Our Staff and Students at Heritage Schools Conference
12th July 2023
Today at Oxstalls campus in Gloucester, myself and two of our students Ross Brown and Kelly Burriss took part in the Heritage Schools Conference. The event was organised by Voices Gloucester, the organization that is sharing diverse stories from communities in the city and sponsoring various projects, alongside the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub. It saw Sixth Form History students from several schools in Gloucestershire attend a day of fascinating talks and workshops.
The conference began with an interesting panel discussion on ‘What is Heritage Now?’ chaired by Jo Durrant, host of the successful podcast Jo Durrant’s Beautiful Universe. It featured a number of local artists, activists and researchers discussing how various community-led initiatives can help to reveal hidden stories, and challenge negative assumptions about misrepresented communities. One example is Kelly Marie Horsley’s exhibition on Gloucester’s Romany Gypsy Community which tells forgotten stories while attempting to overturn stereotypes. The panel also included international MC and filmmaker Ryder Shafique, who discussed his work in tracing the stories of the city’s Caribbean community, and celebrating the diversity of its communities.
The panel was followed by breakout sessions that included talks on careers and opportunities in archaeology, a talk by Rupert Walters marking the 75th anniversary since the arrival of the Empire Windrush, and a discussion on the important value of oral history between Jo Durrant and historian Marsha O’Mahony. There was also a workshop by Jenna Page, Outreach Officer at the University, who examined the boundaries between history and fiction in popular culture.
The main event was a lecture by historian Tracy Borman, author of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I, which explored the relationship between mother and child. Borman discussed the various ways in which Elizabeth I honoured the memory of her mother, and sought to untarnished the legacy created by her famous demise. She argued that the relationship between the monarch and her mother was the most important in Elizabeth’s life.
The day was brought to a close in a plenary discussion, in which myself, Kelly and Ross reflected on some of the main themes from the conference. We discussed the ways in which heritage work by individuals and communities is important in bringing to light neglected voices. These can enrich our understanding of the past by focusing on the ways in which events are experienced. They can also challenge established assumptions or broader official narratives of the past. This is something that characterizes not only the work of Voices Gloucester, but some of our own projects, such as the Legacies of Slavery in Gloucester initiative. One of the best things about the day was that there were so many young people enthusiastic and curious about the study of the history. Long may that continue!
