Uncovering the Archive is an archival collaboration between iniva and MayDay Rooms (MDR).
We are offering a free series of workshops & screenings to existing youth programmes with an aim to engage young people (16-25) from marginalised communities such as Black and QTIPOC/PGM*, working class, migrant and disabled.
The intention is to introduce the archive as a resource and archiving as a mode of storytelling available to, and representative of, the identities and lives of those normally excluded from history making practices.
By working with the collections held both at iniva and MDR, the programme aims to offer young people with the tools to confidently explore, interrogate and create the stories they want to tell or wish were told through engaging activities that center creative play, conversation and making. By introducing young people to places, digital spaces and people that are made for/representative of them, we hope to empower their claim to history and uphold the integrity of what is important to them.
We recognise that archives are often spaces accessed by people with privilege ie. wealthy/higher educated/ablebodied/neurotypical, and so a core objective is to work to open up these spaces through prioritising access, inclusion and safety. This programme will be facilitated by creative practitioners from marginalised backgrounds whose practices are informed by disruptive approaches to history telling and making.
Subject to consent from participants, physical/digital copies of their creations will hold a permanent place at both MDR and Iniva archives. All originals will be kept by participants.
*Queer, trans, intersex people of colour/people of the global majority