‘As dead as a dodo’: Extinction narratives and multispecies justice in the museum

Anna Guasco

doi:10.1177/2514848620945310

Abstract

This article unites recent writing in extinction studies with work in political ecology, justice theory and museum studies to explore qualitative, cultural approaches to extinction. I examine the role of storytelling and the power of narratives in addressing nonhuman extinction. Analysing the case study of a permanent gallery on extinction, evolution and biodiversity loss – the Survival Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland – I utilise a more-than-textual approach to narrative analysis. This paper explores the diverse ways in which the gallery relates stories of ‘natural’ extinction to the contemporary anthropogenic ‘Sixth Mass Extinction’. The Survival Gallery narrates a remarkably complex compilation of extinction stories, but the gallery’s narrative avoids areas of conflict or controversy, obscures justice concerns and ultimately presents a problematic depiction of a universalised humanity. Using this analysis of museum extinction storytelling, the paper contributes to emerging conceptualisations of multispecies justice frameworks. The article explores the possibilities and challenges of museum storytelling in grappling with complicated pasts and envisioning potential futures of survival, coexistence and flourishing. The paper concludes by considering how a multispecies justice approach to narrating extinction (and other entangled ecological-social phenomena) might flourish within and beyond museums.

Highlights

It is unsettling to come face to face with a dodo
When you walk into the Survival Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland, the first object you see is a dodo
The gallery’s curator used the same phrase – ‘icon of extinction’ – in explaining why this animal was at the gallery’s entrance.1. He said that the museum chose the dodo because ‘it kind of heralds the period when modern extinctions began, when Europeans started traveling around the world.’

Summary

Introduction

It is unsettling to come face to face with a dodo. Dodos, like any extinct animals (and their remains and simulacra) are ‘as dead as a dodo’. This article elucidates the extinction narratives the Survival Gallery imparts, analysing the ways in which the gallery does – and does not – engage with issues of social, environmental and ecological justice. The text of the gallery left visitors blaming animals for their own extinctions and ignoring the individual-level horror of species loss.

Results

Conclusion