EMPIRE LINES

In this special episode, historian Corinne Fowler joins EMPIRE LINES live with visual artist and researcher Ingrid Pollard, linking rural British landscapes, buildings, and houses, to global histories of transatlantic slavery, through their book, Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain (2024).

Though integral to national identity in Britain, the countryside is rarely seen as having anything to do with British colonialism. In Our Island Stories, historian Corinne Fowler brings together rural life and colonial rule, through ten country walks with various companions. These journeys combine local and global history, connecting the Cotswolds to Calcutta, Dolgellau to Virginia, and Grasmere to Canton. They also highlight how the British Empire transformed rural lives, whether in Welsh sheep farms or Cornish copper mines, presenting both opportunity and exploitation.

Corinne explains how the booming profits of overseas colonial activities directly contributed to enclosure, land clearances, and dispossession in England. They highlight how these histories, usually considered separately, persist in the lives of their descendants and our landscapes today. We explore the two-way flows of colonial plant cultures, as evident in WIlliam Wordsworth’s 19th century poems about daffodils, as contemporary works of literature by Chinua Achebe and Grace Nichols.

Contemporary artist – and walking companion – Ingrid Pollard shares their research into ferns, seeds, and magic, across Northumberland, the Lake District, and South West England, Ingrid details histories of lacemaking in Devon and Cornwall, and we explore representations of ‘African’ and Caribbean flowers in art. Bringing together Ingrid and Corinne’s works, installed at the exhibition, Invasion Ecology, at Southcombe Barn on Dartmoor, we also explore their previous collaborations including the project, Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reimagined. Plus, Corinne questions ‘cancel culture’ in the British media and academia, drawing on their experiences as Professor of Colonialism and Heritage in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester.

Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain by Corinne Fowler is published by Penguin, and available in all good bookshops and online. You can pre-order the paperback, released on 1 May 2025.

This episode was recorded live as part of the programme for Invasion Ecology, co-curated by Jelena Sofronijevic for Radical Ecology, and Vashti Cassinelli at Southcombe Barn, an arts space and gardens on Dartmoor. The central group exhibition, featuring Ingrid Pollard, Iman Datoo, Hanna Tuulikki, Ashish Ghadiali, Fern Leigh Albert, and Ashanti Hare, ran from 1 June to 10 August 2024.

The wider programme featured anti-colonial talks and workshops with exhibiting artists, writers, researchers, and gardeners, reimagining more empathic connections between humans, plants, animals, and landscapes. For more information, follow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Radical Ecology⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Southcombe Barn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on social media, and visit:⁠⁠⁠⁠radicalecology.earth/events/invasion-ecology-exhibition⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Watch the full video conversation online, via Radical Ecology: https://vimeo.com/995929731

And find all the links in the first Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8cyHX2I28

You can also listen to the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EMPIRE LINES x Invasion Ecology Spotify playlist⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, for episodes with Paul Gilroy, Lubaina Himid, Johny Pitts, and Imani Jacqueline Brown, plus partners from the University of Exeter, KARST, CAST, and the Eden Project in Cornwall.

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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