Sowing Seeds for Community Archives: Zines for Decolonial 'Re-Remembering'

How can we record community memory and reflect our representations of the ESEA diaspora?

Through collaborative zine-making, attendees will engage in a form of decolonial 're-remembering' where memory is not fixed, but actively reconstructed. This disrupts dominant narratives and holds space for alternative histories, collective memory, and re-remembering. Join us to create zines honouring our communities and migration stories.

The workshop will begin with a brief grounding exercise to reflect on the “infinite history of traces” (Singh, 2018), emerging from our memories, embodiments and subjectivities that form our personal and collective archives.

We will then move into a brief introduction to community archiving and its ethics, putting this into practice with the creation of zines using photographic and scrap materials, weaving in our different diasporic experiences to re-remember our journeys.

Participants will be able to choose from different themes and prompts to guide the creation of a collective zine, which we will bind together. The zines will be scanned and soft copies will be shared after the session.

We invite participants to bring in stories, photos, materials, and/or objects that they would like to incorporate into the zines, making it a true artefact of our community!

This workshop is generously supported by besea.n’s Peiwen Legacy Fund.

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Refreshments

We will provide a modest offering of tea and light snacks for the workshop.

Access information

The Liberation Centre is fully accessible with a working lift, accessible toilets, gender-neutral toilets, quiet room, baby changing facilities.

If you have access requirements, please contact us at greenlionsesea@gmail.com to discuss how we can support your participation.

About Counter Archives

Counter Archives is an independent collective dedicated to reconstructing our collective memory through acts of resistance and remembrance. By navigating through silences within audiovisual archives, we turn towards collaborating with artists and collectives that engage with forgotten histories, archives, and community-engaged research to construct a new method of collective memory-making. We believe community archiving can be agents for change.

About Raageh

I'm an archivist working independently, co-facilitating this session's toolkit. My work primarily focuses on the preservation and stewardship of materials/stories related to the Horn of Africa, with a broader goal of challenging gaps and biases inherent in traditional archival institutions. Rooted in my background and informed by my training in library sciences & film programming, I hone in on using these skills as a conduit for collaborative, grassroots projects. The aim is to allow ease of access to hidden histories and provide support to community-centred archives in rightfully telling their own stories.

About Green Lions

Green Lions are an East and South East Asian community working together to convene, connect, and organise for a more equitable and climate just world. We aim to broaden and deepen the climate movement to include and spotlight ESEA folks, and build solidarity with other racialised and marginalised communities. We hope to co-create, exchange knowledge and experiences, and be a bridge between the UK diaspora and ESEA based communities.

About The Liberation Centre

The Liberation Centre is a centre for learning, organising, dreaming, and community building. It will not only house The Advocacy Academy’s community and youth organising programs but also serve as a vibrant, open-access sanctuary for young people and activists from across London and beyond. The Liberation Centre continues to be a welcoming and accessible hub for marginalised voices and organising for power.