DIVA spoke to Roni Guetta and Rowan Rush-Morgan about the Queer Heritage South project
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGES BY ROSIE POWELL
Whether you realise it or not, history is brewing away all around you. Whether it be in the box under your bed full of old photographs or the diary you stuck club night flyers in, you have probably been an archivist your entire life. And it is this history that has become the focus of a digital archive in Brighton called Queer Heritage South.
This heritage learning project is set on promoting and celebrating the rich and diverse LGBTQIA histories of Brighton. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Marlborough Productions, Queer Heritage South has been able to build up their own online archive to create a digital resource which the community will be able to use to access their own history.
The project initially began in the 2010s with a number of heritage projects occurring around Brighton & Hove. From oral history recordings of queer stories to a monthly LGBTQ History Club, it was clear that there was a demand for queer stories to be told. When the LGBTQ History Club got the funding to continue activity and be able to exhibit as part of Queer The Pier exhibition at Brighton Museum, it was evident that the LGBTQIA community in Brighton wanted to have a hands-on role in preserving their history.
Enter the Queer Heritage South digital archive! By giving people the ability to log their own archival material digitally and write captions, this online archive is helping to tell stories which would have otherwise been lost. Rowan Rush-Morgan, Community Archivist at Queer Heritage South, spoke to DIVA about the importance of keeping these memories alive.
“We know that for some LGBTQIA audiences, particularly older lesbians, trans and non-binary communities, disabled LGBTQIA people, their collections and material aren’t really held in the current institutions,” Rowan explains. “Some people don’t understand that their personal histories are important to record as part of queer historical records.”
From club night flyers to t-shirts, the archive is brimming with queer memory. Roni Guetta, Project Manager for Queer Heritage South, reveals that the most rewarding part of the experience so far has been connecting with the community. “We keep a poster or flyer, but really we’re keeping an entire story. A network of connections. Some political ideas that might have been brewing at the time. There’s so much that is symbolically held in these objects,” Roni tells me.
“I spent time with a member of our community who had boxes and boxes of photos of topless lesbian camping. Who knew that was a thing?! We always think our generation is so radical, kinky. But when you look in people’s collections you realise that queer life has always been fantastically exceptional, and creative.”
So what’s next for Queer Heritage South? To coincide with the 60th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967, they will be running a community-curated public exhibition with Brighton Museum in 2027. In terms of the digital archive, the team are working with the University of Sussex to improve the functionality of the website and make it a space that anyone can turn to.
In the face of attacks on the LGBTQIA community, the archive stands as a strong reminder that we have always been here. “History can be forgotten, even if it’s the history of your community,” Roni warns. “Our history is so fragile. We have to fight for it. We have to record it. The project brings people together to talk about those spaces.”
You can browse and contribute to Queer Heritage South’s archive at www.queerheritagesouth.co.uk or follow the project at @queerinbrighton on Instagram. Queer Heritage South is a programme of Marlborough Productions and is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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