For some readers the summer of 2021 would have been all about Eurovision, where musicians from across the continent performed in dazzling costumes, for others it would have been about the European Championships where an array of colourful kits took to the pitch for the beautiful game. For some, it was all about what is no doubt the greatest sporting competition on the face of the earth: The Olympics, but locally this summer was all about one superb project! A project that managed to transcend across the entire community, Swale Migration.
Swale Migration got underway this summer, a cross-community project that engaged hundreds through working with museums, artists, filmmakers and digital creatives. This exciting yearlong heritage project is bringing communities together to share and celebrate our family stories and rich cultural history and it’s absolutely superb to see especially when the stories are so vast and differing as they here in Sittingbourne.
Swale Migration had its own pop up gallery/museum for five days at the end of August. Number 34 on the Sittingbourne High Street became a place where you could explore 250 years of journeys, migrations, and backstories through a variety of methods from interactive VR videos to postcards. The museum was enjoyed by hundreds of visitors, a lot of whom felt comfortable to share their story, their heritage, their family ties. All of which were fascinating, varied and makes you appreciate the diversity amongst our community.
Justin, the organiser of this superb project, greeted all the visitors to the museum with a friendly smile and a snap of a Polaroid. Below are a few fine examples of what Justin had to say about his visitors:
“Tony loaned us his dad’s RAF jacket and Mark 8 flying goggles to help tell the story of the diversity of pilots who served and fought for the UK in the RAF during WWII!”
“Former postman Dale who always looks dapper, can often be found with his bike at the entrance of Roman Square in Sittingbourne where he fundraises for local good causes, even though in his 80s Dale remembers out crop picking during the war and seeing a dog fight in the skies above, bullet shells falling in the ground around him! As a fundraiser please support Dale who has raised over £300,000 for charities across Swale and Kent, Demelza House and Kent Air Ambulances to name a few good causes!”
“Dana joined us to share her journey from America to the UK and then to Swale to run C.S.I Sittingbourne, an archaeological and conservation museum based in the Forum Shopping Centre in Sittingbourne.”
“Christine Locke from Diversity House, one of our partners on this project, has been collecting and recording Migration stories for us as part of our oral history offer, including her own journey from Nigeria to the UK.”
“Artist Clair visited to share photos of her 20-year-old self, and talk us through her own migration journey to Swale. Her stunning artwork is a dress created from her memories, history and experiences. Paper Dress: by artist Clair Meyrick, Banana Paper, Ribbon, Collage, Paper Currency, 2020. Clair expressed how the dandelion clock, its hands of time turning as together, we hold time in our hands, reaching for the sky to build a better future and the red ribbons run like bloodlines to our past weighted in history.”
“Sarah shared her nursing history and her work across the UK and in our own Swale communities, including being a midwife for the travelling community.
“Sarah at the age of 23 became the youngest midwife in the country in 1984, then ended her career working with Professor Eric Jauniaux on early pregnancy diagnosis and helped set up the first early pregnancy unit in London and UK. Sarah now sits on the board of the Dolphin Barge museum in Sittingbourne and has worked with Palestinian women for self-empowerment using Yoga as a tool for self-growth, conflict resolution and women’s equality.”
“Mark from Sittingbourne shared his real-life Peaky Blinders family history of great uncle Alf White and his great, great grandmothers who had travelled from the Navajo territories in America to meet the Pearly Queen of London in the late 19th Century. Step son and project volunteer Jordan has been using Ancestry to discover the family history from crests to Castles to long lost Sheppey connections.”
“Belinda (and her son Cameron) closed her hairdressers to pay us a visit. Belinda shared her own family heritage with her grandmother in Accra and her own journey to the UK and Sittingbourne. Belinda has just expanded her services at her hairdresser’s salon to support women who are recovering from cancer, Belinda’s Touch is in West Street next to Family Homes.”
“Of course, Richard and Theresa from the HRGS (historical research group in Sittingbourne) were in attendance and as you’d expect from the community-spirited couple helped hand out leaflets and bring people into the exhibition.”
You can’t say the word ‘history’ audibly in Sittingbourne without Richard and Theresa appearing and offering to help.