Involutionary methods in a forage reserve: walking, talking, and picturing plant/people intimacies

• In Event: Seeds for a Planthroposcene: Growing Good Relations among Plants and People I

Abstract

My first visit to Leliefontein, ‘Lillyfountain’ commons in South Africa was in 2013 as a graduate student in plant biology. My experiences harvesting Acacia karoo for chemical analysis in this forage reserve propelled my transition from science to the arts. I share ancestry with people of this region and this involves me deeply in the intimacies of the land and her bodies. Despite violent colonial narratives implying misuse and overgrazing, traditional land use and relations in Leliefontein are centred around care and working-with the rich Indigenous plant diversity of the Succulent Karoo biome. These forms of care and intimate engagement with plants, people and land are seeded from ancient practices of the Khoe and San ancestors of the people living in Leliefontein today. To draw out these stories I develop involutionary methods to explore interspecies relationality in conversation with feminist theories of affect and and ethics of response-abilty (Hustak & Myers, Haraway). Working with elders, children, sakmanne, gardeners, herders and bossiedokters, I adapt participatory action research methods including photo voice and transect walks, to engage plant practitioners and their diverse intimacies. Images and walks activate stories of the spiritual, symbolic and medicinal properties of plants. As I move through a range of sites, from open mountain ranges, to soup kitchen vegetable gardens, walks through this landscape are the catalyst for storytelling about these deep plant/human involutions.

Author

• Denisha Anand, Princess Vlei Forum