Who am I? Curating counter-narratives of identity and belonging at the Living Refugee Archive

By Paul V. Dudman  | ISSUE 28

Photo : Courtesy of the author

Archives traditionally represent the primary materials on which our knowledge of the past and the writing of our history is based. But do our archival collections represent and document the histories of our communities equally, and if not, how can we approach the silences within our archival heritage and bring to life those histories which may have been overlooked or left unrecorded?

This article explores the challenges and opportunities associated with ethically documenting lived experiences of migration through the lens of the Living Refugee Archive, an online archive curated by the University of East London. We will take as a case study, the recently deposited Who Am I? digital archive which documents inter-generational East African South Asian Diaspora experiences through the medium of oral history. The article will focus on the development of collaborative and participatory methodologies for supporting the curation of archival collections for inter-generational displaced communities.

The University of East London Archives (UEL) was initially established in 2002 to host the Refugee Council Archive. This Archive recorded the history of the Refugee Council, one of the largest charities in the United Kingdom (UK) focusing on supporting refugees and asylum seekers since its inception in 1951. Our work with the UEL Archives over the subsequent two decades has retained a strong focus on documenting, preserving and making accessible for research, primary source materials documenting the history of refugee and migration issues within the UK context.

There is still a general misconception of archives as being dusty, old, little used collections of decaying manuscripts of little relevance to the modern world and only accessed by the intrepid Indiana Jones-style researcher. Through our work with the Refugee Council Archive, an awareness grew that much of our refugee history was either overlooked within our collective history or worse, left unrecorded and absent from our historical record. What could be done to challenge this potential erasure and to challenge the existing hegemony of traditional narratives of our shared cultural heritage, focusing as it so often does on the histories of the great and the good?

In 2015, the Living Refugee Archive online portal was established as part of a community engagement project undertaken by the UEL Archives: an oral history project focused on documenting the lived experience of displaced people living in London. It was created as an online resource with the aim to both facilitate access to our refugee and migration themed collections, but also to act as a collaborative and participatory space to work with communities and develop an archive of counter-narratives which would help enabling a co-curated space for the recording of these histories. Through the recording of community histories, and the ability to make these histories accessible, archives have the potential to facilitate identity-building and foster a sense of belonging amongst communities. To feel that you belong, it is important to know that you are recognised as an individual and as a community. An awareness of a shared history and cultural heritage can inform and enhance communities with the knowledge that the community is valued, and their cultural heritage is recognised as contributing to a wider shared history.

Who Am I archive logo. Photo courtesy of the author

For communities who have a lived experience of migration, exile or displacement, this is very important, especially within the context of the UK Government’s ongoing “hostile environment” approach to migration and the rise of the far right, with their toxic narratives relating to refugees. Within this context, the Who Am I represents an interesting case study example of what an archive can achieve by creating a counter-history exploring the migration history of a community.

Led and curated by the theatre group Mukul and Ghetto Tigers, the Who Am I project represents an example of an oral history archive which explores ideas of identity and belonging through the creative use of oral history interviews in theatre, film screening, panel discussions, and storytelling. Ideas of identity and belonging, defined by the simple question ‘Who am I?’, are especially relevant for those interviewed for the project, reflecting on their own South Asian heritage alongside what it means to be a British Asian. Each of the interviewees was raised by second generation immigrant children whose parents left pre-partition India during colonial times and settled in other parts of the British empire including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania. The Archive challenges the impact of colonial legacies on their lived experience alongside the experiences of double migration, first to Africa and then onwards to the UK.

Who Am I asks us to consider the impact of migration on who we are as individuals, our own sense of identity and to which communities we belong. It raises issues of representation and who can ethically represent the histories of communities who have experienced trauma in a way that returns a sense of ownership, control and agency to these communities in terms of recognition and validation of their histories and ensuring their voices are heard.

The Who Am I oral history archive reflects UEL’s ongoing work focusing on the archiving of living refugee history. Continuing this archival work, co-curating archival collections documenting these communities can foster agency and a sense of belonging within these communities, knowing that their history is of value. For the archive, there continue to be important discussions to be had in relation to our processes of collecting (community) memories especially in relation to the interplay of power dynamics as to which communities and voices are present within the archive and which are under-represented, and how we can continue to ethically represent these stories in a positive and informed manner.

Paul V Dudman

Paul has been the Archivist at the University of East London (UEL) Archives for over two decades. Paul’s research interests are focused on refugee history and the role of archives in documenting and preserving the personal narratives and life histories of migration.