BREAKING THE CLIMATE SILENCE: Climate Outreach at Shropshire Archives

by Sal Mager, Senior Archivist, Shropshire Archives (ARA Env Group Research Officer).

When I was given the go ahead to contribute to Great Big Green Week in June this year with some climate-related events for the general public, I realised I had a challenge on my hands. This would be the first time Shropshire Archives had brought such issues into its outreach and I knew there was not much out there to provide a template for how best to go about this.

Concerns had previously been voiced about any such attempts being too political or too depressing. Whilst I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to engage our audiences with the truth and urgency of the Climate and Nature Emergency, I also knew that leaving people feeling that there was nothing meaningful they could do about it risked being counterproductive. It was a tricky path to negotiate.

One very useful source of inspiration I found was Our Green Stories by the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) at Reading University. This included an online exhibition of individual photographs or objects from their collections, each used to highlight an issue of concern, from dependence on fossil fuels to agricultural techniques and food security, the impact of fast fashion and the effect of the dairy industry on global warming. I realised that the archives I had at my disposal could be used to illustrate pretty much any topic. If a photograph or document could be displayed alongside a few facts and figures about the climate and biodiversity crisis, then this could be used to facilitate conversation around these issues. MERL based their themes on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which was a good starting point. If I could give these themes a local historical context it should help people to feel a greater connection and involvement.

Publicity material for the three events, based on the Great Big Green Week templates.

Time to Tread Lightly

I developed these ideas into an event where I laid out a display of photographs and documents around a variety of themes. One idea was that this could be used to help imagine a more positive future, by considering what we did, and did not, want to carry forward with us; hence the title “How to Tread Lightly”. People were also invited to consider how placing particular facts about global warming and biodiversity loss alongside them affected their reaction. I reached out to Shropshire Wildlife Trust, inviting them to attend the event, so that someone would be on hand with knowledge about local biodiversity issues, and it was great to have them participate as a willing partner.

I was aware of the potential emotional impact of such a display, which clearly needs to be recognised and carefully considered. Not as a reason to avoid stirring emotions, but to work with awareness and provide a supportive environment, especially if working with younger or more vulnerable groups.

Not least because of this, I felt it was important to provide suggestions for meaningful action that people could consider taking. This was an area that could potentially be considered political, but rather than drawing up my own list, I used a well-researched list of six actions that a climate scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, proposed as being the most effective and meaningful actions we can take as individuals right now. This prioritises actions such as starting a conversation about why climate change matters, joining a local climate action group to amplify your voice and holding politicians accountable. Taking action to reduce your individual carbon footprint is also there, but it comes in at number six and includes the suggestion that you also make your actions contagious by talking about them.

Visitors viewing material at the Time to Tread Lightly event at Shropshire Archives.

Darn and Delve

Our second event was intended to appeal to a slightly different audience, offering a hands-on crafting session on the theme of “make do and mend”. Alongside this was a small archive display focusing on local textile and fashion industries, with a few thought-provoking captions interspersed. This session attracted a keen group of sewing enthusiasts who shared practical tips as well as engaging in some stimulating conversations around the issues raised by the display.

Luddite of Visionary? The Curious Diary of Henry Rope

Finally, an existing series of short monthly talks called ‘Off The Shelf’ was used to give a talk on a travel diary I had recently discovered, which turned out to be ideal for drawing out relevant themes. The account of an opinionated twenty-year-old lad who cycled across the country in 1901 was used to stimulate discussion by focusing on his outspoken disdain for urbanisation and disconnection with nature, as well as the noise and pollution being spread by the coal-fired mechanisation of transport and industry.

What Next?

This initial foray into climate-related outreach proved successful in terms of being well-attended and receiving enthusiastic feedback, including the desire to see more events of a similar nature. However, in order to get a clearer picture of how people can learn and be inspired by such work would require more opportunity to follow through, such as could be gained from providing workshops or working with the same group of people over a period of time.

We see these three events as pilot projects and feel they have great potential to be further developed and explored. Funding is being sought to support this work, with the possibility of developing a toolkit to enable others to run similar events on limited resources, readily adaptable to their own collections and audiences.

The events also highlight the potential for partnership working. Shropshire Wildlife Trust were interested to see the resources we had and felt there was potential for further exploration; for instance, comparing archival lists of flora and fauna with what was likely to be found there today.

The sessions also helped us appreciate the challenge of doing this work.  Whilst we have the expertise and knowledge about our resources, what is needed is guidance in how to use them effectively in the face of the existential threats we are facing. This challenge is widely recognised beyond the archive sector and much valuable work is currently being done around how to have effective climate conversations and provide appropriate climate education tools for different audiences. If we can draw on this work to activate our own unique resources in a meaningful way, then we can really start to make a valuable contribution.

I hope we can continue to develop and share resources, to help facilitate conversations around the climate and nature crisis, to help break the climate silence in our local communities and empower people to take meaningful action. In this way we can start to play a more significant role, as archivists and record keepers, in the cultural shift that is so urgently needed to tackle the existential crises we are facing. Whilst doing so, we would also help ensure our services remain relevant and more able to help support our communities, through greater awareness, resourcefulness, and resilience, for whatever our future holds.

All images courtesy of Shropshire Archives