We have created a unique new online time-line and ‘living archive’ to document the important contributions of refugees to our history & heritage and we are looking for contributors ~

This year we conducted a Refugee Week 2013 opinion poll to see what people thought about refugees in our history. We saw that 94% of the people we spoke to agreed that our future generations need to be more aware of the contributions of refugees in the UK to our history, heritage and culture. To address this we created a new time-line and living archive which acknowledges the contributions of refugees to our history and heritage. It aims to share a far more inclusive and accurate history of the United Kingdom, taking in to consideration the contributions of refugees.

We hope that the resource will be developed to become an important space to learn, share and exchange memories and personal stories about refugee experiences, local histories and neighbourhoods. In order to do this we need your contributions! Individual perspectives will keep changing and improving the archive, reflecting a real history of the UK….

Can you tell us more about refugees and asylum seekers in your local area? Or do you have a personal story to share about your life in the UK? How have you or your family become involved in your local community? We want to hear from you!

We can upload text, news articles, archival documents, photos and images, podcasts, film, links to external websites and blogs – We want the archive to be as engaging and accessible as it possibly can be so we are particularly interested in the use of the arts to tell the stories about our history, heritage and culture. If you are a refugee artist or you have led a creative project with refugee and migrant communities about refugee experiences in the UK, share your work with us.

You can submit your contribution here – or if you want to send us large files and images or you want to have a chat with us, contact:emily@counterpoints.org.uk; 07988164549.

Learn more about our history @
www.refugeeweektimeline.org.uk

Refugee Week 2014 will be from 16th to 22nd June 2014

World Refugee Day is on 20th June 2014

[Thumbnail image: Time-line record of the arrival of Nigerian refugees in the 1990s]