Abstract 

The theft of botanical materials and knowledge from Indigenous Peoples in the early modern period is a relatively understudied area of history. This presentation provides an in-depth discussion of two examples where the British Empire committed, or attempted to commit, biopiracy. Research presented here features in Scott Backrath’s doctoral thesis: ‘Global Biopiracy in the Age of Empire: Indigeneity, Decolonisation, and the Politics of Botanical Knowledge in the British World, c.1600-1800’.

The kidnapping of Tuki and Huru (Māori), orchestrated by English colonists in Norfolk Island in 1793, to gain Māori knowledge of Harakeke processing is the first example of biopiracy discussed. The second case examines the looting of nutmeg from the Banda Islands (in present day Maluku Islands) by the British post-conquest in 1796, arguing that this was biopiracy poorly masked as collecting. Classifying these acts as biopiracy in our research complicates the current definition of this concept to accommodate the early-modern context, and includes the theft of people, plants and knowledge as well as the improper accreditation of Indigenous botanical knowledge.

Classifying these cases as biopiracy fosters the foregrounding of Indigenous perspectives, agency, and culture in exploring the history of botany. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted consisting of Critical Indigenous Studies, Environmental Humanities, the History of Science in a Global Perspective and Decolonial Museum Studies. This approach enables a wider discussion of how early-modern European scientific practices were entangled with the exploitation of the natural world in ways that had disruptive, severe consequences for Indigenous Peoples. For example, Eighteenth-century British botanical illustrations of harakeke disrupted Māori understandings regarding the plant through depicting it as dismembered and abstracted, undermining the idea of whānau (family) it represents. The same abstraction present in an illustration of nutmeg, coupled with Linnaean taxonomy, obfuscates Bandanese history and the colonial violence that surrounds this plant.

Researcher Biography

Scott Backrath is a second-year PhD at the University of Manchester, UK, where he has also completed his BA and MA. He is predominantly interested in researching the history of science, specifically botany, and the decolonisation of heritage spaces and records through foregrounding Indigenous perspectives. Scott is also the great-nephew of the late Prof. Philip Courtenay, former rector of the James Cook University, Cairns Campus, and whom The Cairns Institute’s Courtenay Lecture is named in honour of.

His thesis is titled ‘Global Biopiracy in the Age of Empire: Indigeneity, Decolonisation, and the Politics of Botanical Knowledge in the British World, c.1600-1800’. He is interested in researching the history of science, specifically botany, and the decolonisation of heritage spaces and records through foregrounding Indigenous perspectives. Scott’s research interests are represented by the interdisciplinary methodology his thesis engages in. Critical Indigenous Studies focuses on promoting the complexity of Indigenous Peoples and their role as historical actors. Employing the Environmental Humanities allows his thesis to explore the relationships between imperial agents, Indigenous Peoples and the plants and environments that they are entwined with. The History of Science in a Global Perspective allows him to explore the entanglement of British scientific practices with biopiracy in contexts around the world as well as the consequences of such activities for Indigenous Peoples. These methodologies come together in Scott’s engagement in Decolonial Museum Studies; the study of biopiracy on a global scale can help to reverse colonial disavowal present in botanical archives and demonstrate that herbariums are sources of cultural and biological diversity.

His thesis is split into five chapters: the institutionalisation of early-modern science in England and biopiracy, how scientific practices constituted and fostered biopiracy, Indigenous Peoples (involvement of, consequences for and recovery to), how plants were impacted by colonial activities, and decolonising botanical collections.

Scott is currently on a research trip spanning Australia and New Zealand funded by the prestigious North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership. The Cairns Institute is his first stop in Australia, where he will be conducting further research at other archives, botanical gardens, and herbariums.

Link to researcher profile

Image Source: Natural History Museum, Library and Archives