The Monarch's Flight Earrings

The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) migrates annually from breeding grounds in Canada and the northern United States to overwintering sites in the oyamel fir forests of Michoacán in central Mexico. A distance of approximately four thousand kilometres. The Mexican overwintering colonies were not formally documented by Western science until 1975, despite being known to local Mazahua and Otomi communities for centuries. The migration is now recognised as an endangered biological phenomenon.

In Mexican folk tradition, the Monarchs arriving at their overwintering sites in early November coincide with the Day of the Dead. They are read as the returning souls of the departed. The earrings carry that quiet double reading. The migration as biological fact, and the migration as the return of those who have gone.

The monarch. Migration. Generational work. The long flight. Arrival.

The monarch butterfly's migration is one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the natural world. Four thousand kilometres each way, accomplished across four generations.

To wear the monarch is to align with that figure. That the journey worth making is often longer than a single life.

For the long distance arrivers. The ones whose path took longer than expected. Whose work crossed continents or generations. The monarch's flight is a four generation migration. A metaphor for everyone whose accomplishment was not solo, even if it looks that way.

For the migrants and their daughters. The wearers whose family stories cross borders. The piece honours the work of arrival.