VIDEO: Making Our Mark - Walsall’s communities bring local heritage to life

What does heritage mean to the people who live in Walsall today? For the first cohort of Making Our Mark, community groups explored that question through textiles, photography, personal memories, music and dance. Their projects celebrated the traditions people have carried with them, the connections they have made and the stories that now form part of Walsall’s shared identity.

Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and led by Creative Black Country, Making Our Mark supports local people to uncover, explore and share the heritage that matters to them.

As Joint Project Lead Fiona Dye explains in the film, Walsall is shaped by many different communities, including people whose heritage may not previously have been recorded or widely shared. The programme gives those stories space to be gathered, celebrated and passed on, helping people feel a stronger sense of belonging to their communities and to Walsall.

The African Textile Heritage Project, led by Lifegate, brought people together to explore the patterns, techniques and stories found within African textiles. Led by Toyin and Oluwatoyin, the project connected participants with the people and cultures around them. Workshops created opportunities to share knowledge, make new work and reflect on the importance of textiles to personal and cultural identity.

Rokshana from the Aaina Women’s Heritage Project encouraged wider conversations about Walsall’s diversity and how different communities contribute to the town today. Many of the women involved had arrived in the UK during the 1950s and 1960s. Through photographs, memories and creative activity, participants explored how Walsall has changed since then and recorded experiences that may otherwise have remained untold.

Heritage Through Dance (Darians Dance Studio) invited children and families from different cultural backgrounds to explore their heritage through movement. Led by Dariana, the project used dance to create connections between participants and help children feel at home in Walsall while remaining proud of their own cultural traditions. Young people learned and shared different styles of dance, discovering both the differences between cultures and the experiences they had in common.

Elena was part of organising the Celebrating Heritage through Dance and Music project brought together African and Romanian traditions, identity and community spirit, all connected through the place the participants now call home. As Elena says in the film: “Build more bridges because in the end we are all one family.”

Building pride and belonging

All of the projects have proved how heritage can be active, social and deeply personal. It can be found in a piece of fabric, a family photograph, a remembered journey, a dance learned from a parent or a celebration shared with neighbours.

By creating opportunities for people to tell their own stories, Making Our Mark is helping communities recognise their place within Walsall’s history. The first cohort may have completed its projects, but the relationships, memories and sense of pride they created will continue.