Introduction  by Pam Schweitzer

This project is about memories and reminiscence activities. It contains fascinating life stories told by older people from ethnic minority groups, and provides some starting points for reminiscence work. It has been produced to support the work of the many organisations, both statutory and voluntary, which provide meeting places, meals and activities for ethnic elders, in order to combat the loneliness and lack of stimulation which can accompany old age. These community, education, health and faith organisations give a new focus to older people who have lost the structure of their working lives and the companionship it provided. In many cases, they have also lost key family members through bereavement or relocation.

Preparing a show - BASCA Elders' Group remembering songs from the Caribbean

Reminiscence
Reminiscence sessions, and the creative activities arising from them, can make an enjoyable and enriching contribution to the programmes on offer to ethnic minority elders. It is natural in later life to think back and reconnect with the people, places and events of one's past. This process helps to make sense of one's life as a whole, reviewing it constructively, valuing one's experience and coming to terms with the present. For elders who are physically removed from the countries where they grew up, it is particularly valuable to reminisce with others from a similar culture and background about their younger days, which are often remembered so sharply and poignantly in old age.

There is little suitable resource material currently available relating to reminiscence with ethnic minority elders. We hope therefore that the stories we have gathered and the activities we have suggested will help to fill this gap, acting as a stimulus for further reminiscence, discussion and creative work. The project is also intended to offer younger readers a chance to listen to and learn from the life journeys of these older people, and to increase their own understanding of different cultures. With these objectives in mind, many ideas have been included to encourage reminiscence-related classroom activities, particularly inter-generational learning journeys.

Life Stories
We have interviewed older people from India and Pakistan, the Caribbean, Africa and the Far East, who settled in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. The interviews were conducted, sometimes in mother tongues and using translators, in people's own homes or in community and day centres. We are extremely grateful to the group leaders, translators and others who helped facilitate this work.

The life-stories come from twenty elders, though ten times that number have participated in the group reminiscence sessions and creative arts activities we have run as part of the project. The culmination of this creative work was a 3-day inter-cultural festival of reminiscence arts in which the groups of ethnic minority elders presented plays, films and exhibitions based on their past lives and worked together in practical arts workshops.

We asked all the interviewees to tell us about significant stages in their lives:

• their home and family in the country of their birth

• the circumstances of their growing up and their education

• their courting days and marriage

• their decision to leave home and their journey to Britain

• their early years in their new country

• their experience of growing old in Britain

Cultural exchange - black and white pensioners rehearsing together

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© Age Exchange 2006