Extractive Colonial Practices

Group members: Jaidyn, Kyra, Jay, and Sophie.

To develop a research question, we went through various steps in trying to figure out what question combines all our thoughts together. We did lots of research into wicked problems (a wicked problem is a social or cultural problem that’s difficult or impossible to solve because of its complex and interconnected nature). that the Gardens might have. With that research we formulated our main question which is “How do colonial extractive practices affect the Garden”. We have changed the question and reworded it a few times since formulating it to ensure that it is working together with our ideas. We created this research question because we want to bring the issue of extractive colonial practices to light. For many years extractive colonial practices have been “pushed under the rug” and do not get talked about enough. This is a real issue, not just looking at the Missouri Botanical Gardens past but also just in the world around us. Though we can not necessarily force people to learn about the extractive practices that indigenous persons have been through, we can try our best to educate the patrons at the Garden about the Gardens’ past. We are currently undertaking an implementation plan to hopefully better the community’s knowledge of the extractive practices and educate them on the Garden and botany in general has had in the past. 

                  Earlier in our journey we conducted a survey to the garden staff and volunteer staff to get more knowledge about the garden, unfortunately we did not get any data from this. So, with that being said we want to conduct some interviews with the Garden staff and find some secondary research. With the secondary research we are thinking about talking to Robbie and Ashley in the Herbarium and Andrew in the archives. We also want to research similar issues in other Botanical Gardens dealing with similar issues. Another thing we want to do is dive deeper into oral histories. Hopefully the gardens can help to connect us with someone who represents an organization or facility who has seen or experienced extractive practices. Right now, we can start taking a deeper dive into what specific plants we want to be in our implementation plan and how they were used in their native culture. 

We haven’t pinpointed our exact geographic focus yet, but we’re leaning toward a broader approach. Since our cohort’s topic is reparative justice and our research question is “How do colonial extractive practices affect the garden?”, we’re considering focusing on the Missouri Botanical Gardens itself—specifically, its visitors. This means our geographic scope is broad, as visitors come from all over. Our key stakeholders would include the visitors and staff like Sean, Robbie, Ashley, and Jennifer. Sean can help us figure out who to connect with and reach out to different areas of the garden, while Robbie and Ashley can guide us on which plants we should focus on. Jennifer will be a great resource for “My Guide to the Garden” and supporting us with our implementation plan.

In order to develop a strong implementation, plan we must gather and analyze different types of data. Our research question has guided us thus far into the process of creating an implementation plan and we have learned about different types of data and data collection up to this point. Due to the nature of our product, the group has decided that the most beneficial types of data to collect would be data from focus groups, oral histories, and various kinds of secondary research. Focus groups allow us to gather multiple specific perspectives from people in the Garden. Oral histories would be beneficial in order to educate we on the histories of plants and communities that have been impacted by colonial extraction. We would also like to conduct secondary research such as, visiting the herbarium and reading online research and review articles. All of these research methods will support the group in being able to make evidence-based decisions when designing the final product. Data also provides context for our work and provides us a deeper understanding of the problem that is being dealt with. With data we can identify trends and patterns which we can use for informed decision making 

The outcome of our research should be a scavenger hunt with video elements. I believe our project will have an exhibit with a digital element for them to interact with. This is the best plan for implementation because it allows us to reach not only people at the garden, but also people who want to learn about colonialism and aren’t able to visit. We need the help of garden staff, video making equipment, and whatever resources the garden itself can provide us. To ensure that this project is as successful as possible, and beneficial to the garden. We will meet the needs by gathering data about our question “How do colonial extractive practices affect the Garden?”. To create an enriching and entertaining learning experience for whoever decides to participate. We will make the implementation plan for how we want to present it to the garden. We will also be creating the project that will be put into the garden.  

The garden will help us in gathering the resources for our project and telling us how they can help along the way to make sure there are no problems during the creation and finalization of the project. As they are the people who know what they want things to look like since it is their garden. While also having the knowledge of how to create something that visitors want to interact with. We will assess the success by seeing how many people decide to participate in the project. Since we cannot exactly know unless someone decides to scan the QR code and interact with the project.