Dilsad Aladag, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

Weaving Reeds Between Two Rivers: Practice-based Approaches to Reclaiming Nomadic Pastoralist Knowledge in the Çukurova Wetlands

Lesedauer: 2 Minuten

This research focuses on Yörüks and the wetlands of Çukurova and aims to reveal their ecological constellations.

On the southern coast of Turkey, Çukurova is a delta plain created by two rivers flowing from the Taurus Mountains into the Mediterranean Sea. Anciently, the plain served as winter quarters of nomadic pastoralists known as yörüks, and as the summer abode for the water that nourished wetlands. In the 19th century, the region became an industrial agriculture and trade zone with the modernization ideals of the Ottoman Empire and later the Republic of Turkey. Yörüks and the wetlands of Çukurova were objectified as exploitable resources for the growing nation-state ideal. Today, the remnants of the two are disregarded and endangered.

The study will utilize archival and spatial analysis, as well as architectural diagrams to illustrate the spatial, material and seasonal interplays that formed these constellations. To convey its discoveries, the project will assemble counter cartographies and narratives using artistic and architectural tools to reveal multispecies stories of Çukurova. The outcomes of the research will contribute to the reclamation of the indigenous nomadic pastoralist knowledge in the Çukurova Wetlands.

Following concepts of James Scott's domestication, Robin W. Kimmerer's indigenous ecological knowledge, and Rosi Braidotti's posthumanist feminist thought, the study will also critique the national historiography of the region, which is founded on the domestication of indigenous beings and extraction of nature through the agency of architecture.