Desert Memory Garden: restoring native medicine in Rajasthan

My great-grandfathers came from villages in Rajasthan where my family lived in relationship with the land for generations. During British colonial rule, that land was taken from my family. The loss was not simply the loss of property. It marked the disruption of a way of life—one rooted in seasonal rhythms, local knowledge, community interdependence, and a direct relationship with the natural world.

When people lose their land, they often lose much more than soil beneath their feet. They lose stories. They lose traditions. They lose the practical and spiritual knowledge that is carried through generations. They lose the intimate understanding of how to live in relationship with a place.

Generations later, I find myself drawn back toward Rajasthan carrying questions that feel older than myself. What becomes possible when we return to the landscapes our ancestors were forced to leave? What knowledge is waiting beneath the surface of memory? What forms of relationship can be restored between people, community, and land?

Over the last decade, I have lived in ten countries and immersed myself in diverse communities, ecological projects, farms, and alternative ways of living. Through these experiences I witnessed many different approaches to stewardship and regeneration. I also became increasingly interested in the deeper dimensions of restoration—not only ecological restoration, but the restoration of meaning, culture, belonging, and relationship.

Again and again I encountered the same truth: ecological crises are not only environmental crises. They are also crises of memory and disconnection.

The Desert Memory Garden emerges from this understanding.

This developing initiative seeks to create a living space where ecological restoration and cultural remembrance can meet. Through the cultivation of native medicinal plants, pollinator-supporting species, drought-resistant desert flora, and regenerative water practices, the project aims to contribute to the health of local ecosystems while creating opportunities for community learning and exchange.

At the same time, the project seeks to explore another form of restoration that is often overlooked: the restoration of feminine stories and knowledge traditions connected to land.

Across many cultures, women have historically served as seed keepers, healers, storytellers, gatherers of medicinal plants, protectors of water sources, and custodians of community memory. Yet many of these traditions have become fragmented or invisible through colonization, modernization, displacement, and changing social structures.

I believe ecological restoration is incomplete if it focuses only on landscapes while neglecting the stories, relationships, and wisdom traditions that once helped communities care for those landscapes.

As the project develops, I hope to create opportunities for women and elders to share ecological knowledge, stories, memories, and practices connected to the land. These gatherings would help preserve forms of cultural knowledge that are increasingly at risk of disappearing while fostering new relationships between younger generations and their ecological heritage.

The vision is not to recreate the past or romanticize it. The challenges facing Rajasthan today are different from those faced by previous generations. Rather, the intention is to weave together traditional knowledge, contemporary ecological understanding, and community participation in ways that support both environmental resilience and cultural continuity.

The project is currently in its early stages and continues to evolve through the support of local benefactors, community members, and a wider network of supporters who have followed my work over the years. Together we are exploring how a small pilot project can become a meaningful contribution to ecological stewardship, cultural renewal, and community connection.

Success will not be measured solely by the number of plants established or workshops held, though these outcomes matter. Success will also be reflected in the relationships formed, the stories remembered, the knowledge shared between generations, and the renewed sense of belonging that emerges when people reconnect with land and with one another.

By restoring relationship, memory, and ecological stewardship together, I hope to contribute to a future that honors both the resilience of the land and the people who belong to it.