Last week I had the pleasure of running workshops on the at The British Museum on ‘Building an inclusive Learning Programme in Museums Conference’.
We had a full turnout – a mixture of professionals across the education, culture, and heritage sector who came along to hear how we delivered a sensory story workshop about the impressive woman known as Nanny of the Maroons, 18th Century leader of the Jamaican Maroons (1686 – 1755); 16 times to SEN schools last autumn. Attendees jumped into the story with my props and art activities led by Ian Crighton. 🎨🖌
Last summer The British Museum commissioned me to research and write the story which could be performed with artist Ian Crighton to SEN pupils at primary and secondary level. The conference was a brilliant opportunity for us all to share techniques and experiences of making our workshops inclusive for everyone.
Nanny led the first group of enslaved Akan people to freedom, escaping into the Jamaican mountains, evading the British soldiers and rescuing many others until a peace treaty was finally signed, allowing Nanny (the only female Maroon leader) and her group to live freely and own the land we now call ‘Nanny Town’.
If you’d like to experience the story and learn how we delivered this to SEN schools, register for the next conference on 28th April at the British Museum: Teaching African Diaspora CPD Conference.
The picture below, of a Jamaican 500 dollar note, features Nanny of the Maroons (1686 – 1755), who was an 18th-century leader of the Jamaican Maroons, Hibiscus.
