The Distance We Have Travelled...
The real experience of Refugees and Asylum Seekers:
Being forced to leave your own country and struggle to build a life in a new country, is the common experience of all refugees. Media reporting about refugees and asylum seekers often contains blatantly racist images and ideas, portraying desperate people as scroungers and crooks. It is very important that we counter this ‘daily drip of racism’ by telling the true stories of people who have sought safety in the UK and have the right to expect decent treatment.
About the projects:
The Distance We Have Travelled was created by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust in April 2005. The project aimed to record life-stories from members of three refugee communities in the Greater Manchester area. Members of the Somali, Kurdish and Afghani communities were interviewed about their experiences of having to flee their own troubled countries and making a new life here in Britain.
The project was led by Trust Education Outreach Coordinator, Jackie Ould. The interviews were collected by outreach worker Anisa Dani and sessional workers, Liban Ahmed, Nadia Akram, Adel Aziz and Sulayman Yunes. On a linked arts project, local artist
The project also included the making of two videos featuring interviews and film of refugee communities building new lives in Manchester. The film was created by artist Humberto Velez.
The Refugee Interviews:
The interviews have been anonymised and added to Local History Collection in the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre
In addition the anonumised interviews were used as part of a teaching resource, also entitled The Distance We Have Travelled. To order this pack click here
The Exhibition:
The exhibition was designed and built by the artist Kevin Dalton-Johnson; and Kevin also ran the workshops wherein the ceramic artwork was produced.
It was funded by the Arts Council and consisted of 4 wings, mounted on a lino world map. One wing focused on the wider Refugee experience in Britain. The other three wings focused on experiences of refugees from Somalia, Kurdistan, and Afghanistan. The boards featured images of those communities in their home countries and their new home, Manchester, and quotes from those interviewed as part of a HLF funded oral history project. In addition there were shelves that held ceramic artwork produced by young refugees as part of associated workshops
The exhibition was seen by over 8,000 people between June 2006 and January 2008 at the following venues: Gorton Monastery, Longsight Library, St Luke's Church, Victoria Baths, Salford University, Urbis, St Anthony’s Centre, Trafford Park, Trafford Local Studies, Sale Waterside, The Greenheys Adult Education Centre, Manchester Town Hall, Oldham 6th Form College and the Zion Centre.
The exhibition had to be taken apart in January 2008. It had become worn and difficult to put together after 18 months of touring. The old panels were donated to community and refugee groups.
4 posters designed to support the exhibition can still be loaned from the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre
We are grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for financial support for the interview project, and the Arts Council England (Northwest) for funding for the arts project.
