Gardening Humans

“Scientists now accept that trees in a forest are able to communicate with each other in certain circumstances… it is only that they lack language—a human attribute—that trees are mute. But in that humans lack the ability to communicate as trees do, could it not be said that for a tree it is the human who is mute?

It may seem obvious to humans that their ability to destroy trees and forest endows them, and them alone, with the capacity to act. But intentional action can also unfold over completely different scales of time. Trees have inhabited the Earth much longer than human beings, and their individual life spans are, in many cases, far greater than those of people: some live for thousands of years. If trees possessed modes of reasoning, their thoughts would be calibrated to a completely different time scale, perhaps one in which they anticipate that most humans will perish because of a planetary catastrophe. The world after such an event would be one in which trees would flourish as never before, on soil enriched by billions of decomposing human bodies. It may appear self-evident to humans that they are the gardeners who decide what happens to trees. Yet, on a different time scale, it might appear equally evident that trees are gardening humans.”

From The Nutmeg’s Curse by Amitav Ghosh (2021:p197-8)
Where does the natural world begin and the human world end? We often discuss ‘the environment’ as if we are not part of it. It is something to be understood, cared for, destroyed, manipulated, exploited, something apart from being human. Yet, as the climate crisis deepens our inextricable connection to our environment intensifies. This complex relationship has formed our past, maintains our present and will shape our future. Instead of thinking of ‘saving the planet’ we should be thinking of saving ourselves.

The enormity of the task at hand can be disempowering; how can the behaviour of individuals bring about the wholesale change that is needed? At the same time we cannot do nothing. We must draw on our pasts to create collective solutions using the resources we have in the place we now find ourselves. We must listen.

Gardening humans tells a story of our duality of existence as caretakers and as those who are being cared for. We want to illuminate our deep and unbreakable connection to our environment, to give a voice to the nonhumans we share it with. We are informed and inspired by them. We shape and manipulate them as they shape and manipulate us. We find new ideas and possibilities through the process of making music in the present, in this place, that draws on all of our pasts and makes possible a future. So that when we are gone, the world is a better place.