Your say / history
‘We need to ask uncomfortable questions about Bristol’s past’
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is working with ten UWE students to create podcasts for visitors to listen to as they follow a new trail that has been designed.
As one of the students on the project, it’s been a welcome opportunity to discuss Britain’s colonial past.
Growing up, my intake of history was limited to what was taught at school and the TV show Horrible Histories. I grew up with a Eurocentric perspective of the world where the British Empire was mentioned in passing and was a signifier of greatness, not corruption.
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The only mention of African history was that of America, with a brief mention of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.
It was only later that I discovered Britain’s own past of slavery and its links to the Caribbean. We’re taught of how Winston Churchill was the nation’s hero for leading the fight against Hitler in World War 2, yet he had his own concentration camps in South Africa. Britain conveniently hides it less favourable history.
Edward Colston was a slave trader and has a statue in the centre of the city
This is why the collaboration between UWE and the museum is so important. During the trail, accompanied by the podcast, visitors will encounter five artefacts: an Egyptian mummy, the Assyrian reliefs, the Delhi Dunbar painting, the Benin bronze head and a taxidermy rhino, along with an overall discussion of the museum itself.
It aims to directly deconstruct the rose-tinted perception the general public has of Britain, and Bristol’s, past.
The general public is indifferent to the truth of the British Empire. Bristol Museum & Art Gallery want to confront these uncomfortable truths head-on with the next generation.
This creative endeavour is an exploration. The museum has given students the space to forge our own narratives with the artifacts provided, where we can ask uncomfortable questions, but let listeners come up with their own answers.
With complex questions, there are complex answers and harder to find solutions. History is about telling the stories of the past. How can we continue when the truth remains hidden?
Yasmin Warsame is a student at UWE Bristol. The new visitor trail at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery will be unveiled this summer.
Read more: Conversations about racism in Bristol
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