Back to Queer-ality
by Rae Turpin
Nature is queer. We are queer.
To acknowledge queerness is to acknowledge difference: the way that all persons, bodies, and ways of being exist in the liminal, and seep outside of boxed definitions. It is to embark on ways of seeing and imagining that account for the diverse happenings, relations and conditions that come together to make each of us who we are. Queering our imaginations allows us to see the world as it is, beyond the categories and characteristics externally projected onto it. It is an exercise in greeting things as they are - experiencing them in their own unique personhood, rather than what we’ve been conditioned to see.
This practice can be applied to any species, happening or process that calls you. It can be embarked on alone or with others.
Ingredients:
An appropriate setting, ideally in a green space.
A notebook, journal, or phone or tablet.
Comfortable clothing and footwear. You might also like to bring a stool if you feel you may benefit from it.
Around 45 mins - 1 hour.
Steps:
Arrive within your space.
This is likely to be a quiet, green space. Find and ground yourself there. Begin by taking several deep breaths with your eyes closed. When you feel ready, gently open your eyes and awaken all your senses to what surrounds you. Try not to rush this step, I suggest allowing at least 5 - 10 minutes.
Allow yourself to be called to a particular species.
This should be a species that is in abundance within your space, so take your time to acclimatise to the types of bodies in your ecosystem. Try not to overthink this part, and trust your gut.
Be with your plant or other ally.
Study them closely. You may choose to write, draw, make audio notes, take photographs, or some combination of these. I do however recommend drawing, as it allows for a particular type of deep-looking which is hard to replicate in other modes.
Some questions that might help you begin:
What offerings are you making? For instance, your leaves hang low, waiting to be reached? Are you seeding or fruiting? Have you discarded any of these onto the soil beneath you?
What do you feel like to the touch? You may want to try touching different parts of their body against different parts of yours.
What does it feel like to be with you? What sensations, memories and emotions are evoked?
Are there other bodies or persons cohabiting with you? Are you providing shelter? Are you being sheltered? Who are you entangled with?
Rather than answers, you may find yourself a lot of unanswerable questions - these are equally valid modes of inquiry.
Take your time, at least 10 - 15 minutes if possible.
Move on to your next plant or ally.
Take a deep breath for the purposes of cleansing your sensory palette. And when you are ready, find another plant or ally of the same species nearby and repeat the process of deep inquiry and study. Be sure to spend the same amount of time.
Reflect on sameness and difference.
When you have completed your inquiries, reflect on the experience and the notes you have created. What is the same of these two plants? What is different? Imagine the processes that have to happen to cause two bodies of the same species to diverge in these ways.
Spend some time with these questions. Consider what conditions or relational experiences may have contributed to these differences, and what different offerings they make as a result.
Reflect on divergent perspectives.
Consider the different observations you made of your allies. Did you ask the same questions of both, or did these change? If they did, why did they? What expectations did you approach each with, and how did this change how you were able to see them?
Reflect on divergent perspectives, together.
If conducting in community with other humans, you may want to take the opportunity to reflect together on the divergent experiences of the collective. If your inquiry has focused on the same bodies, you may want to explore where your observations and insights align, and where they diverge.
You may want to use these as prompts towards deeper conversations based on your own collective intentions, and about how - despite our differences in experience, perspectives and motivations - we can hope to arrive at collective visions.
This recipe is an invitation to unlearn binaries and relearn queerness, to unlearn monocultures and relearn polycultures. In doing so, not only are we better able to more appropriately and compassionately respond to difference, but undo categories and hierarchies of species into a more-than-human whole.
© Rae Turpin. Find out more about Rae’s work at www.raejturpin.com.