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How Plants Can Help Us Remember Who We Are | Jonn Gale | TEDxLagosSalon

What if tradition isn't about the past but how we shape the future?In this TEDxLagos Salon 2025, Jonn Gale, artist and researcher, invites us to radically reimagine the archives not as dusty drawers and pressed flowers, but as a living, breathing space that connects generations, communities, and ecosystems.In a world obsessed with classification and control, Gale reminds us that the real archive is relational.And that we need more practice, not just records, because plant knowledge grows out of relationships not data. Jonn Gale is a London-based ethnobotanist using speculative analysis, ethnobotany, and visual ethnography to create relational botanical archives. Her work focuses on nonlinearity, multi-species livability, and botanical objects as historical actors. She's pursuing a practice-led doctorate at Birkbeck and the Linnean Society, funded by AHRC/CHASE, researching Black naturalists' contributions to 18th-19th century natural knowledge. Her research involves studying specimens and manuscripts at the Linnean Society to identify hidden actors and develop a decolonial archival approach. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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