To celebrate Black History Month's theme of ‘Reclaiming Narrative’, THG looks forward to sharing a new exhibition celebrating Devon’s multicultural history.

Telling our Stories, Finding Our Roots is an opportunity to showcase and share the wealth of stories that make up Honiton’s multicultural heritage through art, audio and visual displays. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Telling Our Stories project continues on from similar projects in Exeter, Tiverton, Bideford and Okehampton. Further funding from the Creative East Devon Fund has enabled the commission of British-Mexican artist Ione Maria Rojas, to create an artist commission and engage children from a local primary school to contribute artwork to the exhibition.

Volunteers collected oral history stories from people in Honiton from ethnically diverse backgrounds and researched local archives to uncover multicultural stories.  The project is much needed, especially at this time, when not only are the stories of ethnically diverse people at risk of being lost because they are not recorded but also because negative portrayals of asylum seekers and refugees have created a more challenging environment for those from multicultural backgrounds.

 Although Black History month is important, it is not limited to one month. It is important that these forgotten and overlooked histories are shared and integrated into our understanding of history, therefore THG and ACED Network strive to embed equality, diversity and inclusion throughout their programmes.

Telling our Stories, Finding Our Roots (23 November - 21 December)