Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots is a community heritage and oral history project focused on diverse and multicultural histories. It explores the stories, memories and hidden histories of Devon’s towns and cities – past and present.
Through building an archive of oral history interviews, Telling Our Stories aims to preserve, share and celebrate the voices, stories and heritage of the wide range of people who live in Devon today, ensuring that the voices we listen to today and in the future are more diverse and more inclusive than the ones we’ve heard before.
As Project Coordinator for the Honiton Telling Our Stories between 2023–2025, we oversaw the delivery of a wide range of project activities and outcomes.
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the two-year project explored and celebrated Honiton’s diverse cultural histories through:
Volunteer-led research
Oral history interviews
Archive research
Workshops and training
An artist residency
Community engagement activities
Exhibitions and public events.
The project also produced both printed and online walking trail maps sharing stories of Devon’s multicultural heritage.
https://www.tellingourstoriesdevon.org.uk/
The project is community-led and community-powered, supported by teams of local volunteers, and featuring the voices and contributions of many community participants.
Telling Our Stories is a Devon Development Education project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
We worked with partners Allhallows Museum Honiton, Thelma Hulbert Gallery Honiton, Honiton Library and Offwell Primary School. Additional funding from the Arts & Culture East Devon enabled us to work with artist Ione Maria Rojas.
