Finding Solace In The Soil

Finding Solace in the Soil tells the largely unknown story of the gardens of Amache, the War Relocation Authority incarceration camp in Colorado. Combining physical evidence with oral histories and archival data and enriched by the personal photographs and memories of former Amache incarcerees, the book describes how gardeners cultivated community in confinement. Before incarceration, many at Amache had been farmers, gardeners, or nursery workers. Between 1942 and 1945, they applied their horticultural expertise to the difficult high plains landscape of southeastern Colorado. At Amache they worked to form microclimates, reduce blowing sand, grow better food, and achieve stability and preserve community at a time of dehumanizing dispossession. In this book archaeologist Bonnie J. Clark examines botanical data like seeds, garden-related artifacts, and other material evidence found at Amache, as well as oral histories from survivors and archival data including personal letters and government records, to recount how the prisoners of Amache transformed the harsh military setting of the camp into something resembling a town. She discusses the varieties of gardens found at the site, their place within Japanese and Japanese American horticultural traditions, and innovations brought about by the creative use of limited camp resources. The gardens were regarded by the incarcerees as a gift to themselves and to each other. And they were also, it turns out, a gift to the future as repositories of generational knowledge where a philosophical stance toward nature was made manifest through innovation and horticultural skill. Framing the gardens and gardeners of Amache within the larger context of the incarceration of Japanese Americans and of recent scholarship on displacement and confinement, Finding Solace in the Soil will be of interest to gardeners, historical archaeologists, landscape archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and scholars of Japanese American history and horticultural history.

Literary sidekicks like Dr. Watson and Robin the Boy Wonder have not been the singular subject of a significant critical study—until now. Using young adult literature (YA) to study the sidekick reveals new and exciting ways to understand these kinds of characters and this kind of literature. YA has embraced the sidekick, recognizing the way the character reflects the importance of growth and finding one’s place in the world. The nature of many YA texts allows sidekicks to grow beyond literary or historical origins. This includes letting sidekicks “evolve” over the course of multiple texts, using parallel novels to add complexity to a sidekick’s characterization, and telling a story from the sidekick’s perspective, paradoxically making the sidekick the hero. A singularly focused and prolonged study helps to establish sidekick scholarship as a burgeoning field in and of itself.

This book examines the Japanese diaspora from the historical archaeology perspective—drawing from archaeological data, archival research, and often oral history—and explores current trends in archaeological scholarship while also looking at new methodological and theoretical directions. The chapters include research on pre-War rural labor camps or villages in the US, as well as research on western Canada (British Columbia), Peru, and the Pacific Islands (Hawai‘i and Tinian), incorporating work on understudied urban and cemetery sites. One of the main themes explored in the book is patterns of cultural persistence and change, whether couched in terms of maintenance of tradition, “Americanization,” or the formation of dual identities. Other themes emerging from these chapters include consumption, agency, stylistic analysis, community lifecycles, social networks, diaspora and transnationalism, gender, and sexuality. Also included are discussions of trauma, racialization, displacement, labor, heritage, and community engagement. Some are presented as fully formed interpretive frameworks with substantial supporting data, while others are works in progress or tentative attempts to push the boundaries of our field into innovative new territory. This book is of interest to students and researchers in historical archaeology, anthropology, sociology of migration, diaspora studies and historiography. Previously published in International Journal of Historical Archaeology Volume 25, issue 3, September 2021

Even if all you have is a postage stamp's worth of space on a balcony, patio, or front stoop, The Container Victory Garden equips you to dig into the joys of container gardening, right where you are. Imagine this: In the morning, you pluck a few mint leaves from your backdoor herb garden and add them to your tea. A few hours later, you step out onto your patio and collect a handful of lettuce leaves for your lunch salad. Just before dinner, you harvest a few basil leaves and cherry tomatoes for a delicious caprese pasta. In her trademark warm and informative style, bestselling author and expert gardener Maggie Stuckey shares everything you need to know to succeed with container gardening: planning, gearing up, planting, nurturing, and harvesting. In The Container Victory Garden, you will find: detailed line art drawings that illustrate many gardening techniques and set-ups first-person stories of World War II Victory Gardens and their inspiration for today's gardeners beautiful full-color paintings of diverse people enjoying their container gardens This is the promise of container gardening: a fresh bounty of vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers you can enjoy in every season.

This book is a call to action. It warns that unless we learn to accept and respect our social, cultural and political differences as town and country people, we are never going to solve the chronic problems in our food system and environment. As we stare down the barrel of climate change, only farmers - who manage two thirds of the UK's landscape - working together with conservation groups can create a healthier food system and bring back nature in diverse abundance. But this fledgling progress is hindered and hamstrung by simplistic debates that still stoke conflict between conservative rural communities and the liberal green movement. Each chapter, from Family and Politics to Animal Welfare and the Environment, explores a different aspect of the urban/rural disconnect, weaving case studies and research with Anna's personal stories of growing up on a small, upland farm. There is a simple theme and a strong message running throughout the book - a plea to respect our differences, recognise each other's strengths and work together to heal the land.

The Monsoon shakes and shudders within many a varied landscape... Come and find yourself along the back lanes of the world’s most intense cities. Visit the tribal longhouses of the headhunter tribes of Borneo; be enchanted by the steaming hot jungle ruins of Asia. Ponder the lives of the women of India and Myanmar as ‘change’ stalks the landscape. Meander along the soothing waters of the Mekong in Laos, dodge Yala’s leopards and elephants. Be invited to the curiosity of Bollywood on Langkawi. Travel south of the equator to meet Mari the Lithuanian jungle vegan and other alternative folk of the Byron Bay region of New South Wales. Become tantalized by the colourful multicultural market lifestyle of tropical Darwin, while being feathered by the intimacy of Australia’s beautiful first nations people. Art, music, food; vulnerable societies clinging to hard-fought cultural sanctity. The laughter - the sadness - the bruises and stomach bugs - lavished with a profound respect for the folk and fauna of such stunning locations, this expedition into exotica will see you arrive home with a sense of belonging to this multifaceted world. Ian Browne will challenge your senses, your empathy, whether you are the battle-hardened traveler, or those that desire familiar comforts in a hotel by the sea, discover why this creative story teller’s love of this planet has seen him being invited to Buckingham Palace, and a request to engage in project work within sustainability for the UN. “What the Monsoon Knows” Well, come along on the journey & discover this for yourself...

Our hearts feel heavy and in despair when we struggle with hardships. We feel sad, uncertain, lonely, and all the emotions that can weigh us down. Just like trials and hardships are part of our lives, so do emotions are part of our being. When we are being tested, we commonly hear the advice telling us to be patient and to trust on the better days that are yet to come. But it is easier said than done, especially when things feel too much for us to handle. Is it wrong for us to struggle with acceptance when we are surrounded with these complex and difficult emotions? Should we just be patient? Through this book, author Imran Zaki takes us on a journey of finding courage and hope with the Quran when we are drowning in the darkness. From the Quran, Allah SWT tells us the best of stories from the prophets and the pious people who were tested with hardships, and sorrows. May their stories comfort our hearts that even in our hidden tears, Allah will never abandon and leave us on our own.