Ignored Heritage Pilot Programme

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Strategic Report

Sporting Heritage CIC

The role of sporting heritage in challenging stereotypes about British South Asians in football

Being Black and Being Millwall

We explore racism in football through the experiences of black Millwall fans

Gracing the Mat: The Influence of Panjabi Wrestling in the UK

This is a pilot programme activity which aims to begin our journey to ensure a more diverse and relevant sporting heritage sector in the UK. As part of this activity we have commissioned an Ignored Heritage Strategic Report, which is available to download below.

Sporting heritage collections have the ability to share and tell the story of many different diverse histories. However, to date, the predominant focus, as with much of heritage, has ignored many individuals and communities from black, Asian and ethnic minority communities. This has resulted in a bias presentation of sporting heritage in the nations heritage venues, and a lack of knowledge and awareness of where these collections are held within the community.

This piece of work is the first step for the network organisation to support both ourselves and the sector to:

• Better understand and represent ignored communities instead of using the term BAME – which specific communities are ignored, how do we know, and what can we do about it? How can both Sporting Heritage and the sector better understand how to engage with different ignored communities?
• Explore the current limitations in sporting heritage storytelling where black, Asian and ethnic minority communities are ignored or hidden and understand how this be rectified. What steps need to be put into place and how can these stories be representative of the people and communities concerned?
• Develop a clearer understanding of how both Sporting Heritage and the sector as whole, can rectify this situation going forward including practical recommendations for future activity which can be actioned in the short, medium and long term
• Begin to develop key strategic partnerships which enable Sporting Heritage to better understand how to continue this work, and how to support the sector’s development and place the individuals and communities with ignored heritage at the centre of our activity

For more information or to get involved, please contact Kristopher McKie kristophermckie@gmail.com

You can also keep up to date with the latest podcast episodes from this project on the Ignored Heritage Playlist on SoundCloud.