Moving Stories: Lewisham – a creative competition for young people aged 9–18
In 2022, we invited young people from across Lewisham to design exhibits responding to what migration means to them as part of Moving Stories: Lewisham, a creative competition we ran during Borough of Culture, supported by Landsec.
Hundreds of young people teamed up to submit over 50 creative ideas. We shortlisted six entries and matched each with creative professionals to develop these ideas into prototypes, which we displayed outside the entrance to the Migration Museum for a week in December.
On December 6, we hosted a fantastic finals event, at which six shortlisted teams presented their ideas to a panel of high-profile judges. All were truly worthy winners but, after much deliberation, the judges chose Material Memories, a mixed-media display of family objects, artwork, audio and poetry exploring her Palestinian heritage by 10-year-old Muna.
Muna presenting at the finals event for Moving Stories: Lewisham at the Migration Museum on 6 December 2022 (Image: Elzbieta Piekacz)
Muna worked with our creative team to develop a full exhibit, which was displayed in our windows in 2023, alongside all of the finalists’ prototypes.
Find out more about Muna’s display below:
MATERIAL MEMORIES
Muna
Palestine is very special to me. My jiddou (grandad) grew up there and my mum has many memories of visiting.
I have no direct experience of Palestine, but this exhibit is about how I experience it in my everyday life, as a 10-year-old girl from south-east London. I also wanted to explore family, home, and how the past mixes with the present.
The large words are Arabic words that me and my family use in our day-to-day lives. Find out what they mean here.
You can also listen to an interview with my mum and jiddou and hear my poem called ‘Green, Black, White and Red’.
The za’atar spice has travelled to my house from Palestine and the pictures are of my mum in Palestine and my family who are still there. The boats made of walnut shells are inspired by my conversations with jiddou and his memory of making toys when he was my age. I’ve made three characters to sit on the boats: me, my mum and my jiddou.
Judges:
Aditi Anand
Flora Henry
Gus Casely-Hayford
Khizra Ahmed
Richard Upton
Artists:
Anan Tello
Antonia Olex
Arteh Odjidja
Christian Sinibaldi
Osbert Parker
Mike Nisbet
Nadina Ali
Shorsh Saleh
Coaches:
Antonia Olex
Jonathan Pitcher
Jon Watson
Jo Smee
Paul Redden
Supported by:
Film by Felix Ursell
This is. Really big for the kids so thanks