Introducing Imagining Multispecies Belonging: A Recipe Book

Dear imagineers,

Happy new year to you all. As the new year breaks I’m pleased to be able to share what is at once both an end and a beginning: the launch of our Imagining Multispecies Belonging zine.

We find ourselves caught within an epoch characterised by an anthropocentric worldview: ideologies of separation amount to little other than a disconnection that presents existential threats to us all. This project spurs from the recognition that our world can only start healing when we (humans) learn to deconstruct and reconfigure this worldview of human exceptionalism and reclaim a position of reciprocity with(in) an agentic, lively and wise more-than-human world.

This zine emerges as an offering to rectify this gap: a recipe book full of practices for imagining a new sense of belonging within the more-than-human. Collaborators have shared their vital, deep and embodied work towards restoring a multispecies belonging through practices of collective imagination.

Here we find a myriad of recipes, where the term ‘recipe’ has been used loosely; welcoming everything from step-by-step guides to poetry, reflections, stories and imagery. Each serves as a tangible prompt to enliven practices relating to what it does (and what it can) mean to belong in a multispecies, more-than-human world. Through this work we have also in some cases found that ideas of collective practice may look slightly differently here, where rather than other humans, practitioners may instead invite you to imagine with more-than-human kin, be it: berries, oak trees, pigeons, wildflowers and much more.

Copies of Imagining Multispecies Belonging are available for practitioners of all types and disciplines who are working in these areas, or those otherwise interested embarking in these practices. Thanks to funding, they are available for free, however P&P contributions apply. Get in touch with me at rjturpin9@gmail.com to arrange. Alternatively, we will also be making a PDF available online early February time.

Whilst this marks an end — the completion of this collaboration and of the funding that allowed it to emerge — in its presence in the world, I hope this more importantly this serves as a seed from which more can flourish. With a nice and steady amount of interest in the project so far, I will be looking to keep a space open for exploring new avenues of collaboration: networking practitioners and facilitating means of sharing practices, experiences and stories. If this is something that interests you, either in the capacity as an organiser, collaborator, or both, please do get in touch with me at rjturpin9@gmail.com.

Finally, a huge thank you to the project collaborators for their support and contribution to the zine (Joe Culhane, Jill Doubleday, Esme Garlake, Annie Goliath, Inga Hamilton, Mac Ince, Sarah Macbeth, Hannah McDowall, Uri Noy Meir, Louise Amelia Phelps, Deborah Porter, Sophie Spiral Schultze-Allen, Dhruti Shah and Walking Forest (Anne-Marie Culhane, Lucy Neal, Ruth Ben-Tovim and Shelley Castle)), to the Collective Imagination Practice Community, and to all the multitude of wider human and nonhuman collaborators who lead us into and continue to guide this practice.

Happy imagining; happy worldmaking 🌱,

Rae

x

p.s. follow us on instagram @multispeciesbelonging to keep in touch (we will also be sharing content from the zine here, amongst other things!)