Format: ORAL

Kenneth Walker1, Ina Vandebroek1,2, and Matthew Pace1

1. The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York, 10458 2. The University of the West Indies Mona, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Life Sciences and Caribbean Centre for Research in Bioscience (CCRIB), Kingston 7, Jamaica, West Indies

Much can be learned from colonial collections by decolonizing botanical research. Interdisciplinary teams of scholars have recommended a biocultural framework for the continued curation of these collections. Recognizing and protecting biocultural diversity helps to create pathways towards a more ethical botany. Through this objective, botanical collections of colonial projects can find additional purpose. Biocultural diversity accounts for the indissoluble link among language, culture, and humanitys interaction with the biosphere. An NSF funded project on biocultural diversity collections is currently securing, digitizing, and increasing access to voucher specimens that are the product of economic botany, medical botany, ethnobotany, and other botanical studies at the New York Botanical Garden. Digitization of collections through ethical frameworks presents many challenges but offers several potential rewards. Through the curation of these specimens to the currently accepted taxonomy and the inclusion of local and indigenous names, the project seeks to increase access to collections by underserved communities and the general public through its free online collection data portal. Digitization and proper meta-data association aids in the archival return of collections to communities of origin, as well as to diasporic communities of stakeholders interested in botanical disciplines or rediscovering cultural traditions.