Activity Pack: Ages 11 to 14 Years 7, 8 and 9, Key Stage 3 By Meera Shakti Osborne - Here I am Baby 2021 By Rosa-Johan Uddoh - Focal Point Gallery
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Activity Pack: Ages 11 to 14 Years 7, 8 and 9, Key Stage 3 By Meera Shakti Osborne Here I am Baby 2021 By Rosa-Johan Uddoh
Welcome to your activity pack.
Focal Point gallery activity packs are a resource to explore themes in
our exhibition programme and ways of engaging with current debates
around contemporary art, and look to extend and develop new
audiences. We consider the philosophies and working methods of the Activity pack made by Meera Shakti Osborne in response to Rosa -
artists in our exhibitions programme as the starting point for inspiration, Johan Uddoh’s Practice Makes Perfect exhibtion at Focal Point Gallery.
aspiration, and discussion in the community. Our packs, designed by
practicing contemporary artists are divided into different stages of www.meerashakti.com
guided learning. They cover a variety of activities that can creatively
engage with wider subjects and school topics, and can be selected www.rosajohanuddoh.com
appropriate to age groups and levels of understanding.
www.fpg.org.uk
This pack has been created by Meera Shakti Osborne for children,
young people, and their learning leaders in response to the lack of
black British history in the current UK curriculum. The packs are divided
into age-appropriate learning activities suitable for both educational
institutions and anyone interested in extending their understanding of
history through contemporary art.
MSO: Why have you chosen to highlight Balthazar?
RJU: When I was a child, I went to catholic primary school and secondary
schools in Croydon, South London. When I cast my mind back, Balthazar was
one of the only black characters that we learnt about at school. Specifically,
we learned about him when performing The Nativity play each year. In
the bible, Balthazar is one of the three Kings said to have followed a star
to visit Jesus when he was born. According to Christian tradition, he comes
from Africa, though where exactly in Africa is left vague. I was interested in
Balthazar as a rare example of an African immigrant given in school, and a
role that black or brown children in the class are often cast in.
MSO: What inspired your WINDRUSH: A TONGUE TWISTER?
RJU: When I did learn about Black History at school, it was always very
Rosa-Johan Uddoh Meera Shakti Osborne
recent history, which when I was a child, made me think that black people
hadn't been in Britain that long. Often, even in TV programmes today,
Black characters are only included in shows set after 1948, which is when
INTERVIEW many Black people from the Carribbean came over on the boat 'The Empire
Windrush', which docked that year in Tilbury, in Essex. You don't see black
MSO: What is the Practice Makes Perfect exhibition about? people in older 'period dramas', like Downton Abbey. But actually, Black and
brown people have been in this country for hundreds of years. Historians
RJU: 'Practice Makes Perfect' is an exhibition that explores how we get like David Olusoga have pointed out there were even Black Roman soldiers
particular ideas about what it means to be British through the British school stationed all over England. With 'Windrush: A Tongue Twister' I wanted to
system. I am interested in how we are taught British history in school, and how make a work that was memorable and fun to learn which spoke about how
often, Black British history is still left off the curriculum. Black people have been in Britain for a long time.
MSO: Was there anything specific that inspired this work? MSO: Do you think art has a responsibility to be educational?
RJU: I was inspired by the Black Lives Matters protests last summer, after the RJU: Yes! I think we can learn so much through art as it teaches us to look at
death of George Floyd at the hands of the police. While this tragic event the world in a different way to what we are used to. I also think you can learn
happened in the USA, in the UK many people were also outraged and so much through making that you wouldn't be able to through only thinking
highlighted the ways in which racism is a problem in this country too: in the and listening. Even if you don't understand what an artwork is saying that's ok -
criminal justice system, but also in schools, universities and healthcare. I think the most important thing for art is to start a conversation and I think this
is something a lot of art does really well.
Many activists pointed out that Black British people, and Black British civil
rights movements are often left off our school curriculums - this along with MSO: What made you want to be an artist?
racism experienced at school can leave black and brown young people
growing up in this country feeling like they don't belong. This is not true - black RJU: I wanted to be an artist as I love making things, getting messy and
and brown people with parents from countries such as Nigeria, Jamaica and coming up with new ideas. But the best part of being an artist for me has been
India are just as important part of this country and have been for hundreds of being able to spend time learning to express myself, my ideas and my opinions
years. I'm a Black British artist, now in my late twenties, so this discussion was on issues that are very important to me. Everyone has a story to tell. I feel very
very close to my heart. When making the artwork I asked myself, 'how has my lucky to be able to share mine through art, and hope to be able to do this for
experience at school affected my identity?', 'how has it affected my sense of the rest of my life!
belonging in the country I was born?'
Hands to Face exercise. This activity will help you to feel relaxed. If you have glasses please remove them for the exercise. Rub your hands together until both hands are hot. Now gently place your hands over your face. Feel your breath on your warm hands. Relax your face. Imagine the space between your hands and face is a private and safe place where you are allowed to be yourself, it is a space of no judgement.
Have a close look at this painting, who might the characters be?
What are they doing?
Can you spot the ship?
Why do you think the brown woman is giving the white woman jewels?
‘The East Offering its Riches to Britannia’
Spiridione Roma (1737–1781) (1) What do you think the story is in this painting?
On the next page is space for you to write your own
This painting now hangs in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London story of ‘The East Offering its Riches to Britannia’.
and there is a reproduction (copy) held at the British Library in London.
‘The East Offering its Riches to Britannia’ Story by ............................................
‘Portsmouth Dockyard’ ‘Between the Two My Heart is Balanced, 1991’ by James Tissot (1836-1902) (2) By Lubaina Humid (3) Tate Collection Tate Collection Who are the people in the painting? Who are the people in the painting? Where are they going? Where are they going? Do you see people that look like you in this painting? Do you see people that look like you in this painting?
NATIVITY
1
By Rosa-Johan Uddoh
In the beginning, they did the Nativity.
Everyone in it was pink, well, the main
characters anyway: Mary, Joseph, a whole
chorus of angels and a baby. The baby, they
said, was the son of God, or as they call him
at Church, ‘The King of Kings’. To prove it,
three rich, glamorous and earthly kings came
all the way from ‘The East’ to see the baby
when it was born. These kings worshipped
the baby and gave him really expensive gifts:
gold, frankincense and myrrh. The thinking was
that if even these rich, powerful grown men
worshipped the baby, then we should too.
- This is a section of the artist Rosa’s text. You
can find out more at her exhibtion: ‘Practice
Makes Perfect’.
‘The Adoration of the Magi’ (detail) (centre panel)
By Hieronymus Bosch (c 1450–1516, Renaissance painter) (4)
This painting hangs in Museo del Prad of Madrid, Spain.
Who is the most important person in this painting?
Who would you like to be in this painting and why?
At the moment history is taught to make one
group of people feel inferior and another group
of people feel superior, and this has to stop.
History needs to be decolonised*. You can go
through [the] whole of the GCSE and not have
reference to any black authors at all. You could
go through history and not understand the
richness of Africa and the Caribbean, you can
go through history and not understand all the
leaders in the black community.
* Decolonisation, is the process when countries get independence from a colonising
country. After countries get political independence the process of decolonisation
cannot stop - there are hidden colonial powers in institutions, laws and ways of
thinking. These powers maintain the colonialists outlook and remain intact even after
political independence is achieved. Above, Butler is talking specifically about the
colonialist approach to the UK curriculum that still exists today.
Labour MP Dawn Butler (5)
What do you want to say right now if you could speak and not be censored...? Can you remember a time when you were silenced in class? What was it you wanted to say? How long did the silencing last?
‘I first came here to Hadrian’s Wall on a school trip when I was a boy. Back ‘We’re now learning that this is far from the truth. Hadrian’s Wall was the
then pretty much everything I knew about Roman Britain came from from northern limit of a multiracial empire that stretched as far as North Africa.’
Ladybird books.’
Screenshots and text from
‘Black and British: A Forgotten History, 2016’
By David Olusoga (7)
Series available on BBC Iplayer (see link on final page)
What do you know about Roman history?
Do you think there were any black Romans?
‘Now, I knew that Rome was in Italy, so I think I must have presumed that the Do you have a similar experience to David’s of how he learnt about Roman
Romans were Italians. What books like this seemed to make clear was that there history and what he thought Romans looked like?”
can’t have been anybody in Roman Britain who looked like me or my family.’Do you see people who look like you in history books?
Are black people and people of colour included enough in history lessons?
Do you believe the history you are taught?
‘Syrcas, 1993’ (8)
By Maud Sulter
Autograph Gallery
In this series Sulter explores black/African erasure (hiding and denying
on purpose) in German history. In the exhibition of Syrcas at Autograph
Gallery a poem by Sulter titled ‘Blood Money Remix’ played aloud.
‘For the child of the circus there would be no reparation for
a sterilised womb, family torn apart. Incarcerated. Enforced
labour. Concentration camp internment leading for Kwesi
to death with the gypsies and jews and gays and others.
Close your eyes and imagine a German.’
- Excerpt from ‘Blood Money Remix’ by SulterCOLOUR IN BALTHAZAR! ‘The Horniman Museum and Gardens is located in Forest Hill, South East London.
The Horniman is named after Frederick Horniman, who inherited and ran his
father’s business, Horniman’s Tea, and was elected as an MP for the Liberal Party
in 1895.
Frederick Horniman has historically been remembered through his museum as a
social reformer who campaigned for the creation of the British Welfare State, and
was committed to raising standards of living in Britain across all sectors of society.
It is however also important to remember that the wealth that enabled him to
make his collection, build his museum, and campaign as a social reformer in
Britain, was reliant on the exploitation of people living in the British Empire.
The tea trade is widely known to have relied on the repurposing of land to build
tea plantations, often involving the forced relocation of people already living on
and using that land. This had long term economic and social impacts that continue
to affect people’s lives today.’
- excerpt taken from Horniman’s Website
Photograph by Andrew Lee, courtesy of Horniman Museum and Gardens (9)‘Frederick Horniman gave his Museum, Gardens and collections to ‘the
people in perpetuity’ in 1901 to help them discover the world – a legacy
that lives on in Horniman today.’ - Horniman Museum Website
The following items are both from The Horniman Museum’s Anthropology There exists a space between the collection and the ethnographic field
Collection. Each includes the museum’s own item description. How (where the items have been collected from). How was this collection
the items became part of the collection is not part of the narrative the established – and at what cost – is not usually part of the narrative.
museum is telling us. Why does The Horniman Museum hold so many As viewers, we are not generally asked to critically consider how a
items from India and the Caribbean? How did Frederick Horniman get to collection has come to exist. In museums in the UK we are invited to
own so many items? see the objects in front of us, without a sufficient context of their origin
stories, their meaning and status outside of Western classification, nor the
Did did he buy them, was he given them, or did he steal the items? histories of their acquisition.
Model altar vessel. Oil lamp for one wick. No lid. No Date. (10) Painted clay double figure of Narayan/Narayani (Vishnu), from eastern India. No Date. (11)
How did this item end up in the UK? This vital information seems to be missing. What else do you think should be included in this description of this
Please use the space below to complete the item description. item...WINDRUSH: A TONGUE TWISTER By Rosa-Johan Uddoh Black Britain began before that bloody big boat. Before that big bloody boat, black Britain, beforehand, began. And if black Britain began before that bloody big boat Why won’t sir say so? Black Britain became big 1500 years before Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper from the Seychelles. Before Peter Piper, the colonialist, 2 picked a peck of pickled pepper from the seashores of the Seychelles, black Britain, 1500 years before, became big. But if black Britain became big 1500 years before the peck of pickled peppers were picked by the colonialist, Peter Piper, by the seashells on the seashores of the Seychelles. Where’s our bloody statue? Black Britain began before that bloody big boat. Before that big bloody boat, black Britain had, beforehand, begun. Please make a recording, reading WINDRUSH: A TONGUE TWISTER But if black Britain began before that bloody big boat and upload to tiktok including #blackbritainbegan so Rosa can see your Why won’t sir say so? videos. There was a black man from Carlisle 3 It’s easy! Famed satirist with a wry smile 3 rd Century this was You won’t hear it because The government ‘misplaced’ his file. Black Britain began before that bloody big boat. Before that big bloody boat, black Britain had, beforehand, begun. And if black Britain began before that bloody big boat Why won’t sir say so? Black Britain began before Boris begot babies. Before Bolanle said Black Blossoms, before Brathwaite was a bard, before Blanke blew his blowhorn, before brave ‘blackamoore’ Binne, before the Bight of Benin, before the Bristol Bus Boycott, before that bloody big boat, black Britain had, beforehand, begun. And because black Britain began before that bloody big boat. We should simply say so. It’s easy.
Alternate nostril breathing exercise. This exercise will relax your body and help with focus and energy Sit comfortably with a straight back Relax your left palm into your lap and bring your right hand just in front of your face. With your right hand, bring your pointer finger and middle finger to rest between your eyebrows. Close your eyes and take a deep breath in and out through your nose. Close your right nostril with your right thumb. Inhale through the left nostril slowly. Close the left nostril with your ring finger so both nostrils are held closed; retain your breath…. Open your right nostril and release the breath slowly through the right side Inhale through the right side slowly. Hold both nostrils closed (with ring finger and thumb). Open your left nostril and release breath slowly through the left side. Repeat this a 5 times
Stuart Hall was a Jamaican-born British sociologist, cultural theorist and political
activist. His contribution to the understanding of culture, politics, and race have
been very important for a huge number of people across the world. Hall was
responsible for the first ever Cultural Studies course in the UK.
Until the 1980s, it was very normal for UK sitcoms to have a lot of blatant racist
content, it was an important moment when Stuart Hall spoke up about this. The
title of his BBC show ‘It Ain’t Half Racist, Mum’ is a play on the BBC sitcom ‘It
Ain’t Half Hot, Mum’, which had eight series between 1974 and 1981. ‘It Ain’t
Half Hot, Mum’ is now recognised as both racist and homophobic.
Screenshots from
‘It Ain’t Half Racist, Mum 1979’ (12)
By Stuart Hall
Available on Vimeo (see link on final page)COLOUR IN!
‘Whites Only’ is based on a public sign that was very common in
apartheid South Africa. The sign was to inform non-white people that they
were not allowed to enter that public space.
Apartheid means ‘apartness’ in Afrikaans. Apartheid was a racist system
written into law that enforced separation and isolation based on race
against non-white citizens of South Africa and South West Africa from
1948 until the 1990s.
‘Whites Only from A South African Colouring Book, 1974’ An apartheid notice on a beach near Cape Town, South Africa, pictured on
(13) July 22, 1976. KEYSTONE/GETTY
By Gavin Jantjes
Included in ‘The Place Is Here Exhibition’, Nottingham
Contemporary Feb 2017 – May 2017Deep breathing and being kind to yourself. This will help you to feel calm and self-assured. Breathe in and fill your belly with air, as you breathe out recite a mantra that makes you feel good - it can be a compliment to yourself, a soothing word, prayer or whatever you feel. Repeat at least 8 times
Links to work in Activity pack
1. The East Offering its Riches to Britannia
www.opendemocracy.net/en/916/
2. Portsmouth Dockyard
www.victorianweb.org/painting/tissot/paintings/14.html
3. My Heart is Balanced
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/himid-between-the-two-my-heart-is-balanced-t06947
4. The Adoration of the Magi
www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/446744#
5. Labour MP Dawn Butler
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/20/teaching-white-privilege-is-a-fact-breaks-the-
law-minister-says
6. Where’s Balthazar - A special thank you to Where’s Wally!
7. Black and British: A Forgotten History
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b082x0h6/black-and-british-a-forgotten-history
8. Syrcas
autograph.org.uk/exhibitions/syrcas
9. Horniman website
www.horniman.ac.uk
10.Altar Vessell
www.horniman.ac.uk/object/1990.207vii/
11. Narayan/Narayani
www.horniman.ac.uk/object/1982.458/
12. It Ain’t Half Racist Mum 1979
vimeo.com/203825966
13. Whites Only from A South African Colouring Book
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/jantjes-whites-only-p78646
14. Year 3
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed83a1zXfHE&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Tate
Further reading
British Empire Facts!
www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/history/general-history/british-empire-facts
‘Year 3’ 2019 (14)
By Steve McQueen Decolonising The Curriculum
Tate Britain Nov 2019 – Jan 2021 www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z7g66v4#:~:text=When%20they%20say%20’decolonis-
ing%20the,a%20colonial%20point%20of%20view.
Colonialism, Explained
McQueen took photos of 76 thousand Year 3 primary school children. www.teenvogue.com/story/colonialism-explained
On the next page is a link to a short video that explains the artists
How you can help stop racism
process and reasons for making the artwork. www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/watch/bp-advice-for-helping-to-stop-racisimYou can also read
