In this lecture, taking a cue from Alfred Korzybski’s axiom, ‘The map is not the territory’, Marina will explore the interrelations between telling and dwelling in the making of home and consider the principles that establish such places of refuge and explore their potential today.

The ancient law of sanctuary granted fugitives the right to protection from the law; certain sites were sacred, and a sanctuary seeker would be safe there, able to seek asylum (from Greek, meaning not-to-be-seized/plundered). In antiquity such sites were temples or groves; in the Middle Ages, cathedrals, churches, and shrines offered shelter. No armed defence was needed, no walls, no ditches, no borders in a physical sense, no barbed wire. By common consensus the special, hallowed character of the place and the inviolability of the suppliant was recognised. Henry VIII abolished the law across his kingdom, but it had lasted over a thousand years, and vestiges remain. The practice and theory of sanctuary lives on especially in times of conflict (civil rights activists, Vietnam protestors and draft dodgers were protected by churches in the 60s); today, when millions are fleeing wars and the effects of climate change, Cities and Universities of Sanctuary have been established to support refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

The meanings of sanctuary range broadly – from the most sacred spot in a church where the high altar is placed – to an enclave such as a nature reserve (a wildlife sanctuary) or even a health spa, to a quiet safe retreat such as a library. Sanctuaries were physical sites hallowed by associations with the divine and heroic, sometimes guaranteed by a relic, by a myth or legend, or by a memory of a historic event that took place there. Stories shape relations to territory and place. The stories hallow the site and change its meaning and function: the effect is analogous to a children’s game, with a designated safe area, the ‘den’ or ‘home’. Can this form of magical thinking be reconfigured, in today’s hostile climate, to create broader, inclusive ideas about home and security? Can the underlying principles of sanctuary be retrieved and applied to the circumstances of contemporary asylum seekers? Can stories be told and retold in the new places of arrival to overcome a sense of alienation or at least confront home-sickness and exile and foster a sense of belonging?

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