C6: Mobile and Relational Ecologies
Tracks
6
| Sunday, November 29, 2026 |
| 4:10 PM - 5:25 PM |
| RH102 |
Overview
Stream: Landscapes, Ecologies and More-than-Human Relations
Paper / Session Submitter
Steven Percival
Co-director
Tiapapata Art Centre
“On roots, rhizomes, and relationality: growing climate resilience and regeneration through intergenerational ecological knowledge exchange”
Summary Abstract
In 1990, Caribbean philosopher Édouard Glissant proposed a “Poetics of Relation” through the notion of the rhizome; one that maintains the idea of rootedness while extending identities through relationships with the Other. Through 2025-26, a shared trans-oceanic concern to foster intergenerational transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Great Britain, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific has connected ecomuseums, community heritage centres, community arts hubs, and universities to ignite regeneration and networking. Through collaborative research into traditional and medicinal plant knowledges through workshops and online discussion between Scotland (Skye Ecomuseum, Druim nan Linntean), Barbados (Museum and Historical Society), Samoa (Tiapapata Arts Centre), England (Canalside Heritage Centre), and more, we have woven relational heritage spaces across “Sea[s] of Islands” (Hau‘ofa, 1994). Drawing on ancient and emergent Indigenous and local worldviews, this paper shares voices from our collaborations and regenerative practices.
Biographies
Steven Percival (Galumalemana), Bachelor of Business Studies from Massey University, Aotearoa NZ (1980). His work focuses on art, cultural heritage, and human rights. Co-founder Tiapapata Art Centre Inc. (2006) to promote Samoan arts and cultural practices.
Karen Brown is Professor of Art History and Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of St Andrews. She has coordinated multiple international research projects linking museums, communities, and climate action across Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, including Shared Island Stories.
Kaye Hall is Education and Community Outreach Officer at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society. She holds a Master of Education from the University of the West Indies and is Vice Chair of the local ICOM chapter.
Adriana Lázaro Morales is co-Director of the La Flor Women’s Group and Boruca Museo Comunitario, Costa Rica, dedicated to revitalising Boruca traditions through ancestral craft practices.
Victoria McMillan is a Research Fellow with Shared Island Stories at the University of St Andrews. Her PhD examined UK ecomuseum practices, place stewardship, and climate action.
Dr Keletso Gaone Setlhabi
Senior Lecturer, Archaeology
University Of Botswana
When the Okavango River Floods: Living Culture in Nature
Summary Abstract
This paper reflects my continuous academic interrogation of heritage classifications and case-studies the human values of the Thamalakane River, a channel of the Okavango Delta. Inscribed on the 1972 World Heritage Convention in 2014 with only natural criteria, I argue that this was a misinterpretation of heritage. In my endeavor to understand the values of the Delta, I undertook a trip to experience ‘leleme’ (tongue) during the 2025 annual flood. This is a recent phenomenon in which people interact with the tip of the flood as it flows. My study was specifically in Maun where the Thamalakane River channel flows through the village. In conclusion, I walked away from the river with an important question, “When are we (academics) going to implement that which we have known for over decades, that is, being practically inclusive of heritage owners in the management, preservation and transmission discourses of their own?
Biographies
Dr. Setlhabi is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Botswana and teaches archaeology and anthropology. She is an interdisciplinary academic whose research interest is framed on the study of material culture and its role in defining and shaping past and present societies. Her other research interests are museum anthropology, museology, digital heritage, and intangible cultural heritage. She is a professional member of Anthropology Southern Africa (ASnA)-Ordinary Council Member 2024-2026, the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Botswana Association of Archaeology Professionals (BAAP), African Museums and Heritage Restitution (AFRIMUHERE: Secretary General), Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS) and Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAFA). Her academic qualifications are Doctor of Philosophy, University of Botswana (2010), Masters of Museum Studies, Deakin University (2000), Graduate Diploma (Museum Studies), Deakin University (1999), B.A. Humanities, University of Botswana (1993).
Ms Sarah Perry
PhD Candidate
McMaster University
A Land of Ghosts: Environment, Industrialism, and Heritage in Newfoundland, Canada
Summary Abstract
The town of Buchans in Ktaqmkuk, Turtle Island, also known as Newfoundland, Canada, possesses a heritage deeply engrained within their physical environment. Originally located on the traditional territory of the Beothuk First Nation, Buchans was incorporated into Newfoundland settlements as a mining town in the early 1920s after mineral deposits were discovered in the area by Mi’kmaw guide Matty Mitchell. Buchans would go on to become one of Newfoundland’s most prominent mines, permanently closing in 1984. Following the closure of the mine, the Buchans community shares a love-hate relationship with the town’s history, citing the mine as both an economic lifeline for a small rural community as well as ground zero for a significant spike in ecological contamination and physical health disparities. This paper explores the complicated conversations of heritage, Indigeneity, and identity within a Newfoundland town where environment and industry have shaped culture to its very core.
Biographies
Sarah Perry is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at McMaster University in Canada. Her research examines intersections between environmental and Indigenous histories of Atlantic Canada, most specifically relating to mining culture. She is a graduate student researcher on the SSHRC-funded Mining Danger Project.
Ms Selin Karaca
PhD
Middle East Technical University
Heritage in Motion: Rethinking Heritage through the Lens of Transhumance in Anatolia
Summary Abstract
Focusing on the Sarıkeçili, one of Türkiye’s last nomadic pastoralist communities, this paper argues that transhumance should be understood as heritage enacted through movement rather than anchored in static sites. It shows how yaylak and kışlak (summer highland and winter lowland pastures) cycles, camps and stopovers, grazing areas, watering points, marketplaces, festivals, and gathering places operate as infrastructures that sustain continuity across generations by renewing attachments to ancestors, land, livelihoods, and ecological rhythms. The paper develops a relational, socio-ecological account of heritage-making in which mobility links places into a seasonal settlement network, aligns practices with cyclical time, and ties people to land through routes and negotiated access. It foregrounds more-than-human participants as forces shaping timing and movement patterns. It concludes that site-based regulation can constrain these relations and unintentionally marginalise mobile communities, and it proposes a from-place-to-process safeguarding approach to keep mobility viable.
Biographies
Selin Karaca is an architect (B.Arch; M.Sc. in Restoration, Istanbul Technical University) and a PhD candidate in Conservation of Cultural Heritage at Middle East Technical University. She currently examines approaches to understanding, conserving, and managing the heritage of mobile communities. She works at METU as Registrar’s Office quality coordinator.
A. Güliz Bilgin Altınöz is an architect and professor of Cultural Heritage Conservation at Middle East Technical University, Department of Architecture. She directs METU TAÇDAM and METU Archaeology Museum. She is a member of the ICOMOS-Turkey National Committee's Executive Board and the Expertise Committee on Tangible Cultural Heritage of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO.
