Migration Identity History

To what extent through history has British identity been influenced by migration?
An event with speakers, discussion, Q&A and live music

5.30pm – 7pm, Weds 16th October
at Manchester Histories Hub, lower ground floor, Manchester Central Library, St Peter’s Square, Manchester M2 5PD

Image of speakers, UK map, musician and people who migrated in history, for the Migration Identity History event
Image includes some of the speakers at the event (upper section), and blurred behind the musician are some of the individuals who have migrated to the North West (lower section – photo credits at end of this article*)

Speakers from the Migration Stories North West project will explore the nature of migrant identity throughout British history and the intersections between the history of migration and issues at the forefront of Black history. Plus we’ll have live music by Jim Parris performing a short set of pieces which resonate with the themes.

There will be an opportunity for open discussion about various perspectives, including questions such as:

– Why are stories of individuals so important for retelling and understanding history?
– What do we gain by understanding our history through the lens of migration?
– How did colonialism affect migration, and what does it mean for Black history?
– Are the migratory roots of historical figures often overlooked or kept hidden?
– What do the stories from the project tell us about migration and human rights?

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Zita Holbourne, Richard Black on climate migration panel discussion

Video of panel presentations from ‘Linking Climate Change with Migration’ public event 7th March 2016 at Kings College, which began with a screening of the film ‘Crossing Footprints’ by Kooj Chuhan.  The climate migration panel also included Andrew Baldwin and Alex Randall.  The video is approx 40 mins long:

There’s a great twitter feed from Platform of the discussion if you haven’t time to watch this but want a flavour of the points being made – see bottom of this post.

About the event and the climate migration panel:

On Mon 7th March 2016 a leading climate migration panel explored the connection between climate change and migration and the underlying issues such as whether and how migration should be made more visible across public and policy agendas on climate change. This followed a screening of Crossing Footprints, the film by Kooj Chuhan / Metaceptive projects + media, which shows how recent research linking climate change with migration has strengthened our understanding of this enormously, and how artists have begun to articulate this in human terms.

The event was hugely over-subscribed with a waiting list of 35 people, though there were spare seats on the day itself which suggests we should release quite a few more tickets than the venue capacity in future or possibly charge a small amount to ensure attendance.  Thanks to all who came, the speakers, the chair, and Fernando Mitjans for filming it.

The ‘Crossing Footprints’ film will be available to watch online soon, once it has been fully signed off after final proofing.

Full details of this event which was hosted by Kings College London are available to read  at http://crossingfootprints.com/linking-climate-change-with-migration/ .

Crossing Footprints film and climate migration panel 7th March 2016 at Kings CollegeThe climate migration panel discussion included speakers:

Richard Black, leading scholar at SOAS on migration in the context of climate change
Zita Holbourne, community, union and human rights activist, writer, artist and curator; co-founder of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts
Andrew Baldwin, chair of international Climate Change and Migration research network based at Durham University
Alex Randall, UK Climate Change and Migration Coalition
Kooj Chuhan, artist, filmmaker and curator of the ‘Footprint Modulation’ exhibition exploring climate migration and justice

+ Public launch and screening of the film ‘Crossing Footprints: Human Migration and the Environment’ by Kooj Chuhan / Metaceptive Media, about both the Human Migration and The Environment Conference and the Footprint Modulation art exhibition www.metaceptive.net/footprint-modulation

Chaired by Dr Helen Adams, researcher on human interactions with environmental change at Kings College Continue reading