Diverse Stories from the South West
DEED proudly partners with other organisations to research black history and there are many organisations across the south west currently working to reclaim hidden histories and hear voices from the past that have been ignored or forgotten. We have worked alongside many organisations in Dorset, including the Museum of East Dorset, Dorset History Centre, Kushti Bok and Umoja Arts Network, with a commitment to diversifying culture.
Devon Development Education
Our sister organisation, DDE, in Devon, ran the Telling Our Stories: Finding our Roots project looking at Exeter’s multicultural past. It continues to work with Devon’s diverse communities.
The Inclusion Agency
The Inclusion Agency has run a Where are you Really From? project, uncovering stories of rural racism in the South West. Its Director, Louisa Adjoa Parker, is a leading researcher, writer and poet working across the arts, heritage and education sector.
Diversity Mel
Mel Lane is a LGBTQ+ and Diversity and Inclusion Consultant working in Dorset schools. She has many resources online and downloadable PowerPoint presentations, including those on Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria’s black goddaughter, and Princess Catherine Duleep Singh, freedom fighter and suffragette.
Kushti Bok
Kushti Bok are a Gypsy and Traveller led organisation dedicated to spreading awareness about race equality through representation, partnership and projects that create positive images of their community and build understanding and awareness across different communities.
Anjana Khatwa
Being black or brown in Dorset and the South West can have its own challenges as communities are often dispersed and isolated. Rural diversity has its own unique features and relationship with the landscape, as does rural racism. DEED works to discover and share stories of ethnically diverse people living in Dorset and share their experiences and achievements with others. Some of those stories have been gathered by Dr Anjana Khatwa, local earth scientist, engagement specialist and TV presenter. anjanakhatwa.com
Umoja Arts
Umoja Arts Network are embedded in the local African and Caribbean community across Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and Dorset and have run several projects exploring aspects of their diverse cultures including Carnival Connexions.
umojaartsnetwork.org.uk/carnival-connexions-project
Museum of East Dorset
Museum of East Dorset has been a long-term collaborator on many DEED heritage projects. Most recently we worked together with Drama Specialist, Sharon Muiruri Coyne, on the Objects and Stories project. This brought together young refugees from around the world who are now studying at Bournemouth & Poole College to explore issues of home, identity and being part of a community.
Dorset Race Equality Council
Dorset Race Equality Council provides support and advice to those experiencing racial discrimination and hate crimes. They also provide training and information on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion issues and strengthen local community groups and partnerships to make sure their voices are heard. dorsetrec.org.uk
Black History and the Holocaust
This is an extract from Louise's talk on Black History and the Holocaust given at Bournemouth and Poole’s Holocaust Memorial Day event which was held online. She was asked to research the stories of Black Germans, some of whom survived, and some of whom died, during the Holocaust. Her research raises many questions about the nature of multicultural Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century.
For further information, please contact Louise
Celebrating International Women’s Day 2023
Louise Boston-Mammah was invited to a reception by the Mayor of Bournemouth at Bournemouth Civic Centre to celebrate local women’s achievements in Bournemouth. She was interviewed while there and shared her thoughts on what change she’d like to see in the world and what advice she had for others, ahead of International Women’s Day 2023.
Black History Month 2022
As we reflect on this year’s BHM and its theme of change, DEED, and many of the organisations we work with, are trying to change people’s perceptions of the world around them. Louise’s talk at BCP Council’s BHM event on the 5th of October led by the BCP Race & Cultural Diversity Staff Network, emphasised that black history is local history and asked the audience to reimagine our relationship with the past. Whilst there, Louise received an award for her work promoting black history in Dorset.
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth also hosted DEED’s newly revamped Dorset’s Hidden Histories exhibition from 10-31 October. Visitors’ comments included “very inspiring” “fascinating” and “enlightening” with one particular comment standing out, “I’m 74. I have been here for 65 years. I did not know about this history.”
Finally, Louise was interviewed by Hope FM on the 1st of November and discussed her work at DEED and contemporary issues living in diverse Britain, and how an openness to learning is at the heart of so much of what we do.
“In the words of Queen Nina Simone, ‘There's no excuse for young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.’ We have a responsibility to the present and to the future, let’s face it together.”
– Arike Oke, BCA's Managing Director