Class of 2027 - Reparative Justice (Missouri Botanical Garden)
Legacy of Enslavement
This team pursued reparative justice at the Missouri Botanical Garden through studying the legacy of enslavement at the gardens. They analyzed the Garden’s archival records to uncover the history of enslaved individuals and understand how the Garden’s growth depended on their labor. As an approach to repair injustice, they curated exhibits and learning opportunities to amplify the stories of people of color whose contributions to the Gardens have not been immediately apparent to guests. CODE Scholars considered the social and psychological impacts these stories may have on their audience and on future generations. The team worked to educate youth visitors, developing a visual archival display, and consider the relationship between the Garden and surrounding neighborhoods.
Extractive Colonialist Practices in Botany and Recovering Plant Knowledge
This team embarked on reparative justice at the Missouri Botanical Garden by investigating extractive colonialist practices in botany and recovering and commemorating plant knowledge from indigenous, African, and African American cultures. The Missouri Botanical Garden has the third largest herbarium in the world, a collection of plant specimens drawn from every continent. Most botanists are from Western cultures. The information they attach to each plant specimen, therefore, often results in cultural gaps and biases. Within their subgroups, they explored the herbarium and plant knowledge to discover ways to recognize the advances of marginalized cultures on a global scale, consider the effects of diaspora on both culture and nature, and research extractive and colonialist legacies that are reflected in the Garden.
The Full Missouri Botanical Garden Description
