I have been swept up in the obsessions of a group of 10yo girls - flower pressing!
Did you ever have a flower press? I used to collect all sorts of leaves and buds and flowers and sandwich them in paper and then stack them inside a tower of books. My parents loved the mess.
I have finished one press for a member of my girl gang. There is no gang but I'm trying my hardest to encourage them to create one and then invite me to be a member.
Now to finish my press.
I have so many childhood memories of visiting museums. My favourite exhibit was the bathysphere at the Royal BC Museum. The exhibit was a collection of activities that left you with the impression you had joined an expedition to the bottom of the sea. There was an elevator that took you to the bottom of the sea and it was my favourite part. You entered the elevator, I think perhaps we were entering the bathysphere, and after the doors shut tight you would begin your descent into the depths of the ocean. You would start at the surface, full of light, and gradually descend into the dark depths of the 'ocean' passing all sorts of bioluminescent creatures. I think there was then a malfunction in the bathysphere that needed solving and then you would ascend through a different elevator and continue on your museum journey. I loved that exhibit and would go through it again and again.
I have other memories from the Museum of Anthropology of viewing endless drawers full of artefacts of pre-colonial BC life. These are the collections I have been thinking of lately. I loved looking into the lives of people from so long ago. It never occurred to me that those collections would have been viewed with an entirely different feeling by the ancestors of the collection's focus. I don't know when I realised the world didn't revolve around me, my dad would probably suggest never, but I have started paying attention to all the conversations that seem to be taking off about the rightful place of museum collections.
The other day (one of my favourite expressions) I had a discussion with a friend about a show they had watched about combatting racism. The show ran a race, you might have seen a youtube clip similar, where the racer's starting points were advanced one step with each announced criteria that were met. So with each privilege a person lives they advance one step. Then an unequal race is run. We had a big discussion about how my friend felt the show was great but my friend felt left out. As a woman and someone who had grown up just above the poverty line, where was her acknowledgement of less privilege? She also felt that she would be shouted down for her feelings. We had the longest and at times uncomfortable discussion. I think that uncomfort is a-coming. Big time. Elgin's marbles, the Gweagal shield, the Benin bronzes and what of all the anthropology collections I loved as a child? I am off to look into that now.
Interesting discussions:
The 'Gweagal Shield' - a story of Australia
| Rodney Kelly (owner of image) is leading a movement for the return of his people's history |
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| Image V & A Museum |
Slaver! Invader! The tour guide who tells the ugly truth about museum portraits Article by The Guardian
Oh, 2021 what a year you have been
Not a coworker or student to be seen
Lockdown loneliness sucks
Coffee shops are taking my bucks
Writing covid poetry is freeing.
I am going to self nominate for a poetry competition. Perhaps I can pip a few preppies at the local show. I do feel that in the midst of this lockdown I have lost some ability to articulate my thoughts. The words just don’t come as quickly. I frequently find myself trying to remember the word for this and the word that describes that. I cannot wait to be back among humanity and complaining in length about the traffic on the way to work. Oh to be in a traffic jam, those were the days.
I am excited about hearing what the kids at school have to say about their lockdown lives. What they’ve been watching, reading and they are probably looking forward to seeing people other than their immediate family too.
Book week 2021 was fun but in a very different way than usual. Our school made the award-winning books available to students as ebooks and we had a fun zoom book chat. Staff dressed up for the chat and while students were invited to dress up, they came, as I suspect they did for all classes, in the lockdown classic Oodie.
As library staff, we chose to dress up as characters from the Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend. We came dressed as the retired cage fighting now head of housekeeping magnificat Fenestra and Jupiter North, Wundrous Society member, explorer and self-declared handsome ginger. My favourite Jupiter North quote is, “They’re looking at you because you’re with me and they’re looking at me because I’m very handsome.”
