{"id":35855,"date":"2021-11-23T21:53:51","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T20:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/innovation\/?p=35855"},"modified":"2022-01-17T20:46:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T19:46:13","slug":"un-launches-new-museum-to-document-humanitys-reconciliation-with-the-natural-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/innovation\/un-launches-new-museum-to-document-humanitys-reconciliation-with-the-natural-world\/","title":{"rendered":"UN launches new museum to document humanity’s reconciliation with the natural world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Marion Atieno<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marion Atieno is an award-winning strategist and storyteller working to restore humanity\u2019s relationship with nature. She is currently the Global Strategist at WWF, leading the organisation’s transformation to inclusive conservation. In 2021, Marion will launch Black Earth podcast to celebrate nature and the inspirational Black women addressing the environmental crisis. Marion has received numerous awards, including a WWF Legend Award for Integrity and \u2018Future Leader of International Co-operation and Development\u2019 by the European Commission. She’s a University of Oxford alumna graduating in Global Governance and Diplomacy. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Marion lives and loves in South London, UK.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A speculative museum from the United Nations seeks artefacts that reconcile humanity with nature.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The joint High Commissioners of United Home for Collapse and Renewal (UNHCR), Nyumba Mwendo and F\u00e8pati Lakay, have launched the Homecoming Museum. Opening in January 2035, the museum will be a living memory to document humanity\u2019s reconciliation with the natural world. The museum aims to do this by curating exhibitions that affirm the idea that humans can innately co-exist with the natural world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commissioner Lakay explains, \u201cThe Homecoming Museum is our collective space to chip away at the mindset of separation from nature which positions us as fundamentally incompatible with the natural world. A worldview that has fuelled the displacement of people and loss of place through extraction and exploitation. We must unlearn the psyches of oppression and violence we have inherited. This is a space to be good ancestors for future generations and the other 99 percent of life on earth. We can birth something new together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mwendo continues, \u201cWe don\u2019t have to struggle to be that which we already are – at one with nature. Whereas when we pillage the earth, we have to struggle to do that, really struggle\u2026it is not our intrinsic way of being.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The valuing of nature according to its usefulness to human beings, is one expression of the culture of separation and individualism. In response to this, the first exhibition, Utility and Relationship<\/em>, aims to explore this idea that nature has value because of its utility to human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lead Curator, Lauret Madhier says, \u201cOver the past 30 years, both environmental activists and actors willfully engaged in environmentally destructive activities have leveraged the narrative of nature\u2019s utility to human beings, as a way to influence their desired outcomes. Do we act to conserve nature because of its usefulness to human beings, because of the potential threat to humanity\u2019s survival if we don\u2019t?  We want to delve deeper into this instrumental view of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through experiences of displacement, we have come to understand that humanity\u2019s connection to the natural environment is not rooted in utility but in relationship. We, as part of an ecosystem of life, affect and are affected by our more-than-human kin. When we see them as equals, as living beings like us, what else is there to explore in our relationship? How does that affect our understanding of belonging, identity, agency, and responsibility?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the exhibition, the Homecoming Museum is looking for examples of the following artifacts and artistic explorations, among other things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n