The story so far

I PACKED THIS MYSELF is a project working with migrant workers and local communities in Cornwall, which started in 2006. The aim: to break down prejudice and increase understanding



Tuesday 23 February 2010

Swansea seminar on migration

Speaking at a seminar on migration, hosted by Heaven Crawley, professor of Migration at the University. I met Heaven six years ago in St James's Church, Piccadilly, when she spoke at a debate we held during Refugee Week around Pero Mandic's paintings, Crimson Harvest

 

Monday 22 February 2010

Installing the exhibition and long drive to Swansea

An early start at Penair School, Truro, where we install the exhibition. A new arrival is a very powerful Relic Box by Patrick Coleman. It's a 3D scrapbook in his late father's toolbox, a scrapbook of mementos and ephemera from his life. It is very powerful and at the same time very delicate - protected here by a perspex box created by Alex White, University College Falmouth.




























Tanya Davies and Carmel Henry - the Citizenship team at Penair who have really thrown themselves behind the project. 

 And finally, a long drive north and west  - to Swansea, where am speaking at a seminar on migration tomorrow.


Thursday 18 February 2010

The pickers arrive - a new pastoral


Driving home on the Helston road, pass the same field, where the daffodils don't seem to have come along much. But a bus has arrived, bringing workers. The pickers are at work nearby. A 21st century pastoral landscape.

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Creating new map boxes at Truro Library

A very gentle day after the meetings and discussions of last week... the opening of the newly refurbished Truro Library, Truro, Cornwall, and Ewa and I run a drop-in workshop in the Children's Library: I Packed This Myself: What's In A Suitcase? The space is large and airy: the children love making map boxes. And Ewa has made several plates of Polish cheesecake, which she hands around.

The map boxes, designed by the tireless David Cross. They are inspired by four suitcases, with maps of different stages of a journey, which have been created by illustrator Glyn Goodwin.  People can drawn their own maps, reflecting metaphorical journeys they have made, and then cut them up and make them into suitcases.  They can take them home and keep things in them. On the base of each box/suitcase is a key fact about migrant workers and migration. Abbie, aged five, is in the library with her mother and three-year-old brother, Jack, who eats a lot of cheesecake.  Abbie draws things that remind her of home in her suitcase.
 Visitors are very interested in the cheesecake and ask Ewa for the recipe. However she is busy with her own case
She does promise the recipe to one keen visitor, Mrs Vee Stott, who comes back several times for more (we will put the recipe in the post). It is interesting to find that the vocabulary for cooking is quite difficult. It's easy enough to come up with a list of ingredients - but expressions involving actions like 'separating the eggs', 'folding in', 'beating' ... are trickier.
Mrs Stott talks about English cake traditions, some of which are new to me. She tells Ewa about 'cut and come again cakes' - these are fruit cakes, intended to last for some time.
And the expression 'I'm going to straighten that up', which she thinks comes from Yorkshire. Her late husband used to say .e.g 'I'm going to straighten up that bread and butter pudding'. i.e. finish it off.
Later, Ewa and I go to the Cathedral next door for a cup of tea and our usual review meeting. Ewa sees a woman priest for the first time.

Monday 15 February 2010

A Relic Box and a swift meeting with Patrick Coleman in Haringay

A very swift meeting with artist Patrick Coleman in Haringay, as he hands over A Relic Box, a 3D scrapbook he has created in a toolbox, which belonged to his father who arrived in this country from Ireland in the early 1950s. It is going to join the exhibition, to be installed at Penair School, Truro, next week. Am so pleased that it will be part of the show - it is an incredibly powerful piece.
A swift handover because parking on his street in Haringay is impossible. So much traffic and to-ing and fro-ing. 

Sunday 14 February 2010

A review of the week....

A busy week but time this morning to reflect and sharpen the real focus of the project - the impact of migration. Hazel Blears, launching the Migration Impacts Fund in March last year:
"Migration brings significant benefits for this country. But it is a complex area never far from heated public debate. That is why we need an honest discussion about it, that acknowledges the local pressures which migration can create in our communities and on our public services."

We've found that it certainly excites heated public debate. Community hysteria in Pool last autumn, for example. I hesitate to put a link to this repellent column written at the time - but I suppose people could write to the Editor and ask why it was ever published.
We've also found
 - we need to refer constantly to the definition of migrant worker reached after consultation with Inclusion Cornwall i.e. someone who has come from overseas to work in this country, for economic reasons, and has been here for less than five years.
 - it also important to calibrate our workshops, according to whether there are migrant worker members of staff and the children of migrant workers in schools where we are working
-  crucial, too, is the presentation of the work done by migrants in this country. Manual labour is vital to keep the economy ticking.  Any intimation that this work is of any less 'value' than professional work needs to be avoided at all costs. A blog reader wrote to me about this, stressing that the value of manual labour should be emphasised at all times - and reactions against it avoided.
She is angered by "the attitude that 'Those that do that kind of work just aren't as good as me.'... 'I don't need to get my hands dirty.'... 'These people have nothing to do with me.'... 'I  have nothing in common with them.'... 'These people don't count'."
"I worked as a migrant labourer for four years. As an American in America.  And the words I remember: 'There's nothing I hate worse than an apple picker that can read' . This is not a migrant issue - it's a human issue. It's acknowledging and respecting every human's existence and contribution to this amazing Life on Earth."
Particularly successful this week was Ewa's bag, with her selection of possessions brought to remind her of home. Ewa in fact has been an inspiration - she has embraced the project passionately. She clearly has a campaigning spirit. Her father was a Solidarity activist. One of her earliest memories is of him returning home with his coat drenched with tear gas, and the whole family crying.

Saturday 13 February 2010

A reading list on journeys

Catching up with emails after a busy week, up and down to Cornwall - have a chance to read a brilliant  reading list on journeys compiled by Maureen Twose,  Reader Development & Outreach Officer at Cornwall Libraries. Maureen has worked with us on the project from the start and featured in our film Short Stories from the Edge, filmed at the Eden Project a couple of years ago.  The books are all available from Cornwall libraries. We'll add the list to our Education Pack and circulate it when we deliver workshops in schools...

I PACKED THIS MYSELF

Journeys ~ ten captivating books

Alone on a wide, wide sea by Michael Morpurgo

      The story of Arthur Hobhouse orphaned during World War II and sent to Australia. 60 years later his daughter sets sail single-handed to find Arthur’s long lost sister in England. Can family love stretch across time and the vastness of the oceans? Will the threads of Arthur’s life finally come together? Published 2006 ~ Suitable for younger readers.

The Children by Edith Wharton

      Originally published in 1928, this major American novel tells the story of Martin Boyne, a bachelor in his forties. On a cruise ship between Algiers and Venice, he befriends a band of unruly, precocious children, kept together as a ‘family’ by the eldest, Judith. Mark is travelling to meet the recently widowed woman he has always loved but he is distracted. He scandalously desires a girl of fifteen. Respectable society conventions conflict with the directness and spontaneity of the children. The moral dilemmas and mixed parentage and marital breakdown of the children’s parents make this story relevant today.


The Journey by Josephine Cox

      An emotional family story set in the 1930’s and 1950’s by one of Britain’s most popular authors. “Full of joy, drama and tragedy, merging the past and the present, spanning decades and continents…” Published 2005


If you can walk, you can dance by Marion Molteno

      A moving fictional account partly based on personal experience of a young white exiled student from South Africa during the years of apartheid. She travels and works in other African countries, eventually reaching London. Music links the wide range of characters and countries. The title is part of a Zimbabwean saying: “If you can walk, you can dance; if you can talk, you can sing”. Marion has visited several Cornish libraries to talk about her writing and work with migrant communities. Published 1998


Life’s New Hurdles by Colin Jackson

      This is a quick read by one of Britain’s greatest athletes. How did Colin adapt to life without the strict routine of training and competing when he retired from athletics in 2003? From athletics commentating to Strictly Come Dancing, Colin describes the challenges and joys of starting a whole new life at 35. He has Jamaican parents and is currently learning French & Italian to help his work as an ambassador for the 2012 Olympic Games. Published 2008




The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy 

      A collection of short stories from a best selling Irish author; all with a travel theme; the chance encounter that can change your life, the wrong suitcase, a package tour, a holiday with your father and many more. Quick snapshots of different journeys through life…
Published 2009


Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor

      Another Irish author with a tale of refugees fleeing Ireland in the bitter winter of 1847. While Ireland is torn by injustice and natural disaster, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York with a very mixed collection of characters aboard. Published 2002


Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka

      A funny but scary story of recent migrants to Britain and their search for a better life. “Black comedy, sharp as unripe strawberries” (Time Out) from a writer of Ukrainian descent ~ Published 2007


Two Feet, Four Paws by Spud Talbot-Ponsonby

      The true account of one woman and her dog who walked right around the British coast raising money for charity. The book describes the coast, characters along the way and the author’s own personal journey. New edition 2009, originally published 1996.


Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene

      Through Aunt Augusta, Henry, a retired bank manager, joins a shiftless, twilight society: mixing with hippies, war criminals. CIA men; smoking pot, breaking all currency regulations…coming alive after a dull suburban lifetime.  First published 1969




Friday 12 February 2010

White van and Fado at Covent Garden

Hire a white van to pick up the I Packed This Myself exhibition from Chenderit School, near Banbury. Ready to take down to Cornwall next week. First time I have ever driven a van.













Then later in the day, back in London, am transported back to Cornwall at God's Garden at the Linbury Studio, Convent Garden. Interesting dance and Fado music - but cannot help thinking of Sophie Moura, who performed at the launch of I Packed This Myself in Camborne last March. Sophie, a brilliant Fado singer, is based in St Austell and has supported the project since its early days. She is expecting her second child at any moment. Hope to see her next week in Cornwall.
Left: Sophie performing at I Packed This Myself, DMT Galleries, Camborne, Cornwall.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

St Enoder, a meeting and a workshop at Richard Lander

Early for a meeting at Pentreath, a charity working on mental health issues. Take a walk around the graveyard at St Enoder and see snowdrops, clearly not deterred by the cold snap.
A good meeting with Tamsin and Magda at Pentreath - they are developing very active and engaged groups of BME women in the county. We wonder whether there are ways of linking up our work - it's not quite clear how  at the moment, but we agree to keep in touch. Very nice to see Magda, who featured in our film Short Stories from the Edge, a couple of years ago.
Then to Richard Lander School, Truro. A very inspiring quote in the carpark. "Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I will move the world." Archimedes.










And the spirit of the sculpture continues inside the school.  Citizenship head Vicky Downing is passionate about her subject and has inspired her class of 26 very able year 9 students who are taking their GCSE Citizenship two years early













Ewa comes with me to the workshop, with her husband, Waldek. We are all  hugely impressed by these children who have volunteered to come into the workshop after school - and will come again in a couple of weeks when we return to follow up. They are lively, engaged and articulate. We talk about the experience of migration and the things people carry with them in their cases when they set out on significant journeys. We talk about the suitcases created with migrant workers in Cornwall. 
And Ewa has brought a bag with things that she brought to the UK when she first came here four years ago. In it are a selection of objects. A book of Polish history.  A piece of amber, given to her by her grandmother. A wedding present, and a CD.







The students write lists of things that they would take if they decided to leave - or had to leave - Cornwall to start a new life.  Lots say they would take family photos, mobile phones, iPods, jewellery, favourite books...
Vicky starts a discussion. 
Why do they think that sometimes there is hostility against migrant workers?
Answer: "Because some people think 'they are taking our jobs'".
Fair enough - but isn't it the fact that migrant workers are often doing jobs that local people don't want to do?
Answers: "Yes, but people want to do 'interesting' jobs." "We have so much spoonfed and given to us, we think everything should be." 

What do people think about the role of the press - in particular the tabloid press? It seems to help drum up racist attitudes.
Answers: "People might be hateful because they don't know them (migrant workers). It's our responsibility to find out about other people."

Am only sorry that I missed seeing my old friend Russell Pascoe who has taught music at the school for many years. Next time. We are due back in a couple of weeks to continue the discussion.

Surfing the press online

My father, who at the age of 83 whizzes through the online press every morning, spots an interesting article in the Telegraph saying that social engineering has played a part in the Labour government's immigration policy.
The debate is bound to hot up ahead of the election.

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Cold snap - does the daffodil picking begin? And more planning

The Western Morning News runs its annual photo of a smiling migrant worker daffodil picker in west Cornwall. The picking has started at long last, after the cold snap, it says.
However later in the day, the local TV news has a farmer near Truro as saying that the picking is slow.  Hear from local farming contacts that the cold weather isn't a bad thing for the crop - it extends the selling period, which is a good thing for everyone.  The Western Morning News says that Cornwall produces a fifth of the world's daffodils.
Ewa and I for the second time in a week drink coffee in a Tesco's cafe, this time in Pool after a meeting at the school where our planned assembly was cancelled yesterday. The migrant worker members of staff are reflecting on how they feel the issues could be tackled in the school, where there are several children of migrant workers. The message of I Packed This Myself is the experience of migration - it's a challenging message to get across, particularly to an audience that isn't particularly receptive.
Buy my own local daffodils (from the Scillies) from a petrol station in Hayle. They are Soleil D'Or and - apparently - sailors approaching the islands could smell them long before land was sighted.

Monday 8 February 2010

Another Matosic show, repositioning in Pool and a meeting off the Liskeard bypass

Paul Matosic writes to tell me of another show - Ephemeral States.  These things come in bunches, as he says!
A tricky start to the day as our planned assembly in Pool, Cornwall, is cancelled. We had been invited to run four assemblies, one every morning this week, but two migrant worker members of staff (Polish and Lithuanian) expressed concern. The cancellation is a  blow - as this was one school where we had particularly wanted to work. It's an area where incidents of prejudice against migrant workers are well documented. There are several children of migrant workers in the school.
We plan a meeting for tomorrow to reassess our approach.
Then on, up the A30, to Liskeard for a meeting with  Judith Cook, who is monitoring the project funding (from the Migration Impacts Fund).
Then back to Roche for a meeting with Ewa to review the day's events and plan for the week and beyond.

Sunday 7 February 2010

Paul Matosic and new show in Holland

Artist Paul Matosic, who is based in Nottingham, will be in Holland later this month doing a short residency and exhibition. Click here for details of the gallery.
Paul has loaned a suitcase to I Packed This Myself - which will next be on display when the show opens at Penair School, Truro.  It's a suitcase that his father took with him from Croatia up through Europe during the Second World War, using it as additional shelter in Dresden during the bombing. He carried it to England, where he eventually settled. He scratched the names of the places that he travelled through on the case.
Paul has made a short film, using old photographs and details of the journey, which we'll be showing at Penair.

Saturday 6 February 2010

What is British?... Bellamy's People

A (fairly) new comedy. Radio phone-in host Gary Bellamy is given his own TV series in which he travels the length and breadth of the land to meet the British people. Bellamy's People of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and Northern Ireland. Viewable online. This episode interviewing people on 'Britishness' - what is Britishness? - and of course revealing hilariously bigoted attitudes.
Some of it is funny.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Trip to Pool police station, a Polish shop and the daffodil season on ice

To see Bev Faull, the recently appointed police officer dealing with migrant workers in the west of the county. She is inspiringly focussed and interested in the subject - consult her ahead of our assemblies at Pool School next week. There was a minor skirmish in the local press about migrant workers in the area last autumn - the West Briton carried a front page story. Again, so far from the truth that it is not worth repeating here but it can be read via the link. An example of local hysteria, whipped up against migrant workers. This was not the West Briton's finest hour. This front page story was based on quotes by un-named local residents. Not one named source.  In reality there were no evidenced examples of 'bad behaviour' by migrant workers and because of that the story inevitably died down, thankfully. Local hysteria has now turned against planned social housing for single mothers. Regrettably though, the West Briton story has left a legacy - people thinking that there is a 'migrant worker problem' in Pool.
Bev is based in a station that is not open to the public - it is almost romantically bleak ... What I imagine 'safe houses' in John Le Carre novels look like.
Then to the Polish shop in nearby Tuckingmill to stock up with goods for the Eastern European suitcase. It is a fusion of Cornish and Polish. A sign for pasties outside. And (how ironic!) West Briton advertising...
Fairy liquid, Polish sausage and Chupa Chups inside.
Then back home via the daffodil fields. The daffodil season has stalled because of the icy weather last month. Very much behind schedule. The big local flower grower, Nocton, has hundreds of workers poised to pick. But few flowers as yet. Crows are enjoying the empty fields.

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Our first school assembly

Our first school assembly as we start to get things rolling. At Penair School, Truro, to launch the project in the school. Year 9 students will be working on related themes all term and - with other students - will be creating art work. Some, we hope, with migrant workers. The full I Packed This Myself exhibition will be on display there from 23 February 2010. And a formal launch party held on 23 March 2010. Watch this space for more details.
More than 1,000 children march into the gym with military precision. It is interesting that schools, like houses, have atmospheres. The atmosphere here is very positive, engaged and energetic. It's an impressive school. (I particularly like the way that they have photo albums in reception with pictures of different activities, Royal visits! and school trips.)
Ewa comes with me. She is originally from Gdansk, her father a Solidarity activist.  She has been in this country for four years, first working in a food processing factory in Dundee and then a medical supplies factory near Newquay. She tells the assembly about this work.
Later we sit in at a Citizenship class run by Carmel Henry, the driving force behind Penair's involvement with the project. Ewa is fascinated to learn that Cornwall has a long history of migration - that Cornish miners left the county to find work overseas. She says she'd like to go back to school.
Interesting to hear this - it's surprising. This is a major part of Cornish history and culture that Ewa didn't know about - and she's been here for four years.
Another indication, perhaps, of the way two communities - migrant worker and local communities - live side by side but don't necessarily interact socially and culturally.

Monday 1 February 2010

Church centre stage - and meetings in London

Looking at photos of Tom Pilston's photoshoot in Cornwall for I Packed This Myself - see a church tower in the centre of the landscape, in the far distance. Just as in Stubb's landscape. But in our picture the church is a mere landmark, not a vibrant part of the community. Or is that just received thinking about our post-religious, secular society? In fact, this is Breage church, and Breage church and its extraordinary vicar Penny Stephens played a very important role in uncovering some of the exploitation of workers at a farm near Breage, a few years ago.
But ... back to London and meetings.
Meet artist Patrick Coleman and discuss including his extraordinary relic box - or reliquary (his father's tool box, crammed with artefacts from the past half century, showing his Irish family's efforts to settle in England. It bears very poignant witness to his relationship with his father.)
Then (after egg and cress sandwiches to keep going) another meeting, this time with a sensationally bright MA student on taking this and other project forwards. And finally a discussion with Kemal Ahson, Bridging Arts non-executive director, on ways of mapping - charting the experience of migration and creating new work to reflect this.