Do you remember Dorothea?

Exeter woman celebrated in Black History Month

It's Black History Month, with new initiatives to celebrate diversity in the county.

Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum, which is to reopen on 24 October, has commissioned two interviews with black artists whose works have been or will be featured at the museum. Nahem Shoa features in a video talking about his experiences of racism in art. Nahem’s Portrait of Des is  part of the RAMM collection, and was donated by the artist in 2014.

Exeter woman Dorothea Hendy is remember in 'Telling our Stories, Finding our Roots: Exeter's Multi-Coloured History', a Heritage Lottery funded project run by Devon Development Education (DDE) and run multicultural team of local volunteers.
 
Ms Hendy was  the daughter of a black sea captain and a white cornishwoman. She lived in Exeter for 60 years, dying in the city aged 85 in 2002. She is remembered for helping people in lots of ways, including making wedding dresses and wedding cakes for them, when times were hard.
 
Those who knew or grew up with her are interviewed on a website from a number of years ago. She was a regular at Wonford Community Centre’s Bingo and a founder member of Wonford luncheon club. Her story, which includes a frightening experience of racism one night in the war. is told on the website at

www.tellingourstoriesexeter.org.uk/index.php?page=mrs-hendy
 
Cllr Amal Ghusain, Exeter's lead councillor for communities and culture, says the city should celebrate its black history and tell the stories that need to be told.