“Cried when we left...“But here we stand...“Birdsong early in the morning...“In this journey of mine...

“Cried when we left...

...tears for everyone we left behind in the country”

“But here we stand...

...we have truly made our presence”

“Birdsong early in the morning...

...sounding like the call for prayer”

“In this journey of mine...

...you became the essence of my soul, my dearest moon. My dearest love, my friend”

Welcome to Different Moons
LetterThe Different Moons project set out to record the history, lives and stories of individuals from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India who came to Britain after the Second World War and settled in Rossendale, Lancashire. The project, developed by Horse + Bamboo Theatre, has been led by artists, themselves mainly women from a South Asian and Muslim heritage, who used the stories of the first immigrants and the rich legacy of South Asian and Islamic art forms both to inspire and feed their own work and then to encourage different generations of other women, girls and children living in Rossendale to express their own feelings and thoughts. The recordings, poems, animations and stories collected here are all part of that response.
About

Background

The Different Moons project developed as part…

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Interviews

Our general approach

The Rossendale community has always…

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Poems

The writing groups

The poems, accounts and stories…

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Animations

Why we made animations

Our pilot project for…

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Testimonials

“At the start didn’t feel I could write a poem – learnt that I could.”

“..Everyone got so many ideas that you’d never imagine they’d come out with.”

“With the sayings and the writing I got emotional – in a good way.”

“Learnt where paper cutting comes from, history of Chinese art, really enjoyed it.” 

-Feedback from HCL Women’s workshops:

“I've always wondered who was the first Asian person to come and now I’ve found out. I like asking my parents what their childhood was like and when they first came here. I’ve really liked doing the writing.” 

“My favourite lesson was this because I’ve learnt to use mehndi and I learnt that my mum said I was helpful but I talked too much.” 

"I liked the bit where we learnt about the moon. I’ve learnt about my family, my grandma was the first person to come to England who is still alive.”

-Feedback from RVISS children’s workshops: