What Does Heritage Mean To You?
21st September 2021 - Newham Heritage Month participants: Vicky Price, Sylvia Morgado, Larissa de Filippo, Newham Poetry Group, Ada Jusic, Nabilah Khan & Katherine Green
Newham Heritage Month defines heritage as “the things, people, places and memories that we value today and are worth preserving for the future”.
Heritage has different meanings for each of us, so here some of the Newham Heritage Month 2021 participants share their own personal takes on what heritage means to them.
Understanding and appreciating the history of your surroundings, and the journeys people have made from the past to the present.
Ada Jusic
It means everything really. Is who I am, what my values are, my cultural background, my family, my country and neighbour countries. Our traditions, our manners.
Larissa De Filippo
Heritage to me, means cultural heritage. Having and recognising that we’re all part of history, we all play a part whether big or small and recognising that is important. We all take something from the generation before and hand over to the generation after us. All our lives have an impact and influence. Heritage is recognising that.
Katherine Green
Heritage is the knowledge we have of our area. It helps us to understand the value of the place we live. Heritage is crucial to shape our identity and to help us to build a sense of belonging and care.
Newham Poetry Group
In the beginning before starting the Curators Project and going so deeply into Newham Heritage Month, I think heritage really meant to me about being Bangladeshi and Bengali but I realised it’s so much more than that, it’s about being a British Bangladeshi and it’s different to my parents about how I’ve grown up in a culture and country that’s so different to what they have, and not only is my culture wearing kameez and saris, but it’s so much more than that, it’s learning about British culture as well, and British heritage and learning about the wars and seeing the soldiers and it’s just it’s more broad than what I initially thought it was.
Nabilah Khan
Where you belong; your culture and value; document your family’s history to pass it on to future generations. The historical buildings, such as the Canning Town Library, that tells the history of the local area and people.
Sylvia Morgado
It is something unique to every individual and it is intangible; we hold our own heritage within ourselves. It is always growing and is something we can build and foster through the places, people and culture that we engage with.
Vicky Price
