Changing Perspectives

by The Journal

Film, photographs and a book combine to produce the region’s first multi-media archive of ethnic heritage. Barbara Hodgson hears more

IT’S taken many months of discussion, soul-searching and sheer hard work, but now a project exploring the roots of African and Caribbean people in the region is reaping rich rewards.

It’s largely thanks to Peter Adegbie who initiated the project – Changing Perspectives – which presents a series of individual stories through art.

Nigeria-born Peter, who lives with his wife and two children in Gosforth, Newcastle, worked alongside the North East England African Community Association to encourage fellow Africans – of all ages and faiths – now living in the region to explore their backgrounds through creative writing, photography and film-making.

The result is a fascinating documentation of the lives of 25 families: through film to screen at Star & Shadow Cinema, in Newcastle, and an exhibition next door at The Art Works Galleries – where there is to be an official launch tomorrow; plus a book, Streams of the Soul; and a website.

Peter is delighted at the project’s success.

“The beautiful thing about it is that it is inter-faith: Muslims, Christians, everybody, worked together,” he said.

“One family told me: ‘nobody has ever asked us our story’.

“What we’ve done is to look from participants from across Africa, not just one part, and the Caribbean.

“The North East England African Community Association has been in this region for 10 years and was extremely useful in helping me access the wider community.”

And the community proved eager to take part, with eight-year-old schoolchildren to 80-year-old great- grandparents learning new skills and meeting new people in workshops.

They included studying archive documents at Durham University relating to the slave trade, and their Streams of the Soul anthology of poetry and prose includes children’s imagined accounts of slavery.

Others spoke of their outlook on life here; Peter, also a poet, included work of his own and older generations recalled memories of arriving on Tyneside and settling into their new home.

Peter hopes more stories will feature in a second book next year.

“We collected their oral histories, probing their minds about home, their parents’ country, coming here, what life has been like.

“There are some amazing stories,” he adds, citing one about a woman’s memory of running away from home – covering several miles – on hearing she was to be forced into marriage instead of being allowed to finish school.

He says: “We took the participants through training in creative writing and photography and also, for posterity, we’re doing a short documentary that explains the entire process, from the initial idea to the outcome.”

There’s a general disappointment it’s now all over, so Peter is keen they maintain their new friendships, with one idea being for a ‘culture kitchen’ where they can meet to share recipes and stories of their homeland.

Clearly worthwhile, “we’ve been collecting a multi- media archive, it’s never been done”, he says – it was, nevertheless, a huge, undertaking, especially in light of Peter’s family commitments and the fact he’s also in the third year of his creative writing PhD at Newcastle University.

Even so, he has further plans. He’d like to take the exhibition around the region – it is already set to move to the Discovery Museum next spring – and, hopefully, the UK. He’s also looking for sponsors to help him extend the project to include those who lived here for a time before returning to their home country.

Changing Perspectives runs until November 27 at The Art Works, where there is an official launch tomorrow. The film shows at Star and Shadow Cinema on November 20. See www.changing-perspectives.co.uk

Footage showing families taking part in the project can be seen online at www.journallive.co.uk