It is clear how ethnic disparities within the labour market are linked to other disparities in policy such as housing, and influenced by national crises such as the cost of living crisis. Issues within the labour market leads to wage disparity between minoritised communities and their White counterparts.
The Telling Stories event on 22nd November 2022, was a powerful, social and introspective conversation about the art of storytelling. I know this because I was there. It asked critical questions that were extremely thought-provoking about how the UnMuseum project (as it stands today with this name) will tell stories. But it was also a general conversation for storytellers in all modes and forms, as well as an educational one.
I started to get to know Roy more in the mid to late 2010s. It was the Bristol Black Archives Partnership, where members of the - African Caribbean community in Bristol were engaged to raise awareness of the Bristol Record Office and its role as keepers of the city story, in Archives - along with other Museums and Galleries in the Bristol Culture team of the City Council.
18th April marks the World Heritage Day. The theme for 2020 “Shared Cultures, Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibility” very much resonates with our Intangible Cultural Heritage Project as it is about reflecting on our our shared cultural heritage and understanding the importance of preserving our culture, history and heritage.
The upcoming International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade on 25th March and the anniversary of the Rwanda genocide on 7th April provide an opportunity for us all to honour and remember the victims of all forms of inhumanity and genocide. It is also a time to bring awareness about victims of modern slavery and current ongoing crime against humanity.
“Those who do not see themselves reflected in national heritage are excluded from it." Stuart Hall
It has been fantastic to see the eclectic way in which black history has been celebrated throughout the city as part of Bristol Black History Month. This quote from the sociologist Stuart Hall is a reminder of the importance of including everyone’s stories as part of the national historical discourse. BSWN is determined that the Black History celebrations will continue throughout the year. Like Arike Oke, the director of Black Cultural Archives suggested, every month can be black history month, and this is certainly the sentiment here at BSWN.
I joined BSWN in June as part of the NLH funded project focused on Intangible Cultural Heritage from a heritage and education background.
Through the project BSWN intends to push the discussion around decolonisation and inclusion within the heritage sector. Asking questions such as, what is the meaning of decolonisation in the context of heritage today? How do you unpick the colonial narrative from a space like a museum or archive, spaces traditionally set up as show cases for the celebration of colonialism? How does the lack of a BAME workforce impact on collections development and audience in mainstream museums?
Over the last 6 months we have begun the work to highlight and show case the intangible cultural heritage of Black and Asian communities in Bristol, with the view to creating a digital archive. You may wonder, how can a black led organisation like BSWN lead the way in developing a truly decolonised archive? This archive will aim to be community led and community used. To this purpose, we would like your views on the Intangible Cultural Heritage that you would like to see collected, so please take the time to fill in our short survey.
Other key aspects of the project include supporting Black and Asian arts/heritage organisations with in areas of funding, signposting, curation, networks, project planning etc. If you are interested in gaining some support with a creative heritage project, please contact me at Heritage.manager@bswn.org.uk
As part of the Black History Month programme, Jennifer also wrote an article titled ‘In search of my mother’s garden’ which can be found online as part of the brochure on page 34.
The BSWN Heritage team is growing, excited to work with cultural heritage institutions and BAME-led organisations in the region! Joining our team in January 2020 is Christelle Pellecuer in her role as Cultural Heritage Manager. Christelle has background in education having work for several years in research Council and universities in programme/project management role with an international focus. She has experience of working with Cultural Heritage while working at The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for 9 years.
Christelle is the founder of Razana Afrika, who has lead a project called “African queen”, which started as a photographic storytelling of real life African queens. As Ann extension to this project she has written a short film called “Golden Goddesss” based on the African Goddess Oshun. Christelle is currently developing the “African King” project.
Christelle has a special interest in fashion and textile. She is a professionally trained makeup artist with experience of working advertising campaigns, magazine shoots, films and TV shows. Her interest in African visual culture and history has led to organise several fashion shows in the community with special focus on work from designers from Africa and the diaspora. She curated a fashion show at Spike Island focused on Kanga cloth in connection to the Zanzibar-born artist Lubaina Himid, she rated a fashion show at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery in connection to their Fabric Africa exhibition. She will be curating a fashion show at RWA on 20th February, in the exhibition space of “Africa state of Mind”. Christelle is a presenter at Imperial Voice Radio based at Fairfield House and host “Fashion Rendezvous” show.
“ I am very excited to join BSWN and work on the ICH project. I am very interested in material culture and the importance of documenting our stories for future generation. Intangible culture is not so well documented in the heritage sector and this is an area BSWN can make a difference for the Black and Asian community.”
BSWN were introduced to Zulayiha from a local heritage and history project Kuungana Kuungana at a BSWN Voluntary and Community Sector network meeting in August 2019. She approached BSWN to ask for support with a project idea which consisted of planning and organising a series of Black History events in the city. The events were to be very much community focused, with a view to invite black historians and members of the public to share knowledge in the form of a number of regular engaging weekend events.
Kuungana’s commitment to honouring and showcasing black heritage is reflected in their mission statement; “We would like to promote the history and the culture of Africa through our African eyes and intellectuals! We do not want our history to be presented by others anymore but by our African intellectuals. That’s why Kuungana will be only produced with African writers, poets, authors, intellects, scientists and so on.”
During the initial stage, we helped Kuungana assess which project needs, and asked them to produce a clear project outline which they produced swiftly and enthusiastically. The greatest barrier to their project sustainability was lack of funding. In order to support their work, we offered Kuungana the opportunity to have a number of surgeries with Sona Mahtani, founder of Beyond Just Now and BSWN community development associate. Sona supported the project in formulating a fundraising strategy which included:
setting up of Go Fund Me page which raised £741 to date
advertised their project and funding site on Ujima radio to raise local awareness of their
project and passion
and applying with the Quartet Community Foundation for a project grant
As application for grant funding required the project to hold a bank account, BSWN agreed to act as the grant holder organisation, receiving funds on their behalf in order to prevent this barrier from impacting their chances at receiving a grant. Zulayiha was happy to share that “Thanks to BSWN, we are doing so well. Thanks for your support”.
