Can you describe what you do?

My role is to be a link between the Museum of Wales and black communities across the country. I am working on increasing the number of black history-related objects and oral histories in the collection. I’m also revisiting the museum’s existing collection, and exploring opportunities to reinterpret objects through a decolonising lens.

Why do you think the role is important?

I believe it’s so important that we recognise the contribution and presence of diverse communities here in Wales. We need to address the historical amnesia that exists, and remind all communities, especially our young generations and future generations, that the black community has contributed to the heritage, culture, and economy of the Welsh nation .

We need to inspire and instil a sense of pride and community among young black people, and to help confront the problem of racial discrimination through greater understanding.

We can do this by making our black past accessible and meaningful to broader communities.

Do I think other institutions should have similar roles? Absolutely 100%. I also feel that it should be the responsibility of every curator to embrace diversity in their collection. That’s when we will see true representation.

How are you hoping to increase black history stories in the collection?

By collecting and recording oral histories from black communities across Wales, to make sure that everyone has their voice heard. I’m relying on my community intelligence, rather than going to community gatekeepers or the usual suspects.

Every voice matters.

This is why it’s so important to collaborate and develop true partnerships with grassroots communities and organisations.

How do you think the role of curator is or should be changing?

The role of a curator is definitely changing. In the past, as shown by Dr Bernadette Lynch’s report for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Whose Cake is it Anyway? communities were passive beneficiaries, rather active partners in the way museums collect objects and stories.

When we involve and work with diverse communities to interpret the collection through a decolonising lens, that’s when we will see the role of curators and institution truly changing.

Twenty years after Stuart Hall's article Unsettling the Heritage, this resonates with me:  "those who cannot see themselves reflected in the idea of the nation cannot properly ‘belong’”.

Do you think we still need Black History Month?

I truly feel that black history should be celebrated throughout the year, rather than having one month dedicated to black history, and then have 11 months of tense silences. Racism is real and never stops, so rather than having one month celebrating and creating awareness of black history, this should be done every day, every month, and every year.

Can you tell us about a particular object at the museum that really speaks to you?

I have only been in post for as few months, but I absolutely love every single story and object that I have collected.

What’s meaningful to me is seeing communities feel empowered and engaged, and for them to see their shared culture/identity represented at the museum. That’s one of the main reasons why I love my job as curator.

How should people share their stories with you?

Communities can contact me by via email: Nasir.Adam@museumwales.ac.uk and tel: 029 2057 3426.

I wanted my Dad’s funeral programme to be both functional and something that told his story for our family, especially his grand and great-grandchildren.  

I knew his dear friend ‘Sunny Man’ my entire life. But it wasn’t until seeing Sunny’s funeral programme that I knew his real name was Daniel Warrenton Bloomfield, and saw photographs of him as a young man.

Funeral programme booklets are traditional among Jamaican and other Caribbean communities - and often very elaborate. They typically include a eulogy to be read aloud at the funeral and photographs capturing life milestones such as arrival in the UK, weddings, and other proud moments.

It hit me that if one programme tells a singular life story, a collection could tell the story of a generation.

With my friend and colleague, Eulogy Project Evaluator, Dawn Cameron, we worked closely with the Jamaica Society Leeds to identify partners and bid for funding on their behalf. This resulted in The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s enthusiastic support as well as Leeds Inspired and Windrush 2019 funding. 

How we engaged the local community

Partnerships have also been key to the project’s success, from working with BBC Yorkshire and Radio Leeds, East Street Arts, Leeds Libraries and Museums & Galleries and West Yorkshire Archive Service to international support from the Jamaican High Commission (UK) and the National Library of Jamaica.

Families needed to trust us in handing over their precious mementoes. So as well as engaging a team of experts, our volunteers received training from Eulogy partners Leeds Museums & Galleries in handling archival materials.#

Our own track record and credibility, the Society’s endorsement and stamp of approval were also key to engaging the local community. 

Using traditional communications – letters, briefings and phone calls – worked well for reaching the Society’s extensive network of older members and contacts. It also complemented both targeted and city-wide digital and print marketing. 

A series of events in memoir writing, Jamaican funeral traditions and heritage for children have been a great way to get people on board and to boost interest in family histories. We also held collection events, which resulted in the keepsakes and ephemera for 76 Jamaicans being collected.

Then the work began to curate it all! 

Not just a 'community project'

Throughout the project I wanted to make sure this generation that included my parents was represented with dignity. It felt important that this wasn’t seen as just a ‘community project’.

Designer Lee Goater delivered my vision and hopes for Eulogy with sensitivity and to the highest quality; Aimee Grundell produced exhibition panels for planned future touring; Paul Floyd Blake’s contemporary portraits of the descendants of first-generation Jamaicans are stunning and Zoe East’s editing has resulted in a short film, hugely popular with visitors to the exhibition. 
 
From the onset I was clear that Eulogy, particularly the exhibition, should go beyond media narratives and visuals of the Windrush Generation as victims.

An incredible public response

I was confident that Eulogy would appeal to visitors on different levels - from lovers of great photography to history enthusiasts, those with family connections to international visitors.

So trailblazers, community stalwarts and RAF servicemen sit alongside stories of triumph and heartbreak, and imagery of ordinary young couples in love, families, people making a living. 

Visitor response to the exhibition has been incredible. Leeds Libraries has said it is the most popular exhibition at Room 700 yet and they have extended it until 22 September. For me, that’s because these are human stories that everyone can relate to.   

I’m looking forward to reflecting those stories online and the Eulogy book to be published in November which will feature the exhibition’s beautiful photography. 

Never forget

Of all the projects I’ve worked on, Eulogy brings the biggest sense of responsibility. I have felt a duty to do justice to the lives and memories of my parents’ generation.

It is a privilege to be a part of helping to ensure that the contributions of Jamaicans to the Leeds we enjoy today will never be forgotten.

You can find out more about the exhibition on the Visit Leeds website.

Telling the story of your community

Do you want to tell the story of your local community? Visit our funding pages for more information.

I was seven years old and on a school trip the first time I entered a museum, and it changed my life forever.

Standing and screaming in a room that actually shook to recreate the different levels of Richter scale during an earthquake was an intellectual watershed moment for me.

Up until then, my life as a British Asian kid revolved around toys, school and casual racism from classmates. The “Earthquake Room” in a museum in London changed all of that. This unique experience viscerally taught me science and learning could be fun.

Passing on a love of learning

This summer my own twins turned seven and I decided to take them on their first trip to the Science Museum.

We left after many hours of joy and it felt obvious to me that in our tech-driven, experience-centred, Instagrammable culture, institutions like the Science Museum are more alive than ever. 

But that day I sent a tweet about my experience which seems to have resonated with a lot of people.

Off to the Science Museum with my twins today. All of us VERY excited.

My generation didn't get to do this stuff when we were young because

a) Our migrant parents didn't know what the science museum was.
b) They worked till they dropped & didn't have time.

My kids are lucky.x

— Bobby Friction (@bobbyfriction) July 26, 2019

Cold eyes in the museum

My mum and dad, immigrants from India, would never have taken me to a museum. It's not that they were anti-intellectual. They were actually the opposite: showering me with books and inducements to study. They had a keen interest in my educational life as a kid.

They just didn’t get what museums had to offer. Museums seemed like fussy, musty places, inextricably tied to the establishment for them I think… The kind of places where people would go silent when you walked in and looked at you with cold eyes.

Believe me; growing up in the 70s and 80s here in the UK as people of colour those cold eyes were a daily experience. 

Feeling out of place

There was also the added pressure of money in an immigrant household. Whether you had money or not, in a home like I grew up in all kinds of frivolous expenditure wasn't tolerated. That's true I think across the planet within immigrant communities. Museums always seemed like upper-class spaces to us growing up, with (true or not) upper-class price tags to match. I wouldn't be surprised if that's still the case for newer migrant families.

It was going to be up to me to explore these places on my own.

In my early teens, I spent a lot of time hanging around libraries and soaking up all the information I could. As I grew older, I decided I was to become a rock'n'roll intellectual, and I threw myself into all of London's museums. I did the old establishment museums, the classic-looking ones, and the modern ones with architecture to match.

At first I pretended to enjoy the experience, but after a while I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.

I found many of them boring and most of the time I just felt out of place and uncomfortable. Imagine that: trying to learn and expand your mind, but feeling you shouldn’t be there in the first place. 

Making everyone feel welcome

I understand that many of those museums are now very different places from even 20 years ago. But more change is still needed, particularly in how the staff reflect who their visitors are, and who those visitors could become. 

The glorious thing about the Science Museum is that my twins were talked to by what seemed like learned teacher types with a zest for what the kids wanted. They were equally good at speaking to me about interstellar space, thus keeping all of us happy.

It really felt like an intellectual British public square that we all owned and had a right to occupy. The staff responded to us as worthy British citizens who also had an ownership of the institution. 

I will leave the arguments about content and curation to people more in the know than me, but I think that that feeling of everyone being welcome in our country’s museums is vital. It should be a welcome that is full on, warm, educational, cross-generational and open to every class and colour.

The Earthquake Room opened up a lifetime of learning for me, and I want my children – all children, of all nationalities and class backgrounds – to have that kind of experience. 

How we are helping to open up heritage

At The National Lottery Heritage Fund, ensuring that a wider range of people will be involved in heritage is a mandatory outcome for any project we fund.

Get inspired with some of the projects we have funded so far.