Our Living Archives
African Presence, Living Memory and Creative Practice in Cornwall
What happens when we encounter the histories of African lives in the places we call home? And who gets to tell those stories?
Across Cornwall, archival records hold traces of African lives, journeys, relationships and contributions that remain largely absent from familiar accounts of local history.
Our Living Archives is a community-led project developed by Museum X, bringing together Black and Global Majority communities, artists, researchers and heritage organisations to explore Cornwall's African presence through archives, walking, film, sound, storytelling and creative practice.
Rather than treating history as something fixed in the past, we ask how it continues to shape our understanding of place, identity and belonging today.
The project creates opportunities for people to encounter historical records, develop new skills, share knowledge and contribute to how Cornwall's histories are understood and represented.
Discovering histories close to home
“What stays with me most is discovering how much Black and African history exists within Cornwall, yet how easy it is to live here without knowing that it is there.”
— Lilian Mabuda, Community Researcher
In July 2026, Museum X brought together a group of community researchers and creative practitioners for an intensive four-day programme in Helston, Falmouth and Redruth.
Supported by a Seed Corn Grant from The National Archives, this initial test phase explored how archives and creative practice might open new conversations about the historical African presence in Cornwall.
Participants encountered archival records relating to named African lives, explored familiar landscapes through an African Presence walking trail, and experimented with film, collage, zine-making, sound and Foley.
For some, the experience challenged what they had previously been taught about Cornwall's past.
“Yes. I was always told that Cornwall had no Black history by my teachers and peers growing up. The research program changed my perspective of this.”
— Community Researcher, 2026
These reflections speak to why this work matters. African presence is not simply a distant or disconnected chapter of Cornish history. It is part of the histories of local places, families, maritime connections, migration, work and everyday life.
Walking through history
Led by Dr Chloe Phillips, our African Presence walk through Falmouth invited participants to consider the town's connections with African lives and the wider Atlantic world.
Walking became a way of connecting historical evidence with the streets, buildings and landscapes people encounter today.
As one researcher reflected:
“The African Presence Trail particularly stayed with me because we were standing in familiar places in Falmouth while hearing stories connected to African presence, slavery and Cornwall's wider links with the world. It made me look at those places differently.”
— Lilian Mabuda, Community Researcher
The walk encouraged conversations about enslavement and empire, but also about family, relationships, resilience and the lives of individuals who made Cornwall their home.
Encountering the archives
At Kresen Kernow, Cornwall's archive centre in Redruth, community researchers explored historical records connected to African presence in the county.
These included material relating to Juba Hope, Dionezia Geach and Edward Campbell — individuals whose histories provide different points of entry into Cornwall's local and global connections.
Working with original records offered opportunities to ask questions, examine evidence and consider how historical lives are preserved, described and sometimes overlooked.
For some participants, it was their first visit to Kresen Kernow.
Of the 12 responses collected following the archive session, five were from first-time visitors. All 12 respondents said they would return.
The experience also demonstrated the importance of having time to look closely at documents, ask questions and explore difficult histories together.
Beyond the written record: film, sound and creative expression
What might history sound like?
How might a place, a movement or an everyday experience help us imagine lives encountered through historical documents?
At CAST in Helston, participants watched To Whom Does This Belong?, followed by a creative zine and collage workshop led by Meera Chauda.
Through images, words and personal reflections, participants explored questions of belonging, memory, identity and the stories they wished to carry forward.
At Falmouth University's School of Film and Television, creative sound and Foley activities introduced another way of responding to archival histories.
“The possibility to be with people from the past, in embodied ways of remembering. Particularly the imagining with sound — the conversations around that really dropped deeper away from ‘the document’ and into an intimate space of being with someone, in the everyday in their full humanity.”
— Community Researcher, 2026
The workshops demonstrated that historical engagement need not depend on reading or writing alone.
Creative practice can offer different ways to connect with the past, particularly when working with histories that are fragmented, difficult or incompletely documented.
Importantly, these creative responses are not presented as substitutes for historical evidence. They provide opportunities to explore its meanings, its silences and its relationships with the present.
Building a living archive together
Our Living Archives is as much about relationships as it is about historical records.
Throughout the programme, participants brought their own knowledge, questions and experiences into conversations with one another.
Some described the importance of discovering histories that reflected aspects of their own experiences of living in Cornwall. Others valued the opportunity to work collaboratively with people who shared an interest in Black and African heritage.
The programme also highlighted the responsibilities involved in exploring histories of enslavement, racism and exclusion.
Museum X's approach places care within the work itself, recognising the need for preparation, reflective spaces, flexible participation and opportunities to step away from difficult material.
We also learned that meaningful creative and historical engagement requires time.
Time to build relationships. Time to explore records. Time to experiment, reflect and return with new questions.
These lessons are helping shape the project's next phase.
What comes next?
The 2026 programme was a research test phase, not a finished model.
We are now working with collaborators to develop a longer-term programme that places descendant communities and culturally diverse creative practitioners at the centre of how Cornwall's African histories are explored and shared.
Our ambitions include:
Developing a community-shaped African Presence Heritage Guide using historical records from Kresen Kernow.
Creating an accessible digital audio walking trail connecting historical African lives with places across Cornwall.
Supporting creative workshops in sound, film, embodiment, walking, collage and storytelling.
Developing learning resources for families, including parents and children of colour living in Cornwall.
Building local skills and opportunities for community researchers and creative practitioners.
Sharing work through community-led showcases, creative presentations and public conversations.
These ideas will be developed collaboratively, allowing space for participants to test approaches, make decisions and shape what is shared.
Our ambition is not simply to make overlooked histories more visible, but to help build the relationships, skills and local resources through which communities can continue to engage with and interpret them.
Our collaborators
Our Living Archives is led by Museum X, working collaboratively with community researchers, artists and heritage partners in Cornwall.
The 2026 research test phase was made possible through a Seed Corn Grant from The National Archives, with the support and contributions of:
Kresen Kernow, Kowetha, CAST, and Falmouth University School of Film and Television (SOFT).
With contributions from Caroline Deeds and Museum X commissioned practitioners: Dr Chloe Phillips, Meera Chauda, Malcolm Phillips, and the Museum X team, alongside our community researchers.
We are grateful to everyone who gave their time, knowledge, creativity and care to this early phase of the project.
Stay connected
Our Living Archives is continuing to develop.
We welcome conversations with communities, artists, educators, archives and cultural organisations interested in African presence in Cornwall, creative heritage practice and collaborative approaches to living memory.
Interested in following or contributing to the next phase?
