Miki Ashton - Manager of The Hypatia Trust & Project Co-ordinator of The Gardener's House

This month we celebrate Miki Ashton. Many of you who’ve visited The Hypatia Trust will already be familiar with Miki - she is our beaming ray of light who welcomes everyone to our space on Chapel Street and makes sure everything at Hypatia HQ runs smoothly. Miki is of course also responsible for heading up The Gardener's House project, an incredible addition to the cultural and botanical map of Penzance, and Cornwall. We also of course cannot forget Eric, the Hypatia hound, who is pictured here with Miki. We sat down and asked Miki about her achievements, inspirations and motivations...

1. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My relationships with the special people in my life, my husband, my friends, and family. 

As a child I was so incredibly shy, if you had told my younger self that one day I would form wonderful friendships, bonds and have the confidence to be myself, and be loved by such special people, I truly would not have, and could not have, believed you. The younger little me is very proud of that achievement. 

2.  What motivates you to do what you do?

Above all I love creating spaces and places that help people to feel safe and welcomed. Recently one evening a regular visitor came into Hypatia and said she felt that coming into the space was like receiving a warm hug - that's what motivates me. 

3.  What do you owe your mother?

My mother was a complex character, she could come across as meek to outsiders, but in private she was a mix of strict, sometimes scary, strong one minute then vulnerable the next. However ultimately I think she was kind. I realised in later life, that growing up with my mum's complex personality made me understand how layered we humans can be, the different faces we reveal at different times. It taught me patience with others and to wait for the good stuff to come out. Sometimes this has been to my detriment, but mostly it's been rewarding. 

4. Which women inspire you?

 My female friends, how they move through life, how they negotiate being in the world today with grace and great humour. I am in awe of all of them, the ones that are still here with us and the ones I have very sadly lost. 

5. What are you reading? 

Listening to, actually — one of my greatest pleasures is being read to. When I was young I devoured anything by Maya Angelou, I was in awe of her brutal self honesty and envious of her extreme bravery. As I read her words it would be her distinctive voice I heard in my head, and still do at times. But mostly now I listen to stories through audiobooks and podcasts. The core of what Hypatia is all about is storytelling in whatever form that takes. I'm obsessed with anything political and with histories of people's lives.

6. What gender barriers have you had to hurdle?

I'm never sure if the hurdles I've faced are due to my gender or my race, I guess you'd call that intersectionality. I think probably my biggest barriers have mostly been of my own making and caring what other people think too much. The joy of getting older is I care a little less about what other people might think, which enables me to do more and hurdle higher!

 7. How can the world be made a better place for women? 

I guess we could stop putting humans in boxes from the day we are born. Stop telling us who should do what type of job, who can feel or show a particular emotion, who should love who, who's strong, who's weak, who can be loud, and who should be quiet. Maybe if we had a more equal foundation from the very start we wouldn't need to do so much retro-fitting to make things better for women, things might just be better for everyone. 

 8. Describe your perfect day

Warm, but not too hot, finding a quiet cove to go fishing from the rocks with my husband and Eric our dog. Then if by some miracle we actually catch anything, cooking it up on the beach and washing it down with something that has probably gone a bit warm but tastes great because we are there together. Add in some close friends and you have Nirvana. 

9. We've noticed there really aren't many (if any) statues of women around Cornwall - who would you like to see remembered?

Mmm not that bothered about statues but I would like to see more sculpture and street art. Maybe we can celebrate women by commissioning others to engage with and respond to their lives.