Bath Decolonial Walking Workshop

vandana singh

The Holburne Museum

Electrified by the Black Lives Matter movement and the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol in the summer of 2020, various actors have sought to decolonise and reframe the way history is taught, narratives are shaped and the “uncomfortable past” is remembered. During the 2020/21 lockdown a group of students and staff from the University of Bath immersed themselves in exploring new, inclusive and ethical ways of engaging with the past of our UNESCO World Heritage city, through creativity and the bodily experience of walking. Led by Dr Christina Horvath and Dr Benjamin van Praag, the group have developed a walking tour entitled “Walk Bath’s Uncomfortable Past”. The tour was launched in March 2021. Christina and Ben have offered several iterations of it at the Bathscape walking festival. They shared their insight in a book chapter reflecting on their experience.This walk covers Bath’s complex colonial connections. It offers insight into how transatlantic slavery contributed to many of Bath’s grandiose neo-Palladian building projects. The walk engages with the city’s heritage from the viewpoint of both those who benefited from slavery and those who revolted or campaigned against it. It yells the stories of some Bath residents and visitors who contributed to dismantling the slave economy by writing and campaigning against it like Emma Sturge, Hannah Moore or William Wilberforce. Their efforts, however, should not cast shadow on the agency of those Africans who resisted colonial exploitation through frequent uprisings in the Caribbean or through campaigning, public speaking and writing like Olaudah Equiano, or Ellen and William Craft. To present a fuller picture of the city’s history, the walk also pays tribute to prominent Africans and African descendants who visited the city like violin virtuoso Georges Bridgetower and actor Ira Aldridge.We will meet inside the Holburne Museum at 3.30, and look at the reinterpreted plantation daybook exploring the Holburne family’s links to the Caribbean slave trade (for more information see this online resource) in the Fletcher Gallery on the Mezzanine, and a painting by Johan Zoffany, "The Auriol and Dashwood Families",which provides insight into the British way of life in India. We will then make our way to the centre of town, stopping at Great Pulteney Street, Pulteney Bridge, North Parade, Orange Grove, the Toppings bookshop, Bath Abbey, the Theatre Royal, Queen’s Square, the Circus and the Royal Crescent, where the walk will end. The hour long walk will be followed by a half an hour discussion with the following speakers: Dr Christina Horvath (Reader in French)Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies, University of Bath1 West North 4.25, Bath BA2 7AY+44 (0)1225 383272<a href="mailto:c.horvath@bath.ac.uk" title="mailto:c.horvath@bath.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> | c.horvath@bath.ac.uk</a> Prof. Dr Satvinderpal Kaur, Chairperson, Department of Education, Panjab University, Chandigarh, IndiaEmail. <a href="mailto:satvinder2002@gmail.com" title="mailto:satvinder2002@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">satvinder2002@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:satvinder2002@pu.ac.in" title="mailto:satvinder2002@pu.ac.in" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">satvinder2002@pu.ac.in</a> Prof. Dr Kuldeep Kaur, ProfessorDepartment of Education Panjab University, Chandigarh, IndiaEmail. <a href="mailto:drkuldeepkaur@yahoo.in" title="mailto:drkuldeepkaur@yahoo.in" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">drkuldeepkaur@yahoo.in</a>. Recommended readings:Horvath, C. &amp; Van Praag, B. 2024. 12 Mapping Bath’s ‘uncomfortable past’: A student project engaging with black history, slavery and abolition in Bath (pp. 267-288)Horvath, C. &amp; White, R.S., 2024. Breaking the Dead Silence: Engaging with the Legacies of Empire and Slave-Ownership in Bath and Bristol’s Memoryscapes (). https://holburne.org/the-holburne-family-and-caribbean-plantations/ Collaborators:Decolonial and Feminist Research Methodology Group (DFRM), School of Education, Bath Spa University.Global Inclusive Network (GIN)/Staff Equality Networks, Bath Spa University.DECkNO- University of Bath, <a href="https://www.bath.ac.uk/corporate-information/about-deckno-decolonising-knowledge-for-social-change-across-the-university-beyond/" title="https://www.bath.ac.uk/corporate-information/about-deckno-decolonising-knowledge-for-social-change-across-the-university-beyond/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.bath.ac.uk/corporate-information/about-deckno-decolonising-knowledge-for-social-change-across-the-university-beyond/</a>

Agenda

The Walk

The Discussion

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