Heritage in Action – Sajida Ismail and Anisa Saleh

Walk description:

This route is part of a four part commission by The Guardian’s Legacies of Enslavement Programme and GM Moving called the Heritage in Action Routes.

The Legacies of Enslavement programme understands restorative justice as a process of dialogue and collaboration aimed at repair and healing between The Guardian – an institution that benefited from transatlantic enslavement – and descendants of the enslaved. Manchester was the first industrial city in the world. This was built on the cotton trade. This is a shared history.

This decolonial guided route speaks to Manchester’s waterways, railways and connection to the transatlantic slave trade. Inspired by Robert Macfarlane’s exploration of rivers as ‘beings’ rather than ‘resources’, the walk holds together innovation and injustice, and asks how cities might repair their relationship with the ripple effect of this history.

The group will meet outside the Barbirolli Square.

We have included a short interactive activity at the Science Industry Museum which should last approximately 30 minutes.