On Friday 19th July – at Persistence Works in Sheffield – a collective of talented artists, creatives and curators of colour gathered to celebrate the launch and blessing of the Dig Where You Stand Biennial 2024.
“DIG WHERE YOU STAND IS AN ARCHIVAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT MADE UP OF ARTISTS, ARCHIVISTS, EDUCATORS AND LOCAL COMMUNITY MEMBERS.”
The launch was a phenomenal night launching the creative responses and art works of poetry, textiles, wallpapers, collage, photography, shadow puppetry, film, sound and more created by fourteen artists who’d been commissioned by the DWYS team last September to go into the Sheffield archives, to discover working class people of colour living in Sheffield pre-1940 and to,
“…UNEARTH THE UNTOLD STORIES OF PEOPLE OF COLOUR LIVING, WORKING AND PUTTING DOWN ROOTS IN SOUTH YORKSHIRE OVER HUNDREDS OF YEARS.”
As a born and raised Sheffielder of Punjabi/Sikh heritage, I’d never experienced a night like this in Sheffield before. The anticipation, excitement and joy was palpable. We knew that collectively – under the care and guidance of the DWYS team – we had created something special and alchemical, something that will change the narrative of Sheffield’s diverse racial history forever. I truly believe and feel that. We celebrated our Sheffield ancestors, the people of colour who’d paved the way for us over several hundreds of years and helped to make Sheffield the city that it is now.
Finding Bachan Kaur
I’d always been led to believe that Sikhs had not settled in Sheffield before my Dad arrived in 1959. I’d always doubted this and now this just seems ludicrous! I didn’t realise until I started working on my DWYS project as one of the commissioned artists, that there was a weight to this legend and a loneliness too.
Growing up in Sheffield in the seventies and eighties as a brown girl was tough. There were very few Sikhs and I had no extended family at all. Racism was an everyday lived experience, intensifying when I got to secondary school. I didn’t feel as if I belonged anywhere.
I wonder what difference it would have made to me back then if I’d known that people of colour had always been present in Sheffield, for hundred of years?
I wanted to disprove the legend of my Dad’s firstness. And I wanted to find my women in the archives. Much of South Asian migration history to England focuses on men. Where are our women in the archives? With the help of Cheryl, an archivist from Sheffield archives and Sheffield-based historian David Holland, who’s researched South Asian working class history in Sheffield pre-1940, I discovered Bachan Kaur in one of his essays,
Bachan Kaur, Born September 1914, Female, 25 years old.
Unpaid Domestic duties. Married.
The above was all I was ever able to find out about Bachan Kaur. One line in the 1939 register, created weeks after the start of the Second World War. She lived just one mile away from me, in a house I pass every week. David Holland told me that it was extremely unusual for a ‘non-elite’ Sikh woman to travel to England at that time with their husband (I’m assuming one of the Sikh men she lived with around her age was her husband). My head filled with questions and imaginings. Who was Bachan Kaur? What brought her here? How did they pay for their passage? What was her life like here in Sheffield, living with three other Sikh men? Where did she go, if/when she left Sheffield?
I found myself good-haunted by Bachan Kaur over the months of working on my poems ‘Sense of Us’ and ‘Point of Continuum’ to the point where I felt we were collaborators in righting history. I felt Bachan with me. Perhaps she even visited me one day? During a particularly intense creative period, my friend and I heard footsteps going up my creaky attic stairs – one step after another – thinking that each other had ventured up there. And the confusion and surprise to learn that neither of us had. Bachan, Bachan, Bachan ~ was that you going up into my attic study?
Bachan feels like part of my family now. Part of my continuum. I hope she would have liked me and the poems I wrote. I’m forever grateful to Bachan Kaur. She’s helped me feel a bit more belonged to this steel city where I was planted. As if she’s always been here, watching over me and out for me.
“It’s as if Sheffield has a memory of you Bachan Kaur.
Your name, a ghost on the page, made of words and waiting.
Waiting to be read.
Re-membered.
Made unfactual and mysterious again.”
extract from ‘Sense of Us’ by Dal Kular
With massive enduring thanks and gratitude to all the Dig Where You Stand Team. Especially wonderful Desiree Reynolds for holding us, inspiring us and believing in us throughout. And Alex Mason, a rare soul who brings out the best in everyone who’s blessed to know him. And Cheryl Bailey, whose enthusiasm for righting the archives and all of us artists is unwavering. And David Holland, for your unconditional generosity in sharing your knowledge, research and resources. And to all my fellow artists ~ thank you ~ each and everyone of you, your art and the stories of people you’ve brought to life have touched my heart deeply.
Dig Where You Stand Biennial 2024 is showing at Persistance Works in Sheffield until 18th August 2024.
You can learn about the project, all of the brilliant artists, and see our creative responses to the people of colour and stories we found in the archives in an online exhibition at the Dig Where You Stand website. Plus local DWYS events and happenings!
Other offerings in Sheffield/Peak District with Dal
*LAST FEW SPACES* Love Notes to Nature Workshop: Sunday 10th August 10.30am - 3.30pm’ish, Peak District ~ a day workshop of nature-allied conversation, healing, creating and word-making as part of my residency with Black Nature in Residence. Transport support available and lunch too. For WOC, non-binary/trans folx. For more details and booking please email Dal by 1st August at hello@dalkular.com. Transport and food is kindly supported by Peak District National Park.
Open Studio @ Open House, Hathersage, Thursday 15th August 10am - 3pm. I’m delighted to be sharing some of my creative practices as part of my Black Nature in Residence Project. Come join me as I take over one of the tables and work on my giant journal, assembling the sections as I work towards completing my residency. Grab a coffee (it’s really good!), have a chat, ask questions and hang out with me! Much gratitude and thanks to Open House for supporting my work and the Black Nature in Residence project.