two pieces

AN exhibition has gone on display charting the lives of South Asian women who migrated to East Lancashire in the 1960s and 70s.

Accrington-based charity Lancashire Women's Network (LWN), which is now part of Lancashire BME Network, interviewed 150 women who live in Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn, Rossendale, and Blackburn, and used their life stories and photographs to create the exhibition.

The exhibition, called Yaadein, which means "Memories", details the highs and lows of the migrants from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, who travelled thousands of miles in search of a better life.

There is also a book to accompany the exhibition, which is being given out free to visitors.

Many of the stories came from women who were socially isolated or who spoke little English, and as such their photographs and stories have never been seen and heard before.

The project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and will form part of an educational roadshow to go into East Lancashire schools.

Yaadein aims to help people of South Asian heritage who were born in the UK to see how their elders experiences were similar or dissimilar to their own life in the UK.

In order to build up trust with the women, LWN set up a number of activities that were carried out over a period of several weeks.

These included seated exercise, aromatherapy, healthy cooking, and massaging workshops.

Staff also brought in items of significance to help the women reminisce, including cutlery from South Asian countries, old beauty products, and pictures of South Asian pop icons from the 1960s and 70s.

LWN Community Development Officer Javiria Khan, 24, who was behind the project said: "We sat down and said there are a lot of South Asian women who are ageing who have a lot of stories.

"These stories are unfortunately dying away.

"We decided to do this project to capture the history and stories, so that there was some evidence of their memories.

"There were some absolutely fantastic stories, some of them are very emotional.

"The women were happy that this project had happened, happy that they could come together and discuss their stories.

"They had tried to talk to their grandchildren, but their grandchildren were not interested.

"They want them to understand the difficulties their grandparents faced, coming here without any language, without any support, how hard it was to get to where they are now."

The exhibition has been touring East Lancashire, and has already been on display in Nelson, Burnley, and Haslingden.

It will be at Accrington Library for the rest of this week before moving to Bangor Street Community Centre in Blackburn for a week.

A similar exhibition is also currently on display in Rawtenstall.

'Different Moons' is an arts and heritage project, devised by Horse + Bamboo, to celebrate the local South Asian community.

It’s aim is to rediscover the stories of the first migrants before they are lost for good, and then use them as a creative springboard to encourage new writing and art.

It will be at The Whitaker until December 28.