Being Present and Represented

Last week I took part in a seminar at The Museum of London Docklands, exploring representation and retelling people's stories, using the exhibition Living Ancestors as a starting point. The event was free, and each speaker an innovator in his or her field. They put forward their motives, methods and ethics around working collaboratively with people to document their lives and knowledge in creative ways. We were invited to critically consider their practices, draw inspiration from their methodologies and values, and share our own.

Gabrielle Le Roux is a feminist cultural activist and artist, who combines portraits drawn from life and first person narratives in travelling exhibitions that raise awareness of social issues. After her presentation she invited us to accompany her to look at her Living Ancestors exhibition, and question her about it.

Solomon Yohannes talked about their oral history work undertaken at The Museum of Londonwith refugee communities. This impressive project has deeply resonated with me, especially in its challenge of media stereotypes about refugees, and the way in which community organisations have ownership of the project, playing an active and fundemental role. Fieldworkers were drawn from the communities and trained in oral history methods and approaches at MA level. I was also impressed by the innovatory lightness of curatorial touch , which allowed poignant and essential feelings and experiences to shine through: impermanance, longing, separateness and belonging. I came away inspired and thinking that these are the deep conversations that those of us working in the heritage and cultural sectors need to actively persue, and engage in a free and open dialogue with communities, artists and curators.