Dig Where You Stand 2021 Exhibition

Archives and who keeps them, who records them and what gets in has long been debated as a site for racial and reparative justice. Not only that, but for most marginalised communities who still have to fight for representation and recognition, it’s proof that we were always here. ‘Dig Where You Stand’ isn’t about kings and queens but ordinary people who end up in the archive as fragments of a will, notice in a newspaper, play bills or a baptismal record. Black and Brown people and other racialised communities have been here for centuries and I wanted to bring that out. It feels particularly important now. These fragmentary segments are not the full picture and we may never get that full picture. It’s ok. I don’t need the whole picture and neither do you. I just need to share this small bit with you, in the hopes that your appetite be wetted. I chose the stories and people who spoke the loudest to me. They may not be the ones that speak to you. That’s ok. Go now, walk to your local archives and claim an ancestor, they’re waiting. I wanted to tell the stories that I already knew and to tell the story by any means necessary. To speak story to power. Dig where you stand.