Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums awarded £17,000 for community-led research on empire & migration

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) has been awarded £17,000 to take part in a new research project at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum to explore how the themes of empire, migration and life in Britain are represented in the museum’s collections, led by a group of community representatives as part of a new pilot programme led by National Museums Scotland and the National Maritime Museum, London.

The project, called Exchange: Community-Led Collections Research has enabled Discovery Museum to work with a community steering group, made up of people from African and Caribbean diaspora community organisations from across the North East, focussing on an area of research inspired by objects in the museum.

The funds are part of a grant awarded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to National Museums Scotland with the National Maritime Museum. Funding has been distributed to galleries, libraries, archives and museums around the UK to work with South Asian, African and Caribbean diaspora communities to answer research questions identified by these community groups.  

The community group working with Discovery Museum will focus on inspirational women of colour connected to Tyneside, and Indian Indentureship. Indentureship refers to the period of servitude of labourers from India to the British colonies following the abolition of Slavery, in the 19th and early 20th century.

Kylea Little Keeper of History at TWAM said: 

“This important, and deeply personal contribution from the perspective of the steering group, is a positive step towards acknowledging the role of empire and migration to life in Britain to the North East region’s history.

“Weaving this knowledge into our understanding will enable us to present a more accurate version of history.” 

[Image L-R Dr Beverley Prevatt-Goldstein, Jonas Abladey and Salha Kaitesi, steering group members outside Discovery Museum.]

Dr Beverley Prevatt Goldstein, steering group member, equalities activist, academic, author and community facilitator said: 

“We are appreciative of this opportunity to engage with each other and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums’ staff on this project on empire and migration in order to create a legacy that will represent, engage, and educate our diverse communities in Northern England. 

“We look forward to continuing our partnership to create lasting and positive change.”

Other partner organisations include Scotland’s Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, Glasgow Life and David Livingstone Birthplace. In England, they include the Museum of the Home, National Museum of Royal Navy, and S.S. Great Britain.

Discovery Museum originated in Exhibition Park, Newcastle in 1934 as the Municipal Museum of Science and Industry, the first science museum outside of London. It was housed in the temporary pavilion that was built for the 1929 North East Coast Exhibition; this became Discovery Museum in 1993 in Blandford House.

TWAM’s object collections in Discovery Museum include items from science and industry, maritime themes like shipbuilding, social history and costume and textiles. These objects represent the industrial, working and home lives of North East people, and help to tell stories about people from a variety of communities. 

[Image: L-R Dr Beverley Prevatt-Goldstein, Kath Boodhai and Jonas Abladey, community steering group members inside Discovery Museum.]