Funded by Brigstow Institute‘s Seedcorn and Natracare, Personal To Planetary Fellows Emmanuella Morsi and Iman Sultan West joined together to deliver ‘From Ghana To Bristol: Reimagining Reparative Justice In A Postcolonial World’ as the co-lead artists and creative researchers in collaboration with academic and writer Dr Edson Burton. This included a 1.5 month residency in Ghana, where we explored with local creatives, farmers, social enterprises and academics how the arts and indigenous wisdom can inform experimental or new approaches to address and repair colonial harm in the present day.
A Journey Home (as part of the Rising Arts Agency x Bristol Museum ‘Extinction Silences‘ consultation programme) has unearthed the Taxidermy Pangolin’s story, which was stolen from Cape Coast Castle, Ghana in 1820, and their importance to the local Ghanaian ecosystems. AJH has disrupted the Bristol Museums colonial displays, challenged their ownership of animal bodies and implemented a proactive repatriation framework. The project has been built though creative consultations with The Alliance for Pangolin Conservation in Ghana (Pangolin Gh), people from the Ghanaian diaspora, climate justice experts as part of University of Bristol: Brigstow Institute x Cabot Institute For The Environment‘s Personal to the Planetary Fellowship, cultural practitioners from partnering museums, local school children in Bristol, language experts and Access As a Creative Tool (AAACT) framework by Studio Morsi. AAACT is supporting the recommendations of A Journey Home, to reimagine the display of the Taxidermy Pangolin, considering replication, materiality and sustainability
From Ghana to Bristol explores how reparative justice can evolve within an environmental context by using indigenous materials, methods, and perspectives that challenge hierarchical structures. This project focuses on progressive care, decolonial environmental considerations, and subverting power dynamics. By deepening dialogues on how museums and similar institutions can prioritise reciprocity and meaningful exchange within cross-cultural collaboration, we intend to propose new pathways for how cultural institutions can actively engage with the communities they aim to serve, particularly those impacted by colonial legacies.
‘Access As A Creative Tool’ (AAACT, pronounced ‘triple a-c-t’) is an inclusive design framework coined by Studio Morsi and co-developed over 4 years of R&D with marginalised communities, practitioners, businesses, researchers, academics and businesses to address gaps identified by target audiences. It aims to support designers, developers and organisers to use accessibility and equity-led inclusive considerations as the foundations for creative decision-making, with hopes to support wider industries over time to shift their systems or design thinking and supply processes.
As a way to expand and inspire how we reimagine and create, Studio Morsi has found itself in an exciting position to take AAACT to the next step and is currently developing a prototype for our first playful Studio Morsi hybrid toolkit.
‘From Ghana to Bristol’ has been made possible through our sponsors University of Bristol: Brigstow Institute’s Seedcorn funding and Natracare. Delivery partners include The Alliance for Pangolin Conservation in Ghana (Pangolin Gh), Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, DēpART Consultancy, and Aloriga Tours, with special thank you to Ghana Food Movement, Red Clay Studio x Chef Dee, Odo Valley, Studio 189, Edan x Terra Alta, Afroscope Studio, Limbo Museum, Palm Moments, Si Hene Archive, Or Foundation, University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies, Nzulezo Eco Bar, and many more.
We are grateful to have been reflecting together on the breadth of connection that exists between communities. From our stewardship and responsibility to animals, people and planet; the role creativity can play in exploring land sovereignty and climate justice; to the importance of honouring the past and ancestral memories as part of unearthing stories yet to be told, in support of the future we build together.
– Emmanuella Morsi and Iman Sultan West
Our time in Ghana began as a week-long retreat with Asaase Residential: Connecting to our Ancestral Wisdom, hosted by Joshua Kwaku Asiedu on his ancestral land. Learning about the importance of nature and how to connect indigenous wisdom in our practice. From harvesting and processing palm nuts into palm oil, fresh coconuts into coconut oil, clay from the earth for pottery and skincare as well as neem and other medicinal herbs. We moved with the earth, created with natural materials. We shared joy, laughter, tears, ancestral songs, stories with care and deep reflective thinking with each other.
In our second week we met and stayed with long-standing partners Pangolin Gh and HERP Conservation in Amedzofe, Volta Region, who have been part of the A Journey Home: Taxidermy Pangolin consultations with Iman and Bristol Museum over the last 18 months. As part of the important work they are doing to protect local and endangered wildlife, such as pangolins and amphibians, we delved into the impact of conservation NGOs in Ghana. Such as education programmes in schools to developing self-sustaining models of co-building tourist attractions with local communities to aid conservation efforts, alternative incomes and environmentally-conscious practices.
By connecting with our key partners Augustine Oti Yeboah and Charles Kojo Amponsah and the rest of their team, we experienced behind the scenes insights into developing the Amedzofe Canopy Walkway, the soon-to-be Amedzofe zip wire and farm-to-table experience. This included an opportunity to experience harvesting cocoyam and cassava with Serlom, the local canopy walkway ranger and farm owner, on his nearby land. Through pounding fufu together, we unpacked with midwife Sylvia Frempomaa Larbi about the pregnancy challenges faced by women in the region and ongoing conflicts within the healthcare system.
Over the remaining three weeks, we have been part of a residency facilitated by DēpART, a new creative residency programme directed and curated by Akworkor Chantel Thompson, and additional independent partners. With DēpART, we have connected with many visionary creatives and social enterprises, such as Studio 189, Edan x Terra Alta, Afroscope Studio, The Ghana Food Movement, Limbo Museum, Si Hene Archive, Odo Valley, Red Clay x Chef Dee and many more. As well as independently with Aloriga Tours and Nzulezo Eco Bar. These moments of sharing and conversation – from batik printing and behind the scenes studio insights to exchanging ideas around reparative justice over delicious food – have incomprehensibly inspired and challenged us.