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We are not trashing history, says Kew Gardens chief

Richard Deverell is the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew - Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph
Richard Deverell is the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew - Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph

The director of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew has said that the institution is an “exemplar” of the Government’s policy to retain contentious history, after removing a promise to “decolonise” from its manifesto for change.

Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, Richard Deverell said that the gardens’ plans to increase access and “improve equity” would go ahead as planned and were entirely in keeping with government policy.

In March last year, Kew launched a 10-year “manifesto for change” that included a promise to “decolonise our collections”. That was subsequently rephrased to “re-examine our collections” following a backlash.

Mr Deverell was speaking as Kew launched a new £1 ticket for those on Universal Credit and pension credit to broaden access to the site.

Talking to The Telegraph on a grey and wet day at Kew, with the remnants of the Christmas light show being dismantled, Mr Deverell appeared, above all, bemused and a little indignant that his organisation had been dragged into a debate usually reserved for looted objects and statues of slavers.

Mr Deverell initially pursued a punchy and defiant response to critics of the language in the manifesto, but has now, to an extent, walked back from it.

Much of the reaction, he claimed, had been “asserting that we are doing things that we are simply not doing.

“At first I found it amusing, And subsequently, it was actually quite annoying, because it was causing a lot of distraction. It’s why we dropped that word from our manifesto. It was causing heat, but not light.”

While other public institutions are toppling statues or looking to send items back to their countries of origin, Kew is not removing any of its collection, Mr Deverell insisted.

And although displays will be updated, there will not be a “didactic or hectoring tone”.

“You’re not going to read anything, I think, that is critical of Kew’s, or indeed British history. What you will see, I hope, is a broader and actually, I think, more interesting and engaging set of stories that links our historical roots to contemporary issues,” he said.

The whole programme, he said, made Kew “an exemplar of retain and explain”, the Government’s stance on contested history, “we are not removing anything; we are seeking to broaden the stories we tell”.

On a walk through the Chinese Grove, below Kew’s historic giant pagoda, Mr Deverell pointed to newer interpretation signs that included mentions of how Britain’s victory in the Opium Wars opened China up to Western botanists, explained how locals used plants well before Europeans “discovered” them and detailed the help Chinese individuals had given to these foreign scientists.

The pagoda at Kew. Newer interpretation signs tell how Britain’s victory in the Opium Wars opened China up to Western botanists
The pagoda at Kew. Newer interpretation signs tell how Britain’s victory in the Opium Wars opened China up to Western botanists

This was not, Mr Deverell was adamant, an admonishment of Kew’s history, but rather the correction of an attitude that “too often implied that white British men from Kew did it all on their own”.

Kew to tell story of slavery

One focus of the row over the manifesto has been the suggestion that the story of slavery would be added to panels about sugar cane. On this, Mr Deverell was unapologetic.

“[Sugar] has had, I would say, a material impact on the lives of many people living in Britain today, indirectly, of course, and I genuinely believe it’d be utterly remiss of us not to tell that story,” he said, before adding “we are not going to apologise or make great statements about the role of slavery or the legacy of slavery. That’s simply not Kew’s territory.”

Mr Deverell was also at pains to point out that these changes were “really quite subtle” and a “touch on the tiller”.

Moreover, they are only a fraction of RBG Kew’s work and its pledge to extend its reach and improve equity, which also involves conservation efforts and botanical research across the world.

The Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
The Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

Most of the changes contained in the manifesto are focused on international conservation efforts aimed at fighting climate change and the biodiversity crisis, including those reforms previously labelled as “decolonising”.

The “number one priority” is digitising Kew’s vast collection of dried plants and fungi and granting access to scientists and ecologists from where the flora originated.

“We gathered these specimens from around the world and they need to be available to the practitioners and scientists who work in those countries,” he said, adding “this is primarily about the outcomes we want to see, we want to see those tropical ecosystems protected and restored.”

£15 million government funding

The Government is supportive of that project, with £15 million of public funding being made available to the digitisation project.

Asked if he was surprised that Government ministers hadn’t spoken out to defend Kew, he demurred: “They’re busy people,” he said, but pointed out that he had received a supportive personal letter from Michael Gove, the former environment secretary, and that the current minister, George Eustice, had launched Defra’s Cop26 programme at Kew.

He was not, however, concerned that future guidelines from the Government’s Heritage Advisory Board would cause Kew any trouble.

“We’re not apologizing. We’re not trashing history. We’re not censoring. We’re not removing anything. So I would be interested to know if there is a concern? If so, help me understand it, because I don’t believe there are any grounds for concern.”