Whose history is it anyway?

In July 2003, Tony Blair gave a speech to the US Congress in which he stated that

“a study of history provides so little instruction for our present day”

I couldn’t agree less.

Study of history might have helped avoid a calamitous approach to Middle East foreign policy but I won’t get into that here. What I will get into is the discussion of history that is ongoing in UK politics today, almost two decades later. We learned this week that the government is to set up a working group to create national guidelines for how culture and heritage bodies talk about British history.

This follows the furore last year regarding the National Trust’s report into colonialism and historical slavery which led to accusations that it was rewriting history, and ongoing discussions about the removal of statues and renaming of museums. In this article, Museums Teach Not Preach, the Director of the Science Museum asserts that there’s nothing to see here, museums are protecting their independence.

However, the idea that the government should think it’s their role to set guidelines in this way should worry us all. However could British history not include colonialism and historical slavery? Who gets to decide whose history is told, and how? Who draws the line between teaching and preaching? And isn’t the whole point of historical study to continually write and rewrite as our knowledge and perspectives change?

Flags have also been in the news recently and I thought these articles about the Labour party and patriotism were interesting: Socialism and patriotism in a time of crisis and Phoney flag-waving is not the way for Labour to win back the red wall.

Amongst these conversations about patriotism and history, it seemed appropriate to listen to this lovely interview with the wonderful Andrea Levy, who won the Whitbread prize for her wonderful novel, Small Island. She discusses her mission “to centre the Caribbean experience in the heart of the British experience”. Well worth a listen, and a read.

Interesting and useful links 🖇️

Sunder Katwala prompted this interesting discussion on terms to use when talking about race/ethnicity in the UK.

Our friends at Rally published a great reading list by Matthew Sherrington recently. Dig in!

Janice Gassam Asare’s article, Why DEI and anti racism work needs to decenter whiteness, says much of what I’ve been thinking recently: “…any company or institution that is serious about fostering equity must be willing to dismiss employees who have created hostile work conditions.” 👏🏼

Participatory Grantmaking 101 by Iesha Small is great. I always learn something from her blog.

What am I reading? 📚

I needed something comforting to read this week so I’m not ashamed to say I reread all the Winnie the Pooh books.

Years ago Christopher Robin Milne ran a bookshop in Devon. We went there on a family holiday in the 1970s and actually met him. He signed a copy of Winnie the Pooh for me which I still have somewhere.

What am I watching? 👀

Help! We still can’t go anywhere.

But we can drive round Kiev listening to Retro FM.

What am I listening to? 👂

“You're not alone like you think you are”

Joy-giving things 😍

And, until we can dip our toes in the water again, have a listen to these programmes, Celebrating Rivers

Have a lovely weekend

Lucy

I write this newsletter because I believe in sharing progressive ideas that help us work towards a truly equal world.

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ChangeOut is created by Lucy Caldicott. You can find more about my work at ChangeOut.org. If you’re looking to have a chat about culture, leadership, purpose, equity, or a facilitated team discussion about any of those things, get in touch. You can also find me on Bluesky, Instagram, and, LinkedIn.

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