A Presentation and Workshop on Botanical Archives, Healing, and Knowledge Sharing by Jonn Gale
London-based ethnobotanist Jonn Gale, whose work explores botanical collections and their cultural significance, recently concluded a 12-week residency at G.A.S. Foundation. Structured as part of her PhD placement, her residency was primarily based at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikise. During her time there, Jonn focused on reimagining botanical archiving, designing and facilitating community-centered workshops, and contributing to ongoing knowledge-sharing initiatives. Central to her research was an engagement with local plant growers, healers, and other knowledge-keepers. Through these interactions, she documented traditional agricultural practices, herbal knowledge, and biocultural conservation efforts, forming the basis for what she calls a living botanical archive.
As her residency concluded, Jonn hosted Spiral Margins/Ecotonal Memories on April 17th, 2025, at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikise, bringing together fellow resident, G.A.S. staff, and members of the local community she had engaged with throughout her stay. The event, which centered around a botanical garden she cultivated during her time at the Farm House, marked the culmination of her fieldwork. It was shaped by the concept of ecotones, transitional zones between distinct ecosystems, which served as a guiding metaphor for her effort to bridge scientific and indigenous knowledge systems into a single, living archive.
The concept “spiral” in the garden holds both personal and symbolic meaning. Inspired by the book Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Somé, Jonn was drawn to the spiral’s symbolism of journey, transformation, and return. She was especially moved by how the book explored themes of displacement, reconnection, and spiritual awakening, an arc that resonated with her own experience. In her garden at the Farm House, she shaped a spiral into the soil, embedding this symbolism directly into the landscape. For Jonn, the residency was not just about research; it was also about seeking healing, a quiet, central pursuit of reconnection with ancestral memory, particularly her grandmother. She described the process as a return to “space and dust,” an elemental search for grounding, meaning, and wholeness.
In her presentation, Jonn shared stories gathered over 12 weeks of collaborative research with herbalists, artists, elders, children, chefs, and farmers. She reflected on the joys, challenges, and lessons encountered throughout her residency and archival intervention. At the heart of her work was the garden she cultivated, home to a range of medicinal plants, some named after family members and carefully labeled with both Yoruba and scientific names for easy identification. A simple bench, placed within the spiral formation, offered a quiet spot for rest and reflection. Many of the plants were sourced through conversation and connection: from local homes (including Yinka Shonibare CBE RA's mother’s house in Ilupeju), others purchased from IITA, and several already growing wild around the farm.
Following the talk, Jonn led visitors on a guided walk through the farm, joined by Alahaja, the G.A.S. Farm House supervisor, who played a key role in plant identification throughout Jonn’s stay. Together, they offered guests the opportunity to encounter the plants firsthand, both those thriving naturally around the farm and those newly rooted in the cultivated archive. Jonn emphasized that this living archive is not meant to be passively observed or simply read about; it invites touch, presence, and participation. It blurs the boundaries between food and medicine.
The event ended with a collaborative seed-sowing session, where guests planted seeds in sandbags that had been prepared ahead of time, a simple but powerful gesture of continuity, care, and shared growth. It was a way to literally plant the archive, while thinking about embodied knowledge, ancestral memory, and what it means to work across different systems of knowing.
Event Details
Date: 17th April, 2025
Time: 11:00am - 2:00pm
Location: G.A.S. Farm House, Ecology Green Farm, Yinka Shonibare CBE Street, Ikiṣẹ, Off Omu ljebu Road, liebu.
About the Facilitator
Jonn Gale
JONN GALE is a London-based ethnobotanist working across botanical collections. Her work combines speculative analysis of historical and archival material, ethnobotanical research, and sensory-focused visual ethnography as a means of generating more multiverse, relational, process-focused, and horizontal botanical archival research practices. Her practice centers on nonlinearity, multi-species livability, and the agency, endurance, and affective temporalities of botanical objects as historical actors capable of narrating alternative histories. She is currently undertaking a practice-led, AHRC/CHASE-funded collaborative doctorate at Birkbeck, UOL, and the Linnean Society of London, investigating the contributions of Black naturalists to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century natural knowledge. Her research involves the study of botanical specimens and manuscripts held at the Linnean Society, identifying and tracing hidden actors, mapping knowledge networks, and developing a new decolonial approach for recovering and sharing information from this archive.
Jonn Gale's residency is supported by CHASE and G.A.S. Foundation.
