FOI Request - Race and Culture in Council Area
Request 101003550383
I am interested in how race is addressed in the council area, with particular regard to cultural activities and the built environment.
For the last year up to date, but inclusive of information and documents from work which may have begun before this period and is still being pursued by the council.
(For example, a project to identify monument may have begun in 2020, but the list compiled from this project may still be used by the council now)
Please disregard requests to schools, galleries, museums libraries as appropriate - if the council does not control these
1. Could you please provide any list or review/research/report/survey of locations (streets/buildings/parks), or public art (such as statues), plaques, commemorations, graves, memorials that the council has produced in relation to slavery, colonialism, empire/British Empire, racism, white supremacy, Black Lives Matter, decolonising, racial justice.
In question form: “What in the built environment has the organisation, or a group working on its behalf, identified as being linked to racism, slavery, colonialism: that is, contested history?”
2. Could you please provide details of what being done to highlight, reinterpret, redisplay, or rename aspects of the environment in the council area identifying in part 1 of this request
In question form: “What work (such as adding interpretation, or information boards, or plaques close to contested monuments) has been undertaken by the council to address these legacies?
3. If applicable, can you please provide information on what is being done to address issues of slavery, colonialism, empire/British Empire, racism, white supremacy, Black Lives Matter, decolonising, racial justice in council museums/galleries?
For example, what information boards have been added, what has been taken off display or put on display, what new plaques have been erected?
4. The same as for part 3, but can you provide information on how council libraries have addressed these issues
For example, have any books been specifically banned or removed from the library? Has a system of trigger warnings been established for sensitive topics?
Could you please provide details of any books which have been taken from public display and perhaps placed at the desk, or in a reserve stack, because they may be offensive or inappropriate ?
(This can be broad, I do not need an full check of all items in the library; please do not get bogged won in this if it is likely to go over the limit)
5. For any council run or supported events in the area, how have these events been more inclusive or a greater focus on diversity?
For example, Bonfire nights or Christmas lights events
6. For any schools affiliated with the council, could you provide details on how the curriculum has been diversified?
Council provide any details or advice to school provided by the council on design the curriculum
Response 13-05-2024
1. Not held. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
2. Doors Open Day Sept 2020 - David Alston held an online talk titled ‘Moray: Building on Slavery’. The presentation discussed the links between Moray’s built heritage and the slave trade.
3. Falconer Museum, Forres hosted a Māori Skull Repatriation ceremony, attended by Councillors and Council Officials. Staff from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa conducted the traditional ceremony to restore the skull, given to the museum in 1883, to her homeland. It was supported by children from Anderson’s Primary School, who sang traditional Scots and Māori songs. National media coverage certainly raised the profile of the Museum and Moray. A seminar explaining the history and culture of the Māori people and the significance of the ceremony was very well attended.
4. We have a proactive approach to stock selection. The majority of Library stock is selected for us by our contracted book supplier, but this is based on selection profiles (size of library, demographic of community, popularity of areas/genres etc..) provided by the library service. In addition we use an evidence based stock management tool that enables us to identify diversity, equity and inclusion titles across the service and use this to inform a proactive approach to inclusivity, sourcing titles from trade publications (Bookseller etc..) if required.
It is library service policy not to add or remove any item from our shelves solely at the request of others. We might restrict access to prevent damage or theft but not as a form of censorship.
We acknowledge that on occasion individuals may find items in our collections “offensive”. However, we do not label items to warn customers of potentially ‘sensitive’ content. Catalogue records may occasionally be tagged with subject headings that may be deemed sensitive where they relate to the subject of the book, however this is reliant on the catalogue record, and these are created externally and imported into our system. Where available these tags are viewable on our public catalogue https://moraylibraries.spydus.co.uk/ but it is not the policy of the service to specifically tag stock in this way, nor is it the intended purpose of these tags to act as trigger warnings.
5. We do not operate any events directly, we simply allow open spaces to be hired for events to be held on. Significant events and event safety plans go before Moray Events Oversight Group (MEOG), chaired by Env Health, and respective departments have opportunity to comment/feedback on plans/proposals.
6. The Moray Learning, Teaching and Assessment Framework shares National resources for schools to use on race equality and anti-racism as well as resources from the Development Education Councils which includes career long professional learning.
Every school has access to the Northern Alliance Curriculum Rationale Toolkit and training sways which are contained in the Moray Toolkit. There are Moray Council Learning, Teaching and Assessment Frameworks for curricular areas which link to National guidance and resources.