Archival Ecologies
“Archival Ecologies” investigates how fires, floods, mold blooms and other ecological events are affecting cultural collections and the artifacts and memories they preserve. As climate change leads to more extreme weather events, the interactions between archives and the environments where they reside are becoming increasingly frequent and fraught. This series tells the stories of such archives, their stewards, and their significance for communities at the forefront of climate change. Season One: ”Fire in Lytton” | During the 2021 summer heatwave in the Pacific Northwest, the historic town of Lytton, BC and nearby First Nations reserves suffered a catastrophic wildfire that took local archives, museums and cultural collections with it. In this first season of Archival Ecologies, we’ll tell the stories of those collections and the communities who have stewarded them. Through the voices of those cultural stewards and knowledge keepers and the objects that have been lost (or salvaged), we’ll explore the interwoven histories and geographies of the region and the larger intersections between climate change, cultural preservation and recovery. Created and hosted by Jayme Collins with research, writing and production support from Jamie Rodriguez, Kavya Kamath and Molly Taylor. Music by Hamilton Poe. Sincere thanks to Kouvenda Media for their partnership on this project. A production of Blue Lab with support from Princeton University. To learn more about Archival Ecologies and Blue Lab’s other environmental projects and series visit: http://bluelab.princeton.edu/
Listen on:
Episodes
Sunday Dec 17, 2023
Sunday Dec 17, 2023
Two years after a devastating 2021 wildfire burned through much of their village center, community members gather in Lytton, British Columbia for a prayer walk. Big questions inspire and inflect the event: How can the community rebuild? And what will the new community look like? Lytton community members weigh in on preserving their multicultural histories and recovering community identity when the artifacts and cultural collections that represented them are gone.
Archival Ecologies is created and hosted by Jayme Collins. It's a production of Blue Lab at Princeton University.
Wednesday Mar 06, 2024
Wednesday Mar 06, 2024
In the wake of the fire, concerns about contamination slow down efforts to salvage material from the burn site. The BC Heritage Emergency Response Network aids Lytton’s organizations—especially the Lytton Chinese History Museum, founded by Lorna Fandrich—to access and recover material from the sites. Most of Lorna’s collection burned, but she was able to recover about 200 objects that will provide the foundation for the new museum. With a combination of salvaged and newly acquired objects, Lorna plans to rebuild the Lytton Chinese History Museum to tell the same story: the history of Chinese life in the Fraser Canyon region.
Archival Ecologies is created and hosted by Jayme Collins. It's a production of Blue Lab at Princeton University.
Thursday May 30, 2024
Thursday May 30, 2024
Nlaka’pamux knowledge keeper John Haugen describes baskets the Lytton First Nation Community lost during the 2021 wildfire and discusses the role of basketry in the community. The meaning and the making of baskets in the community draws together food systems, local ecological knowledge, colonial land and resource use disruptions, and the circulation of baskets and other First Nations cultural material during colonization, when baskets circulated as economic goods and as cultural artifacts destined for museums across the globe. For John, the recovery of baskets in the community hinges on the repatriation of baskets and on the creation of a local community center for showing baskets and teaching basket making knowledge, fostering a new generation of basket makers in the community.
Archival Ecologies is created and hosted by Jayme Collins. It's a production of Blue Lab at Princeton University. Sound design by Sam Riddell and Jayme Collins. Mixing by Sam Riddell.
Monday Jun 17, 2024
Monday Jun 17, 2024
Nlaka’pamux basket makers Judy Hanna and Peter Sam recount their processes of basket making, how they learned the craft, and share their hopes for the continuation of basketry traditions in their community.
Archival Ecologies is created and hosted by Jayme Collins. It's a production of Blue Lab at Princeton University. Sound design by Sam Riddell and Jayme Collins. Mixing by Sam Riddell.
Monday Jul 22, 2024
Monday Jul 22, 2024
Richard Forrest, steward of the Lytton Museum and Archives, reflects on the devastating losses sustained by the municipal repository. With a collection predominantly composed of paper photographs, ledgers, and other documents, very little survived the fire at the Lytton Museum and Archives. For Richard, the importance of these materials lay in their ability to tell stories about daily life in the area across centuries. In the wake of the losses, Richard contemplates the futures of collections in digitized records and photographs, and 3-D printed copies of objects.
Archival Ecologies is created and hosted by Jayme Collins. It's a production of Blue Lab at Princeton University.
Monday Aug 05, 2024
Monday Aug 05, 2024
For the communities in and around Lytton, charting a path to recovery requires navigating multiple stories about the meaning of the fire and the future of the town. While politicians and media alike were quick to cast the event as a climate change event, for locals this story carried implications that delayed rebuilding and raised costs. By contrast, longstanding approaches to adaptation and self-definition in the community, exemplified in a collection of Anglican commemorative plates curated by community members, provide different ways to imagine and create a future together from the region’s histories. Lytton’s cultural collections and the stories people tell about them can provide a basis for the process of imagining Lytton’s future amidst the myriad strands of its past. Collecting cultural objects and telling stories becomes a lens for transforming how recovery takes place, and for amplifying local frameworks and community priorities for imagining their own futures in the wake of disruption.
Archival Ecologies is created and hosted by Jayme Collins. It's a production of Blue Lab at Princeton University.