Materiality, Memory, Motherhood and Migration

Abstract

Materiality, Memory, Motherhood and Migration is an interdisciplinary project situated at the intersection of the arts, health and humanities. It is a collaboration between the University of Lancashire and East Meets West, an international women’s group in North West England which supports asylum seekers and refugees. The project uses material culture to explore asylum seeking and refugee women’s experiences of maternity and their transition to motherhood in the UK. The overall aim is to explore the potential of innovative and more inclusive ways of working with asylum seeking and refugee women to ensure that their voices are heard and at the centre of conversations about their maternity care and perinatal wellbeing.

As part of two community-based workshops women were asked to bring along objects related to motherhood, that were special to them for whatever reason. Our focus was on objects which Turkel (2007)1 describes as having had a role in a significant life transition, whereby an object serves as a marker of relationships and emotional connections. The significant life transition in this instance was becoming a mother! Objects brought along to the workshops became the catalyst for conversations amongst the women from East Meets West and members of the research team. The women explored and shared experiences of maternity, becoming a mother, motherhood and mothering in the UK. As the women talked about their objects and reflected upon their experiences, issues of loss, adaptation, commonality and difference were explored. Alongside, there was warmth, friendship and an underlying connectedness through simply being women and mothers together.

Conversations were recorded and objects photographed. Images of the objects and the women’s words have since been exhibited and presented at community and academic events related to migrant and maternal health, and inclusive and creative methods. This booklet brings together a selection of objects and their associated stories of materiality, memory, motherhood and migration.