About the
HERE
project

HERE North East brings together a range of Black and Global Majority-led organisations and leaders, to capture the history and practice of anti-racism work in the North East, as well as to serve as a physical and virtual cultural hub, wellbeing and development centre for communities and organisations that identify as Black or from the Global Majority.

Our region is rich in multicultural diversity; HERE provides a space to build on this narrative and to show that our communities have always been here and continue to be active in shaping the cultural landscape of the North East.

HERE North East began in 2020 as a UKRI-funded partnership co-produced by Sangini, ¡VAMOS!, and Northumbria University, in collaboration with the Pakistan Cultural Society, NEEACA (North East of England African Community Association), the Newcastle Chinese Healthy Living Centre, the Angelou Centre, The Heritage Resilience Network and many other organisations and individuals in the North East of England. Archives organisations such as Everyday Muslim and Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums were key to providing technical advice and training and development. A series of three National Archives-funded workshops built interest and advocacy for the project (see the report here.)

Partners raised the problem of the lack of an historical record of the work of Global Majority cultural organisers to achieve equity in the culture and society of the North East. The creation of a living archive of past activities recognises the histories of their achievements as an important foundation, to build on the social and cultural ecology and for future generations in the North East: a ‘heritage’ worthy of preservation.

This website features the seminal event Creating a Black Community Cultural Archive and clips from oral history interviews of about 40 of these activists, plus a curated set of documents, photographs, and posters from their personal and organisational collections as of December 2021. Since then, we have grown into a wider collaboration with ambitions to be a leading cultural centre for Black and Global Majority communities in the region. We welcome participation from everyone – contact us at info [at] herenortheast [dot] org.