‘Londoni Memoirs’, 2021 - Ongoing

Supported by The National Heritage Fund.

Londoni Memoirs is a collection of stories, visual archive, ephemera and portraits of a generation of Bangladeshi migrants from the 50’s - 70’s.

Seema Khalique’s inspiration for this work came from not having any recollection of her late father’s early life in the UK, who arrived in 1956 followed by her mother in 1972 after the Bangladesh Liberation War, in the hope of a better life. A story of a generation of Bangladeshi’s lost between liberation and immigration.

This on-going project includes portraits of Bangladeshi migrants from 50’s - 70’s in present day with audio interviews to finally document these untold stories. Khalique will also curate heirlooms, ephemera, photograph and film as part of her archive collection of that time period.

 The juxtaposition of escaping genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation War to a new life in a foreign country defined this generation and the British Bangladeshis, like the artist that were born here after. This project addresses the silence in history of this transition and honours a generation that were pivotal in creating the multicultural society the UK enjoys today.