EDITORIAL
Dear Readers,
Welcome back to the Black & Asian Heritage Mix Newsletter. This March/April issue includes a wider selection of articles about the museum, library, archives and arts sector. As you will see, this issue also includes two free books and events relating, predictably, to the decolonial movement.
As you may have noticed, Black Europe Resources is operating a reduced service in order to look for funders and sponsors to develop further the website and long-term sustainability of this blog. If you can help with funding, please drop me an e-mail, thank you.
Happy Reading!
Thushari
Thushari Perera
BLACK EUROPE RESOURCES
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ARCHIVES & LIBRARIES
Reggae Archive Launched at Jamaican High Commission
No Bass Like Home
(Brent 2020, 13 February 2020)
Read the article here
ARTS
Arts Council England diversity report reveals “disappointing picture”
(Museums + Heritage Advisor, 26 February 2020)
Read the article here
Download the Report “Equality, Diversity and the Creative Case: A Data Report, 2018-19” here
Resonance residencies for BAME artists return to Opera North for 2020
(Opera North, 28 February 2020)
Read the article here
GREEN / ENVIRONMENT
Thwarting the illegal wildlife trade
By Patrick Hall
(Ecologist, 2 March 2020)
Read the article here
MUSEUMS, MEMORY STUDIES & SITES
India wins appeal to keep Ambedkar memorial open in UK
(Eastern Eye, 13 March 2020)
Read the article here
Related BBC article here
UCL announces action to acknowledge and address historical links with eugenics
(UCL, 28 February 2020)
Read the UCL Press Release here (links to Report, Podcast etc.)
Blue Plaque
A one-way passage from India: Hackney Museum explores fate of colonial ayahs
Indian women were often employed to care for British children, but some were abandoned on reaching UK
By Esther Addley
(The Guardian, 1st March 2020)
Read the article here
Restitution/Repatriation
Rumors Swirl That Greece’s Demand for the Parthenon Marbles Could Gain Traction in the Brexit Trade Battle
Alarm bells ring in London as the restitution of looted cultural property is added to the agenda ahead of trade talks.
By Kate Brown
(Artnet News, 19 February 2020)
Read the article here
India asks Oxford museum to return ‘stolen’ bronze statue
Ashmolean receives request for restitution of 15th-century idol of Saint Tirumankai Alvar
By David Batty
(Artnet News, 21 February 2020)
Read the article here
Maasai tribal leaders at Pitt Rivers Museum for Living Cultures project
By Andrew Ffrench
(Oxford Mail, 11 February 2020)
Read the article here
Slavery
The Met’s Newly Reopened British Galleries Tell a Much More Honest Story About Wealth, Class, and Empire—and Their Dark Side
A renovation costing roughly $22 million has transformed the museum’s journey through the British decorative arts.
By Tess Thackara
(Art Net News, 26 February 2020)
Read the article here
MUSIC
Cornershop’s Tjinder Singh: ‘My dad said, ‘They’ll not always want you here’. That stuck’
By Jude Rogers
(The Guardian, 1 March 2020)
Read the article here
FILMS, STAGE & THEATRE
French Film Awards Held Amid Calls for More Diversity
#BlackCésars
By Lisa Bryant
(Voice of America, 29 February 2020)
Read the article here
Related article in French here
BOOKS
Will Asian and African sci-fi take over our idea of the future?
After decades of science fiction being dominated by Western thought, the rest of the world has begun to write back
By Amar Diwakar
(The National, 1 March 2020)
Read the article here
FREE BOOK
Memory, Migration and (De)Colonisation in the Caribbean and Beyond
Edited by Jack Webb, Rod Westmaas, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, and William Tantam
(ILAS, 18 February 2020, 250 pp)
Download from ILAS here
FREE BOOK
Critical Perspectives on Cultural Memory and Heritage
Construction, Transformation and Destruction
Edited by Veysel Apaydin
(UCL, 18 February 2020, 335pp)
Download from UCL Press here
OPEN CONSULTATION
Taking Part Survey Review
(Published 26 February 2020)
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Find out more here
EVENTS
30 March 2020
Introducing Decolonial Subversions: A Newly Established Open Access, Multilingual, Peer-Reviewed Publishing Platform by Decolonial Subversions
Decolonial Subversions is a newly established open access, multilingual, peer-reviewed publishing platform committed to the decentring of western epistemology in the humanities and social sciences. It seeks to grant more visibility to scholars from the Global South by subverting barriers and norms that govern mainstream Anglophone knowledge production and publishing. You can read more about our motivations here: https://independent.academia.edu/DecolonialSubversions
We are comprised of an international team of collaborators and like-minded researchers, practitioners and professionals from India, Ethiopia, Senegal, Namibia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Hungary, Greece, Moldova, Italy and the UK. Our team and partners include academics, practitioners, activists, designers, photographers, web-development specialists, linguists and translators, all of whom appear on the website of the platform as integral members and stakeholders of this initiative.
The aim of the launch is to formally introduce the initiative to the SOAS community and the public and to present for the first time the online publishing platform and the first round of contributions. The Decolonial Subversions team will first outline the platform’s innovative approach in terms of citation politics, peer review and language use. The panel will then explore broader questions around the role of multilingual knowledge in decolonising knowledge production, linking the conversation to broader issues of language learning and teaching at SOAS.
The event will be facilitated by the founding editors, Dr Romina Istratii and Monika Hirmer, who are both currently at SOAS. It will include a panel conversation with SOAS academics and students and some of the platform’s international partners.
Find out more here
4 April 2020
Theft, Repatriation and Warzone Archaeology
In recent years, conversations surrounding the ownership of archaeological artefacts and the conservation of at-risk archaeological sites have taken on greater urgency. Alongside the ancient city of Palmyra, there are currently 20,000 archaeological sites listed as being at severe risk in the Middle East and North Africa. Meanwhile, discussions about the repatriation of museum objects are gaining momentum and there’s also a growing public understanding of the realities of historic colonial looting of objects such as the Benin Bronzes. This wide-ranging panel session explores the history of these ancient sites and objects, the issues surrounding endangered archaeology and the growing movement towards the repatriation of plundered artefacts. Expert panellists include: Professor Kehinde Andrews, Paddy Docherty, Dr Zena Kamash and Dr Hossam Mahdy.
Find out more here
5-9 May 2020
Kali Theatre
A festival of plays exploring, challenging and reimagining the concept of HOME. 5 cutting-edge new plays explore what it means to call Britain ‘home’ in 2020 from the unique perspective of female writers with a South Asian background.
Find out more here
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