Book Launch: Unearthed by Claire Ratinon
By Teagan Moehlis, 3rd Year History and English
Discussing race, environment and colonial history, Ratinon’s new book is part history, part memoir as she unpacks what it means to find belonging in nature as a person of colour. Following the launch of Unearthed, Teagan considers ideas of heritage, place, and what it means to truly ‘belong’ in an environment…
“Colonialism was (and is) an ecological disaster”
Nestled behind the converted cargo container shops in Bristol’s City Centre, the independent bookshop Bookhaus hosts book talks with authors whose radical messages make for delicious food for thought, especially this Black History Month. On 17 October, author Claire Ratinon visited Bookhaus from her home on an organic farm to speak to Bristol’s Black and Green Ambassador Rosina Al-Shaater about her recent book, Unearthed.
Claire Ratinon and Rosina's discussion spanned broad themes of identity and rebuilding a connection with the earth, a radical act in itself, especially for diaspora communities who are made to feel alienated from British nationhood and environments. As the daughter of Mauritian parents and going from being a documentarian to an organic farmer, Claire Ratinon speaks in Unearthed about reasserting herself in her landscape, demanding new narratives to approach her heritage and her role as a ‘steward’ of the earth.
As history students might know, there’s growing interest in historical approaches such as ‘decolonized history’ or ‘environmental history’ used to debate historiography and suggest where the field should go in the future if the study of history, particularly if it wants to remain relevant to the people it supposedly represents. With Claire Ratinon’s efforts to retrace her heritage through the colonial history of Mauritius and the way her identity has been shaped by her experience of reconnecting with the earth, she seems to embody the implementation of these approaches to history. A captivating hybrid of history, memoir, and nature writing, Unearthed shows how politically conscious environmental history has a real emotional impact on the individual.
She explained in the talk the history of Mauritius as a fascinating microcosm of the colonial project. Originating as an uninhabited island, it was populated with Europeans, enslaved people, and foreign plants which changed its landscape forever. She describes the role of famous French horticulturalist Pierre Poivre who, she points out, noticed the way that the influx of new plant species had fundamentally changed the climate and landscape of the island (proving the environmental impact of colonialism). Still, it did not stop Pierre from introducing more plants to the island, hoping to create a new centre for the lucrative spice trade. She explores how these same colonial systems that created a language for naming plant species also created arbitrary categories of race and she grapples with the insufficiencies of this language to express the nuance of her identity.
In this way, Unearthed describes Ratinon’s journey of self-discovery not only as an individual finding her place in her new career as an organic farmer in the predominantly white English countryside but also as reconstructing her family’s cultural heritage. Her dissatisfaction with the dominant historical narratives comes from the way it has kept her heritage inaccessible so that even her ancestors’ names were never recorded. Her sense of heritage comes from her family’s recipes, not history books. While certain knowledge of the land is passed down, the recorded history, especially in English, is difficult to trace.
When writing of some of the notable maroons on the island, reframing their narratives of agency, she writes “we know their names now because they were executed,” (122) which powerfully encapsulates some of the struggles of decolonising history. She mourns what was “lost in between the cracks of a colonial education system and disrupted legacies’ (118) saying “the erasure was intentional. It keeps us, the erased, from knowing the true extent of the injustices meted out on our people and those like us... The erasure keeps us from knowing what came before we were stolen.” (118)
The book also has a radical message about the politics of nationhood and ownership. Ratinon discusses the difficulty of feeling like she belonged, especially in a post-Brexit world where racialized ‘others’ constantly have to wonder “when their belonging would be up for debate next” (95) She explains how the obsession with land ownership is what has disconnected the majority of the public from feeling a personal connection with the land. She considers her place in this system, saying “when connection to land is so tied up with a sense of identity, what does it mean to cultivate the soil of a country that I’ve never felt truly welcome in?” (97) However, over time, she found gardening communities in urban spaces and eventually owning her own land, Ratinon is able to reforge this ancient relationship with the earth.
These dynamics are also the focus of Bristol’s local Black and Green Ambassadors who seek to decolonize the environmentalist movement and their reports highlight how minority communities in Bristol should be increasingly involved in environmental activism. In the talk, they discussed how getting more minority groups involved in environmentalism will not only strengthen the movement but will benefit groups who may be struggling with feelings of alienation the most.
I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks they are a city person but wants to yearn for nature. I would also recommend it to those who want to understand the political dimension of the stories that are left out of history and the active role that we can play in healing the inadequacies of the past. By reconnecting with the earth and interrogating the insufficiencies of the language we use to create divides, we can become more active members of our communities, and treat the earth as an ally, not as a commodity.
You can visit Bookhaus at Unit 4 Rope Walk, Wapping Wharf, Bristol BS1 6ZJ. For more information on events, books, and more visit the Bookhaus website: https://www.bookhausbristol.com/