2 episodes
Archival Ecologies Blue Lab
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- Society & Culture
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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“Archival Ecologies” investigates how fires, floods, mold blooms and other ecological events are affecting cultural collections and the artifacts and memories they preserve. As climate change leads to more extreme weather events, the interactions between archives and the environments where they reside are becoming increasingly frequent and fraught. This series tells the stories of such archives, their stewards and their significance for communities at the forefront of climate change.
Season One: ”Fire in Lytton” | During the 2021 summer heatwave in the Pacific Northwest, the historic town of Lytton, BC and nearby First Nations reserves suffered a catastrophic wildfire that took local archives, museums and cultural collections with it. In this first season of Archival Ecologies, we’ll tell the stories of those collections and the communities who have stewarded them. Through the voices of those cultural stewards and knowledge keepers and the objects that have been lost (or salvaged), we’ll explore the interwoven histories and geographies of the region and the larger intersections between climate change, cultural preservation and recovery.
Created and hosted by Jayme Collins with research, writing and production support from Jamie Rodriguez, Kavya Kamath and Molly Taylor. Music by Hamilton Poe. Sincere thanks to Kouvenda Media for their partnership on this project. A production of Blue Lab with support from Princeton University.
To learn more about Archival Ecologies and Blue Lab’s other environmental projects and series visit: http://bluelab.princeton.edu/
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Episode 1: In the Burn Zone
Two years after a devastating 2021 wildfire burned through much of their village center, community members gather in Lytton, British Columbia for a prayer walk. Big questions inspire and inflect the event: How can the community rebuild? And what will the new community look like? Lytton community members weigh in on preserving their multicultural histories and recovering community identity when the artifacts and cultural collections that represented them are gone.
Archival Ecologies is created and hosted by Jayme Collins. It’s a production of Blue Lab at Princeton University. -
Episode 2: Salvage
In the wake of the fire, concerns about contamination slow down efforts to salvage material from the burn site. The BC Heritage Emergency Response Network aids Lytton’s organizations—especially the Lytton Chinese History Museum, founded by Lorna Fandrich—to access and recover material from the sites. Most of Lorna’s collection burned, but she was able to recover about 200 objects that will provide the foundation for the new museum. With a combination of salvaged and newly acquired objects, Lorna plans to rebuild the Lytton Chinese History Museum to tell the same story: the history of Chinese life in the Fraser Canyon region.
Archival Ecologies is created and hosted by Jayme Collins. It's a production of Blue Lab at Princeton University.
Customer Reviews
Well crafted and meaningful
I am 100% the target audience for this podcast: art conservator who once worked in environmental conservation. As such, I love the concept. Two episodes in, the podcast is doing a great job: telling a story with impact and making the listener think. Looking forward to the next episode!