{"id":14902,"date":"2021-06-06T16:12:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T15:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/?p=14902"},"modified":"2022-09-09T18:25:42","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T17:25:42","slug":"the-m-shed-colston-consultative-display-whats-in-and-whats-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2021\/06\/the-m-shed-colston-consultative-display-whats-in-and-whats-out\/","title":{"rendered":"The M Shed Colston \u2018Consultative Display\u2019 \u2013 What\u2019s in and what\u2019s out?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Picture: courtesy of J. Backhouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After months of secrecy instigated by the Mayor\u2019s Office finally M Shed are launching their \u2018Consultative Display\u201d entitled The Colston Statue: What Next?<\/em> For many of us the Colston statue should have been left to \u2018sleep with the fishes\u2019, where many thousands of his Company\u2019s victims ended up during the middle-passage<\/a>. But a mixture of paranoia in the Mayor\u2019s Office about a public backlash which might have affected his chances for re-election or perhaps seeing an opportunity to up visitors figures at M Shed we have ended up with a half-way house solution. This temporary \u2018consultative display\u2019 is very much in keeping with the Mayor\u2019s approach that if \u2018we all have a chat about things\u2019 then the City will be \u2018brought together\u2019; whatever that means?<\/p>\n

BRHG historians have been at the forefront of recent research into Edward Colston and have been debunking myths concerning the leading slave-trader for several years. Yet despite this BRHG were not consulted by M Shed throughout the planning and design of the exhibition. It was only at the very last stages that we realized that the M Shed curators lacked comprehensive data for their timeline of protests concerning Edward Colston. This is something BRHG and Countering Colston have been researching and have recently published<\/a>. After one of the M Shed curators praised the content of our timeline, we managed to get an audience with the lead organisers of the display. This meeting was on the grounds that BRHG, like just about everyone else, had no idea about the form or more importantly the content of the display due to the lack of transparency.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s in the display and what\u2019s out?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

From our very brief look at a PowerPoint describing the \u2018consultative display\u2019 we noticed several problems. First, the history of Edward Colston is very light and has significant omissions, particularly with reference to his involvement in transatlantic slavery. This is partly down to a reliance on out-of-date secondary sources and a lack of engagement with more recent research. This is also reflected in errors in the display in documenting his philanthropy. Far more significant, however, were the omissions in the display\u2019s timeline of dissent and protest, particularly over the last few years.<\/p>\n

In 2015 Countering Colston campaigners were not particularly focused on the statue. Instead they specifically targeted for protests the physical celebrations and commemorations of Edward Colston organized by the Society of Merchant Venturers and various Colston societies and hosted by the Church of England. Up until 2008 two private schools were central to the Colston celebrations, Colston\u2019s in Stapleton and Colston\u2019s Girl\u2019s School (CGS) in Redland whose pupils attended the Charter Day and Commemoration Day ceremonies at the Cathedral. However, after 2008 the Society of Merchant Venturers began taking control of a group of state schools under the academy system and CGS entered the state sector as part of that scheme. This meant that hundreds of school children from the state sector along with those at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple Secondary School were being made to go and worship Edward Colston\u2019s philanthropy each year without being informed of his numerous crimes against humanity. This was an important driver for the activists to demand change in 2015.<\/p>\n

Over the succeeding years after protests, meetings, public argument in the media and debate with institutions, such as the Bristol Cathedral and diocese, Countering Colston and their supporters managed to achieve a number of significant changes and concessions, particularly in 2017. These included:<\/p>\n