‘Decolonial Cleaning’ is a sound, art and ecology project by interdisciplinary artist Maya Chowdhry, inviting Stockport communities to reimagine ecological restoration through a decolonial lens. Taking the former Millgate Power Station site as both subject and metaphor, the project explores hidden histories, environmental injustice, and the relationships between humans and more-than-human life.

‘Decolonial Cleaning’ builds on the work of Françoise Vergès, who uses the term to critically examine how traditional clean-up schemes are shaped by capitalist, colonial, and patriarchal systems, often placing privilege and profit over community and environmental wellbeing. ‘Decolonial Cleaning’ will take Vergès’ concept further: rather than “cleaning up” landscapes to erase their histories, the project instead asks how we might care, repair, and listen to the land with respect for its complex pasts.

‘Decolonial Cleaning’ invites community groups and residents in Stockport to build new skills in sound art, while deepening their ecological awareness through online and in-person workshops, including soundwalking, field recording, and biodata sonification – turning the biosignals of living organisms into sound. Together, they will co-create a site-specific interactive sound installation, drawing on the area’s industrial legacy, and inviting audiences to ‘activate’ the soundscapes through touch.