At our 3 April Meeting at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, our Honiton team was delighted to welcome four new volunteers to Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots, bringing a broad-reaching set of skills and interests to the project – including languages, archeology, genealogy and organising cultural events.
After getting acquainted and a quick project update, the team discussed themes of discrimination, prejudice and the different things that make us feel rooted, or welcome, in a place – sharing experiences and thoughts on how these issues run through our research and the stories the project is unearthing.
We also considered the potential impact of the project, both on Honiton and the wider Devon community. Jess was pleased to announce that Radio Devon is keen to broadcast a series of slots about Telling Our Stories, interviewing volunteers and covering multicultural stories from the town as they emerge.
The Stories Keep on Coming
With Archive Training and Oral History Training under their belt, our volunteers continue to discover more and more story leads and, along the way, are meeting local residents from diverse backgrounds with personal stories to tell. From strong links between Honiton and Ireland, to Polish settlers post World War II, to Italian umbrella makers, Roman hoards, Romany gravestones and Armenian businessmen (to name but a few) the list of potential stories keeps on growing.
If you are from Honiton or Ilfracombe and have a story that links you to either towns’ multicultural past or present, we would love to hear from you. For links to Honiton contact Jess Huffman jesstosfor@gmail.com For links to Ilfracombe contact Abi Obene abitosfor@gmail.com
To keep up to date with project stories, news, events and opportunities visit our Telling Our Stories Project website or our FaceBook Group TellingOurStoriesDevon