Ashanti Harris' An Exercise in Exorcism. Photo: Najma Abukar
Our Stories
In late 2022, Scottish-Zimbabwean artist and researcher Natasha Thembiso Ruwona programmed an event titled Our Stories Between the Myths and Memories in partnership with The Skinny. Hosted at David Livingstone Birthplace in Blantyre, Natasha brought together a wealth of creative practitioners from the Scottish African diaspora to celebrate their contributions to the creative sector.
Natasha’s aim was to let the project speak to past, present and potential futures that examine Black Scottish history, culture and identity. And why the location? Well, it placed a spotlight on the work that David Livingstone Birthplace are doing as they consider the role of museums within truthful storytelling.
Over this 4-part audio series brought to you by The Skinny in partnership with We Are Here Scotland and presented by Eilidh Akilade, you will experience some of the conversations, questions, creativity and reflections that came out of that weekend.
Episode 1
How we remember and reflect on the past
In this first episode, we explore how we remember and reflect on the past. What has this commission evoked for people? How have they navigated their past experiences and stories? And what questions do they have now?
Episode 2
Joining the disparate dots
In this, our second episode we explore the joining of disparate dots. And by disparate, that may mean displacement, disconnection from heritage and the stories of our lives but also, how to connect old lives to new, including moving from one continent to another for example.
Episode 3
In this, our penultimate episode of the series, we look at one of the reasons why this podcast came together. It’s about the stories we tell each other and ourselves. When Natasha was curating this series they said it would look at reflecting on the stories that David Livingstone Birthplace are telling, the stories artists of the African Scottish diaspora are telling, and how these can act as bridges between people, storytelling then became the overall theme.
The stories we tell each other and ourselves
Episode 4
Collectively imagining our futures
In this, our final episode of this series, I am going to look at how things will play out in the future. How we collectively imagine our futures was a big theme that rose to the surface during the weekend. Throughout, we looked at imagining otherwise through care and healing.