Engaging Urban Ethnic Minority Communities in Heritage and Environmental Issues:

British Raj in the Peak District National Park

Esme Cleall & Chamu Kuppuswamy

• Scope of the project• Methodology• Reflections

What are the links between India and the Peak District National Park?

• Textile links – cotton production• Edward Carpenter – and his writings on India

and the environment

Steering meetings

My fears

Workshops and skill-sharing

Excursions: Archwright’s Mill at Cromford (which span Indian cotton)

Excursions: Leek Embroidery Exhibition

Design Ajanta, c. 1884-89, based on ancient cave paintings in Western India. Tussur silk cloth hand-woven in India. Block-printed by Wardle & Co., dyed by T & A Wardle, both in Leek. (SMDC Collection)

Excursions: visit to Edward Carpenter’s House at Milthorpe

In the archives

Planning walks in the Peak District on site in the Moorland Discovery Centre

… and trying it out

Balancing different aims and changing aims

• Connecting the Community with ‘Heritage’ the ‘Natural Environment’.

• To think about Hindu teachings as espousing a ‘holistic’ approach to the world and the environment.

• To encourage ethnic minority groups to engage in the Peak District – not just as visitors but to have a sense of ownership.

• To building on MOSAIC’s work (which focuses on ‘wellbeing’) to move towards a position where the Indian Community can take a leadership position in environmental issues.

• To promote ‘inter-cultural thinking about the National Park and the environment’.

• To try to understand the legacies of the British Empire; how the overseas empire shaped what Britain is today.

What is ‘produced’?

• Funding requirements – to produce a particular kind of thing?

• Do we ‘need’ to be ‘original’? In what we find or how we find it?

• Are we trying to ‘produce’ something? Or to celebrate a process?