A meeting with gardenia: an ethnographic exploration of multispecies relationships and space construction in Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

Abstract

In an age of climate and ecological breakdown, questions of how we relate to the natural world and the more-than-human beings around us are more important than ever. This ethnography seeks to bring these questions to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town, South Africa, a place known for its conservation and tourism value, by taking an experimental multispecies approach. Multispecies ethnography is particularly useful for these types of explorations as it allows the stories of the more-than-human to emerge from the periphery and be put in conversation with the human. This ethnography found that despite Kirstenbosch’s socioecological benefits, the intimacy fostered between humans and more-than-humans in the gardens is distinctly human-centric and centres on a colonial construction of nature and natural beauty. Practices of photography and viewing and the commercialisation of the gardens reinforce such a relationship, producing a space where human needs and desires are prioritised and the boundary between humans and more-than-humans reified. This multispecies approach to human–environment interactions highlights the potential failures of western conservation practices and contributes to the growing exploration of complex human–nature relationships in ways that are deeper and kinder and that recognise nature’s agency and animacy in the Anthropocene.