Multispecies Stories from the Margins

This chapter seeks to cultivate the art of attentiveness to more-than-human ways of being and knowing that have ended up in the margins of our everyday attention. It problematises the human-centred idea of marginality by engaging in multispecies storytelling with local mosses in the Pyhä-Luosto National Park in northern Finland. The authors explore the possibilities of including non-human voices in the place-making and tourism development processes, posing questions on mobility and wellbeing and growth from mosses’ point of view. Following in the footsteps of Robin Wall Kimmerer, the chapter asks what could be learnt from mosses that have succeeded in surviving in nearly every ecosystem on earth longer than any other plant groups. The authors introduce multispecies storytelling as a genre that encourages us to slow down, attune with alternative rhythms and temporalities, listen to more-than-human concerns and further mobilise inspiration, activism and hope. While mosses are generally perceived as something insignificant, one of their many secrets seems to lie in their ability to take full advantage of being slow, small and flourishing in the shade. Hence, by attuning to mosses’ life-sustaining agencies, the authors propose smallness and slowness as key features in living well on Earth.