The Tape Letters project is taking a closer look into how audio cassette tapes were used by migrant families to stay in touch with family and friends in South Asian countries. Led by Modus Arts, the project is focusing on migrants from Pakistan who settled in the Glasgow area from the 1960s to the 1980s.
 

Bringing together old histories and new

It was an unusual but surprisingly common practice for people to keep in touch with family and friends through sending tape-recorded messages. With our support, the project is creating collections of both original recordings and new oral histories with Pakistani-Scots.

Wajid Yaseen, from Modus Arts, said: “Discovering there were a significant number of Pakistani-heritage families beyond my own who used audio cassettes as a form of long-distance communication was incredibly exciting.

I understood the tapes to essentially be historical capsules containing the direct lived experiences of these so-called, first-wave migrants when they arrived from Pakistan to the UK in the 190s to the 1980s”.
 

A fresh understanding of Scottish heritage

The project is uncovering and preserving this vital aspect of Scottish heritage. The resulting work will bring to life stories from the parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents of today's Scottish-Pakistani families.

Discover more about the wide range of projects we support in Scotland.