for the University of Michigan’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum. This framework for display and education will be informed through conversations with community members that focus on individual and community plant relationships, desires for representation, and reconnection. Historically, the display and education of Filipino culture have been determined by outsiders. To make effective change, representation must come from the community itself with the intentional inclusion of diverse perspectives. Generative themes will be identified from these conversations, partnered with current justice-oriented frameworks in education and other museum fields, and will then be worked into facets of a framework for decolonizing the Filipino representation process.
Arts and Humanities, Interdisciplinary, Natural/Life Sciences, Natural/Life Sciences, Social Sciences
