Lunchtime Session: Caribbean Footsteps: Archiving in Practice

A photograph of an adult standing in front of a brick wall holding a mobile phone between their ear and shoulder and looking at a large photograph of a group of adults and children sitting on a large stone. An outline of a car door can be seen behind the photograph.

Image © Bantu Archive

Join community archivist and creative producer Ella Barrett for an interactive session exploring the power of personal and community archiving.

As the lead archivist and curator at The Bantu Archive Programme, housed in SADACCA, Ella alongside Rob Cotterell oversees the community driven effort to reclaim Afro-Caribbean history through oral history interviews.

The Bantu Archive Programmes in collaboration with White Teeth, Skin Deep and Resolve Collective have curated various artistic responses from the archive's interviews, these include short films, VR installations, murals, and paintings by local artists Ashely Holmes, Grace Lee and Tomekah George. Selected quotations from the archive are on show around Caribbean Footsteps exhibition with a QR at the front to hear the sound clips.

For Caribbean Footsteps: Archiving in Practice, participants are invited to bring personal archives—photos, music, objects—and engage in discussions on how personal stories intersect with community narratives. The session will also explore how cultural organisations can more authentically represent these stories, enriching the collective memory of the past.

This session forms part of the programme of events complementing the exhibition Sheffield Stories: Caribbean Footsteps which continues at Weston Park Museum until May 2027.

Booking for the session is recommended, but we will also accept drop-ins on the day.