Livi A.’s Post

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e-Curator | Social activist | Artist | Rock Queen

Happy Friday everyone! The weekend has arrived 💃 Yesterday I had the pleasure of volunteering at Anti Racist Cumbria's 2023 summit. I was delighted to hear and Arc's short animation 'The Fell we climb' has been nominated for an award at the Manchester animation Festival! Congratulations Anti Racist Cumbria, fingers crossed for the Oscars next 🤞 The Keynote speaker, David Olusogua, offered amazing insights into Black British heritage. He made an incredible synopsis of how institutionalised racism became ingrained in our society. As soon as the recording becomes available I will share the link with you all. The thing that got me thinking the most was how he felt black history should be explored and shared. During the Q&A one of the audience members was asking about how we should be teaching black history in an educational setting. She explained that she uses historical figures as a way to empower histories of the African diaspora as a way to not traumatise her students with what has happened to Black people and she was curious as to what David thought of this. Olusogua went on to say he is worried about the negative consequences that can come from teaching history in a biographical way, especially when it comes to topics that don't conform to the mainstream historical narrative. He believes that teaching too much about individuals, especially those who have been involved in controversial activities, can be harmful because it can lead to the demonization of certain groups. He advocates for a more holistic approach to teaching history, one that focuses on the experiences of all people, regardless of their race, gender, or social class. He also mentioned that it is important to be aware of the political climate when teaching history, as there are those who will try to delegitimize any attempt to teach a more inclusive and accurate history. This gave me some real food for thought because being in the museum sector, we use biographical storytelling a lot. We use objects to help tell intangibles stories and often through the collector's lense. Often, objects are collected to tell the stories of key historical figures. It made me think about our professional practices, and I am curious as to how museums could facilitate the kind of learning David described; what can museums do to help dismantle institutionalised racism in UK society? #animation #antiracist #cumbria #ARCSummit23 #Museums #decolonisation #AntiRacism

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