#MYBIOSPHERE: Ali Hodgson

Trigger warning - baby loss; some readers may be affected by content in this article. 

In our regular feature in Isle of Man Newspapers, authors from different walks of Manx life offer a personal perspective on #MyBiosphere. This month, Ali Hodgson, graphic artist and Manx Wildlife Trust's Biosphere Artist in Residence for 2023/24, writes:

Moving to the Isle of Man was never in my ‘plan’. A perfect storm of life events forced my hand and blew me across the Irish Sea to a strange land filled with myths, wild gorse and salty winds.

When I found myself being driven onto the Steam Packet boat in a borrowed Toyota Aygo, holding back tears as I clutched a one-way ticket and a potted plant, I had no idea what was next. A week earlier I had a given birth to a beautiful baby girl, and on that same day I felt her heart beat for the last time and a piece of my heart broke forever too. That wasn’t in the plan either.

But this story isn’t about death, or grief, or loss. In fact, quite the opposite. What the Isle of Man has given me in the few short years I have lived here is more life than I ever could have imagined. In fact, more connection, challenge and purpose has come my way I knew possible, and none of that was in the plan either. So let me explain.

I never really know what to say when people ask me what do you do? My background is in the arts, but I’ve always been fascinated in things far bigger than the practical application of my practice: I want to know what we can do to make this world a better place.

That quest has led me around the world to work for some incredible organisations and collectives. I’m interested in ecological design and I’ve studied systems science and visual thinking, and the more I learn about something called regenerative culture, the more I think this is it!

Regenerative culture is hard to pin down. Unlike sustainability, it’s not a destination to be understood, reached or ticked off. It’s a way of life, being, doing. Janine Benyus, the Godmother of Biomimicry describes it best: life in support of all life.

Last year I was fortunate enough to be selected as the 2023/4 Biosphere Artist in Residence in collaboration with Manx Wildlife Trust and UNESCO Biosphere Isle of Man, and supported by the Isle of Man Arts Council – a prestigious year-long position that granted me the time I so desperately craved to help myself and others explore their own understanding of regenerative life in the Isle of Man, to see the deep connection between our human and ecological systems, and thus my REIMAGINING our Biosphere game project was born - and I haven’t looked back since!

And now, my residency might have drawn to a close but I find myself coming back to what underpins the principles of regenerative culture, and the REIMAGINING our Biosphere game: life in support of all life. The mother in me might have lost a child, but she also knows (without being told) that all the life within our biosphere, and all the life that calls this beautiful Island home, is precious. So precious, that it’s absolutely worth mothering, protecting, nurturing and loving fiercely, if we truly want to flourish.

To learn more about Ali and the REIMAGINING our Biosphere game, click here.

Header image: Amore du Plessis Photography