Archives in Action - Celebrating Journeys to Cheshire
Over the last two years Journeying to Cheshire, a collaboration with the Cheshire, Halton and Warrington Race Equality Centre (CHAWREC), has captured the experiences of individuals from many and very different countries who have crossed borders and made Cheshire their home.
In September 2025 it was finally time to share and celebrate this important project. And what a celebration it was! We were delighted to be joined by so many guests, including Lord Mayor Cllr Sherin Akhtar, with the room packed to bursting and the energy buzzing as we came together at the Unity Centre in Chester for an evening of celebration, connection, and community.
Having tucked into incredible food prepared by the volunteers at the Unity Centre’s Community Cafe, guests heard from project participants during a thought-provoking panel discussion as they spoke with wisdom and honesty about their experiences.
We were also thrilled to share the project’s creative outputs - a wonderfully crafted zine full of advice, a collaborative poem and an immersive soundscape. To hear these for yourself, head over to Soundcloud where you can also catch snippets of the rich conversations that made the project so special. (You don’t need a Soundcloud account to listen - just press Play and close the sign-up box by clicking the X in the top right corner!)
As the evening unfolded, artists Gill Smith and Chris Murray captured the magic in real time through live scribing, creating a visual story from conversations, ideas, and moments. The striking finished piece will be given pride of place at the Unity Centre where it will continue to spark curiosity and conversation into the future.
Thanks go to the incredible panel participants, Kateryna, Maisaa and Taha who volunteered to share their experiences, Dan Edmonds, former Cheshire Archives Community Engagement Officer who returned to talk all about the project and lead the panel and to Shantele, Karen, Negin and volunteers from CHAWREC for their support, a wonderful venue and the delicious food that brought everyone together.
We couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate everything the project has achieved as we prepare to share it more widely.
By Anya Moon, Community Engagement Officer
