Celebrating South Asian Heritage in the district
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Wakefield Council, in partnership with the West Yorkshire Archive Service, is hosting a series of community events as part of South Asian Heritage Month (18 July - 17 August).
The events will explore how the stories of our South Asian community are represented in Wakefield’s archives, museums and local studies collections.
“We’re proud to have a large South Asian community here in our district. We want to celebrate the community and tell their stories through our archive and museum collections.
“We know we have records and objects that relate to the South Asian communities, but we need to work with them to share and tell these stories. I hope lots of people will come along to these events to help us bring these stories to life.”
Cllr Hannah Appleyard
Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport
Cllr Melanie Jones, Chair of West Yorkshire Joint Services Committee, said: “Archives are the keepers of stories. By sharing and preserving the stories of Wakefield’s South Asian community, we can help make existing collections more accessible to diverse communities, helping to enrich our heritage and make it more representative of the people of Wakefield.”
The following events are free and everyone is welcome:
- Saturday 19 July, 10am-3pm - drop-in event at the West Yorkshire History Centre. This is an opportunity for people to explore some of the existing archive documents and museum objects that relate to the South Asian community in Wakefield and get a behind the scenes tour of the West Yorkshire archives. There will also be free South Asian inspired crafts and refreshments, and chance to chat and share stories.
- Thursday 7 August, 10am-1pm - South Asian themed holiday crafts, free family drop-in event at the West Yorkshire History Centre
- Thursday 14 August, 10am-1pm - South Asian themed holiday crafts, free family drop-in event at the West Yorkshire History Centre
Following on from these events, the project will work with community members to create an online exhibition and South Asian archives collection guide. It will also produce a guide to South Asian records in the current archives collection, so that these records are more accessible to a wider range of people in future.
West Yorkshire Archive Service were successful in securing a small grant of £2,957 from The National Archives to run the events. The Council has contributed £500 from it’s Our Heritage, Our Stories project. This is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, for the specific purpose of supporting heritage projects.
This project builds on previous partnership work, including work by the Next Generation youth group in Wakefield. Find out more at https://www.mylearning.org/stories/the-story-of-the-pakistani-community-in-wakefield-west-yorkshire/1140