Elephants and Empire in Colonial Burma: Exhibiting Historical Photographs in Myanmar and the UK

Colonial rule precipitated dramatic ecological change in Myanmar during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. One of the consequences of this change is the current precarious position of Myanmar's elephant populations. Their insecurity is primarily the result of a loss of habitat, hunting and the capture of wild elephants for timber work. Both are legacies of imperial-era forestry policies. Today Myanmar has the second largest Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population, with an estimated 5000 working elephants kept in a state of semi-captivity and 4000 remaining in the wild. At its peak in the 1930s, there were between 7000 and 10000 working elephants in Myanmar. It is evident from the findings of my research fellowship 'An Animal History of Colonial Burma' (AH/L014939/1) that under British rule the balance of wild to working elephants shifted decisively against the former. More widely, Asian elephants are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as an endangered species. In this context, the form of semi-captivity in which working elephants are kept offers some prospect for helping to protect the species as whole. Ongoing research by the Myanmar Timber Elephant project at the University of Sheffield has looked into ways of improving the mortality and fertility of semi-captive elephants in the country. Through their research they hope to relieve some of the current pressures put on the remaining wild herds created by the demand to capture replacement working elephants. My project aims to raise awareness of the history of Myanmar's elephant population, and the role of British imperialism within it. It also seeks to frame ongoing attempts to protect elephants within debates around environmental justice and colonial legacies, facilitating a debate about former imperial powers' responsibility for ecological degradation in the Majority World. At the same time the project will signpost audiences to projects helping to protect Myanmar's elephants.

The project will raise awareness of, facilitate debate about, and signpost support for, Myanmar's elephants through an exhibition displaying historical photographs of working elephants in colonial Burma in the interwar years. The free public exhibition will be held at the University of Leeds and then move to Yangon, where it will be hosted by the country's only not-for-profit gallery dedicated to photography, Myanmar Deitta. Following the end of the exhibition in Yangon, the photographs will go to the Green Hill Valley Elephant Camp, a sanctuary for retired working elephants near Kalaw in the Southern Shan States. Once there they will form part of an educational display. The photographs were uncovered during my fellowship whilst I was conducting research in the London Metropolitan Archives. The full collection of 64 photographs, from which the exhibits will be selected, are in the archives of Steel Brothers and Company Ltd., a British timber firm that operated in colonial Burma. In order to make all these images freely available for researchers they will be scanned and stored on an online archive hosted by the University of Leeds. The images held in this archive will be useful for environmental historians, imperial historians, visual culture scholars, and specialists working in Myanmar studies.

The follow-on-funding will enable me to generate new pathways to impact from the AHRC Leadership Fellowship 'An Animal History of Colonial Burma' that could not have been anticipated before the fellowship commenced. There are two findings that emerged during the fellowship that will enable me to realise wider engagements with new audiences. The first is my finding that British colonial rule was pivotal in bringing about the current precarious ecological context for Myanmar's elephant populations. The second is my uncovering of a collection of historical photographs of teak extraction operations in Myanmar's forests during the interwar years held in the London Metropolitan Archives. These photographs illustrate the extent of British timber firms' employment of elephant labour in the forests and as such provide an opportunity for raising awareness of Britain's historical role in Myanmar's contemporary environmental challenges and, through this, cultivate support for attempts to protect this endangered species and its habitat. This will be achieved through an exhibition of the photographs to be held at the University of Leeds and then at Myanmar Deitta, a photographic gallery in Yangon. Once these exhibitions have finished, the photographs will go to the Green Hill Valley Elephant Camp, Kalaw, to form part of an educational display for visitors and local communities.

The original research project devised pathways to impact within the city of Bristol, through working with the Bristol Museum. This culminated in an online exhibition displaying artifacts from Myanmar currently held in the Museum's stores. The main beneficiary of this engagement was the Museum, who were able to professionally photograph, digitise and learn more about their collections. The primary audience was the museum-going public with an interest in Myanmar, British imperialism or Bristol. The follow-on-funding will take the research completed during the fellowship to different audiences. The exhibition at the University of Leeds will draw in a UK audience interested in issues of wildlife conservation, environmental justice and climate change. The exhibition in Yangon and the educational display in Kalaw will reach a Myanmar audience engaged with the issue of preserving the country's biodiversity in general, and the protection of elephants in particular. The follow-on-funding will also strengthen links with new project partners in the UK and Myanmar. Through a public talk hosted by the London Metropolitan Archives the project will draw attention to the global scope of their collections. Within Myanmar, the project will establish meaningful links with an elephant sanctuary and help support its model of conservation through sustainable ecotourism. It will also facilitate ties with emerging cultural institutions in Myanmar's growing art scene through supporting the work of Myanmar Deitta.

In order to ensure impacts beyond the lifespan of the project, the collection of 64 photographs of timber operations held by the London Metropolitan Archives will be scanned and stored digitally in an online archive hosted by the University of Leeds. Through this online archive, researchers and students will be able to access these historical sources, which are currently hard for many to access, particularly those outside of the UK.