With the help of artists, friends and partners, Essex Cultural Diversity Project is encouraging individuals and communities across the county to get the jab and overcome “vaccination hesitation”, as part of a campaign funded by Essex County Council’s VCS COVID-19 Response Fund.

In this podcast for ECDP Radio, Storyteller and artist Seema Anand talks about the issues and shares facts about vaccinations, past and present.

Seema Anand on Vaccination Hesitation

We were invited to talk to BBC Essex about our campaign to encourage people to 'get the jab' and overcome vaccination hesitancy, especially among diverse communities, young people and the elderly. 

Guests included Indi Sandhu, CEO and Creative Director of Essex Cultural Diversity Project, Artist and storyteller Seema Anand, Dr Wasim Siddiqui, Simone Xue from Colchester Chinese Culture Society, and Aymen Syed from Chelmsford Mosque.

Talking "Vaccination Hesitation" on BBC Essex

Hinako Omori - Sounds Of The Forest

Jason Singh 'Lemurs' - Sounds of the Forest

Jason Singh 'Masai Mara' - Sounds of the Forest

In this episode of ECDP Radio, Nita Jhummu interviews Sangita Mittra, Wrenay Raphael and Carlos Byles from the New Generation Development Agency, about Black History Month in Chelmsford, Essex.

ECDP RADIO: Nita meets the NGDA!

We're keen listeners and regular contributors to BBC Essex's 'Essex Voices' radio show. In this programme presenter Rob Jelly talks to Lawrence Walker from Black History Month Colchester, Sangita Mittra from New Generation Development Agency, Jo Melville from South Essex African Caribbean Association and Efua Sey from the Efua Sey Academy.

Some fascinating conversations! Subjects include the importance of Black History Month, family WhatsApp groups, hair stories and domino tournaments!

https://essexcdp.com/ecdp-radio/

Black History Month 2021 on BBC Essex

In this episode of ECDP Radio, Nita Jhummu meets people involved in the Braintree Music Project, including Sarah Goldsmith from Essex Music Hub, and musicians Jonathan Mayer and Josh Doughty.

In 2022 Essex Cultural Diversity Project worked in partnership with Essex Music Education Hub and Braintree District Cultural Education Partnership to deliver an exciting cultural diversity music project in schools. Seven creative practitioners worked closely with teachers in six schools across the Braintree district. The aim was to help young people to understand other cultures and traditions, pilot new ways of working that can be embedded into daily school practice, and develop a bank of teaching resources that can be shared with other schools.

https://essexcdp.com/project/braintreediversity/

ECDP Radio: Nita discovers the Braintree Music Project

In this BBC Essex interview, presenter Rob Jelly interviews Sikh historian Rav Singh, storyteller Usifu Jalloh, and ECDP Creative Director Indi Sandhu about Helen, the Indian Princess buried in Doddinghurst, British multiculturalism and hidden histories of Essex. 

Rav and Usifu will be at Global Village in Doddinghurst on Sunday 23 July 2023, an event that celebrates Helen's story with music, performance, Indian food and talks. 

https://essexcdp.com/event/globalvillagedoddinghurst/

BBC Essex: Interview with Rav Singh and Usifu Jalloh

After the Partition: Suman Gujral's story

Artist Suman Gujral became interested in Partition through stories shared by her mother, weaving those stories and memories into her poetry and art practice. Suman's parents were Sikhs living in Lahore, who fled to Amritsar to meet family and friends very soon after Partition. She moved to England in 1965 with her parents and sister, leaving her brother behind with grandparents. She moved to Essex recently, when she was offered an art studio at Parndon Mill in Harlow, where she continues to make work about Partition and the effect it has on the displacement of families. 

After the Partition: A Shared Cultural Heritage in Essex
Funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund, 2025

Over half a million Sikhs, Hindu’s and Muslims came to Britain because of the upheaval of Partition, the promise of economic opportunities and a safer life. Essex Cultural Diversity Project has been awarded funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for Sikh, Hindu and (Pakistani) Muslim communities living in Essex to reflect on seven decades of their family’s lives, to explore experiences, challenges, successes, and social change from 1947 to today. The project will pose the question: how has British culture changed and how have they changed British culture?

With few original settlers surviving, this is the last chance to bring three generations together to document the fortunes of settlers and their families who can trace their migration directly to Partition between India and Pakistan. This will be a rare chance to focus on lived experiences since Partition, rather than on the experience of Partition itself, opening opportunities to explore this unique cultural context within and between communities. As time passes and memories fade, it is important for Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims to capture what shaped their modern heritage for posterity, and to reflect on wider issues of migration and colonialism today.

Through this project, we have captured people’s memories through oral history recording, films and interviews, and have created a touring pop-up exhibition. 

essexcdp.com/project/afterthepartition/

After the Partition: Suman Gujral's story

Essexcdp

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