Introduction
As the Community Engagement team we're passionate about making sure that London’s communities are visible and have their voices heard. Throughout the year, we support communities to commemorate key cultural, religious and community moments. So, this September, we’re excited to shine a spotlight on East and South East Asian Heritage Month which has launched this year.
In this blog, Amy Phung from ESEA Heritage Month's founding organisation Besea.n tells us why this month is important.
This Is Why ESEA Heritage Month Is So Important - Amy Phung
At besea.n, we aim to tackle discrimination on multiple levels that includes bringing the causes that affect the UK ESEA (East and South East Asian) community to light via our online platforms. Over the past year, we have been able to showcase the voices of Muslim, Queer, Trans and mixed-ethnicity members of the UK ESEA diaspora in the form of articles and resources published on our website, yet we are far from scratching the surface. This is why we decided to launch the UK's inaugural East and South East Asian Heritage Month in September 2021.
The variety of events taking place across the month is indicative of how driven we are to share aspects of our heritage with a wider UK-audience, and ensure that our stories are told with our perspectives and lived-experiences front and centre. Recent incidents across the world prove that without the prioritisation of ESEA voices in how our culture is portrayed, harmful narratives are perpetuated around who we are, which leads to further marginalising of our communities.
East and South East Asian Heritage Month is a powerful tool to create lasting effect beyond the month of September, by strengthening our networks and allowing an exchange of conversations and ideas that will enable further organising. East and South East Asia comprises 48 countries, the vastness of which cannot be fully encapsulated with just our platform alone. The nuanced relationship between countries and the fluidity of identities that make up members of the ESEA diaspora is a continuing conversation that I hope this Heritage Month is a lasting contribution to.
Above all else, East and South East Asian Heritage Month is about reclaiming joy. Oral history projects such as Ingat-Ingat, where the children or grandchildren of people who travelled from ESEA countries during the 1960s-70s to work for the NHS interview their elders about their experiences, have initiated conversations between generations of families that have rarely taken place. This is one of many events created in a space defined by ESEA people to share our histories, hopes and indelibly mark our place in the UK cultural landscape.
Adapted from an article by Amy Phung, originally published by The Leopard News.
You can see the full line up of ESEA Heritage Month events using the button below. Follow the campaign on social media by using the hashtag #ESEAHM2021.