"Resurrectionist Desire"
My residency at the Great North Museum Hancock
This year I was given the opportunity - as part of my MA study at Newcastle University - to take on the role as Poet-in-Residence at the Great North Museum Hancock. It was wonderful to spend a whole week exploring the museum for poetry inspiration. At our introductory talk on day one, I was very interested to hear that the staff have been investigating the ethical implications of displaying human remains at the museum, because there is a mummified person - named Irtyru - in the Ancient Egypt gallery.
The story of how Irtyru came to be at the museum is disturbing - you can read a bit about it in this article by Jo Anderson. Anderson writes that “What happened to Irtyru in 1830 would likely have been seen as an act of sacrilege and defacement to the ancient Egyptians.” Irtyru’s body was perceived as a “curiosity” by the Victorians who subjected her body to “some severe violations”; she was viewed as an object to be transported, sold, and “unwrapped”.
Her post-death journey inspired me to write the poem ‘I Remain’, which is now - very excitingly - on display at the museum. It was important to me to write something hopeful; my “resurrectionist desires - the craving to have the past return livingly, to live again, to speak again” (Cunningham, 64) came from a need to convey Irtyru, not as an artefact or an object, but as a woman who had a rich, love-filled life. In the persona poem, I portray Irtryu in the present tense, with an active voice, beginning with the line “I kiss lips”, to highlight her agency and connection with other people. In the final stanza, I invite the observer – the “you” – to acknowledge Irtyru’s humanity, if they choose to look at her mummified body.
It is a gift to be able to make informed choices, and I believe poetry supports us with that. As Amanda Gorman said: “poetry is always at the pulse of the most dangerous and the most daring questions”.
References
Anderson, Jo. “Our changing relationship with Irtyru” medium, https://twmuseumsandarchives.medium.com/our-changing-relationship-with-irtyru-1919b68a7f5. Accessed 13 December 2024.
Cunningham, Valentine. “Why Ekphrasis?” Classical Philology, Vol. 102, No. 1, 2007, pp. 57-71
Gorman, Amanda. “Using your voice is a political choice.” ted, https://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_gorman_using_your_voice_is_a_political_choice?subtitle=en. Accessed 20 July 2024.