Tutor: Keith Skene. 4 weeks. Tuesday mornings 10.00am -12 noon. 8th September - 29th September 2026.

Booking for this course will close on Friday 4th September 2026 at 12 noon.

Due to limited resources we are UNABLE TO ACCEPT LATE BOOKINGS after this date.

Plants, People and the Planet: Indigenous Knowledge at University of Dundee Botanic Garden

Tuesday mornings 10.00am -12 noon. 8th September - 29th September 2026.

Over the four weeks, we will delve into the amazing collection of plants in the University of Dundee Botanic Garden, exploring the medicinal, supernatural, cultural and historical importance of some of the stars of the Garden, from the Elephant Foot Yam of Southern Africa, to the Kapok Tree of Jamaica and Ghana, and from the Scots pines of Caledonia to the plants of the Antipodes. We will enter into the Indigenous thinking of communities from around the world, and the centrality of plants to these people, both in their struggle for survival and their pursuit of social justice against the colonial oppression of both nature and humanity. All teaching will be field-based.

Tutor: Keith Skene

Dr Keith Skene is head of the Living Laboratory at the University of Dundee Botanic Garden, a co-creative hub, or Community of Practice (CoP) that integrates research and innovation to bring focus to the topic of ‘sustainability’. He leads up the research and education programme at the Garden. He is also the Director of the Biosphere Research Institute (www.biosri.org). Keith is a leading world expert in sustainability, a recent Stanford University analysis rating him in the top two percent of scientists globally. He has carried out research across the planet, from Kenya to Vietnam and from Australia to the West Indies, although his favourite habitat remains the Folly River in Ireland, that flowed past his childhood home in Armagh, where he became obsessed with ecology, place and identity. The author of five books focused on social, environmental and economic sustainability, his work focuses on eco-cultural identities and the centrality of systems thinking in moving towards a better world.

Course code: 10 101

Enquiries should be sent to: lifelonglearningdundee@gmail.com

As a volunteer organisation with limited resources we try to respond to queries as quickly as possible. Please bear with us.

Description supplied by the event organiser.