We All Came Here From Somewhere The People's Palace, Amnesty International & Artists in Exile Glasgow Friday 20 June 2008 - World Refugee Day The People's Palace & Winter Gardens (G40 1AT)

• Glasgow Museums - a group of 13 museums whose entire collection is recognised as being of national significance. The People's Palace focuses specifically on Glasgow, its history and its people.
• Amnesty International - a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all.
• Artists in Exile Glasgow - a network for refugee, asylum seeking, international and British artists across all disciplines.

The People's Palace museum tells the story of people in Glasgow from c1750 to the present, with a combination of permanent and changing exhibitions. The museum is currently engaged in finding ways to genuinely reflect the diversity in contemporary Glasgow in response to its changing demographics and the challenges that accompany this. In contrast, the Doulton Fountain, which was gifted to the city in 1888, is now an uncomfortable symbol of the British Empire when it was at its height. Believed to be the largest terracotta fountain in existence, it depicts four dominions - South Africa, India, Canada and Australia - and is topped off by a six-foot statue of Queen Victoria. Now 120 years old, it stands as a reminder of our colonial history, making us think about how we all ended up here, together.

Overview of Event
The event took place to mark World Refugee Day on Friday 20 June 2008. It opened with a welcoming address from Kiran Singh (Learning and Access Curator, The People's Palace) and a short talk from Fiona Hayes (Social History Curator, The People's Palace) about the history of the Doulton Fountain. Four artists were invited to represent the four dominions depicted by the Fountain, performing on a 'soap box' about what it means to them, as 'products' of the Empire. This included poetry, stories and music. Following this, Graham Campbell (GARA and Chair of African & Caribbean Network) discussed 'Where is Africa?' highlighting hidden histories and institutional racism. Next, Amnesty International's workshop encouraged small-group work to think about the experience of asylum and flight, resulting in presentations and debate. The event concluded with Able Peter Miller's reflections on the whole event and on his experience as a refugee from Zimbabwe.

In FOCUS: Tawona
In 1996, Tawona left Zimbabwe for Glasgow, and although he originally came here as a student studying Health, he is now "chasing" his dream of being an artist. "I never thought I'd be a poet," Tawona tells me, and yet in 2005, Tawona, his brother Ernest, and their friend Tarneem, founded an Urban Poetry Group, Seeds of Thought, as a way to meet other artists and to bring people together by sharing cultures through poetry, art and music. His love for the spoken word was passed down to him by his parents, and especially his grandparents, as stories in Zimbabwe are rarely written down. Oral storytelling has become a necessity - it is the only way to keep these stories alive.

Tawona was approached by Artists in Exile Glasgow, to respond to the Fountain from an African viewpoint, as part of We All Came Here From Somewhere. He performed two poems on his 'soap box', one of which - Stone Eyes - was written specifically for the event, and was accompanied by live music from his brother, Ernest. Their performance was about "celebrating identity and the history of our own family, the Moyo Chirandu." The audience really responded to their piece, with many surprised by Zimbabwe's history. For example, Tawona says, "They didn't realise that the school curriculum in Zimbabwe is set in Cambridge and Oxford. We have the same Highway Code. Many places are named after Queen Victoria." Victoria Falls, he tells me, was named so by David Livingstone, the famous Scottish explorer, but his countrymen call it Mosi Oa Tunya. This means, 'The smoke that thunders' - "because of the 5-mile radius of mist created by the force of the water from the Falls hitting the bottom, and the volume of sound this creates."

Refugee Week is "about social empowerment for Refugees. It's a chance for them to feel good about themselves - dignified, positive; hopeful." Tawona believes that it is important to share experiences, even if our difficulties have been different, and it is vital to give a space for asylum seeking, refugee and local people to get-together. "Refugee Week is about trying to understand each other better, and art is a medium for doing that." Next year, he has his sights set on doing a play or a spoken word event involving young people. He wants people from all walks of life to be involved, not just asylum seekers and refugees. "People get tired of it," he says. If it is open to everyone, he believes that the 'what about me?' attitude will disappear. It will just be "there's this thing going on and everyone is taking part."

For now, Tawona will continue with his work developing the Seeds of Thought Urban Poetry Group. He hopes to return to Zimbabwe at some point in the future but has no immediate plans to do so, and although he came here as a student, he says he now feels "almost like a refugee" with the deteriorating political circumstances there. Having said that, his outlook remains full of positivity: "Travel is not as easy in Africa as it is here so you don't often get to meet people from other parts of Africa. But here you realise we're not so different. It's a big eye opener. The African community still feels very young here. There is no central meeting point - a place to gather - all these things are still to come."