On 11 March 2017, Rainbow Pilgrims celebrated the annual Crossing Border Day at the Horniman Museum together with our friends from Micro Rainbow International. 
The week before, we attended a ‘storytelling & object handling’ workshop in the Museum’s ‘secret’ 4000-object-chamber. The 14+ participants had great fun exploring traditional clothing and handcrafts, music instruments and other miscellaneous objects including a taxidermy chicken, and stories , songs and dances about identity and heritage soon were flowing freely across the room.
On Crossing Borders Day the workshop participants were invited to share their object stories with other museum guests and members of staff (and not to forget the delicious lunch in the community tent!):
Under the Rainbow: Come and join an object-based storytelling session led by the Rainbow Pilgrims project in collaboration with Micro Rainbow International. Rainbow Pilgrims is a Heritage Lottery supported oral history and archive project that discovers the ‘hidden history’ of LGBTQI migrants in Britain. Micro Rainbow UK works with LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees to heal through the arts and combat isolation. Hands on Base. 2pm – 2.30pm. Suitable for families with children 5+.
We are looking forward immensely to working together further with MRI and the Horniman, building on our storytelling experiences. Next stop Refugee Week, June 2017 – Watch this Space!
Photo credit: Mary Humphrey
