The working life of Museum of London

You might wonder why I talk to so many people in one week? What has it got to do with my job?

You see, it is at the end of the day about people and good relationships with them; it is about networks, information sharing, solution sharing. Diversity Managers must be open to learn. For example, I have recently proposed the idea of Faith Rooms at all three sites of the Museum Group - where people from the community can come to pray and feel included etc. Now this was not my idea. I got this idea from the Head of Human Resources who shared this with me when the two of us met to discuss the Diversity Workforce Action Plan; which means in simple terms a plan for the next four years on how to make sure more diverse people come work for us.

I also co-chair the Mayor’s African and Asian Sub committee on Equitable Partnerships, which really in simple terms means making sure we have good examples of how to work together in an equal and respectable way (big heritage organisations and smaller ones). We would like to see this happening by the time the Olympics comes to London in 2012. So my mind is on the Olympics as well, in helping to make London the world class destination in heritage when the time comes. World class means, we have to show we are diverse and upbeat! To get there, I work with dance groups, theatre groups, global education groups, Chinese health groups, Indian and Asian cultural groups, Caribbean groups, African groups, universities, libraries, archives, other museums, film makers, the African societies, the Royal Geographic Society, corporate ethnic minority networks and so on.

You see for diversity to happen, everybody must own it. It is not something that must be imposed. My style is to get to the wealth of ideas and experience that is already there inside and outside the organisation and to make sure we come up with a plan for change and world class excellence together. This is the reason why my day involves working closely with people and doing a lot of problem solving and planning to help make London a more equal place where everybody regardless of disability, ethnic origin, sexuality, national origin, religion, faith and age can feel they belong. And my job has specifically to do with how museums can do this for London. The journey to get there, is quite exciting. It involves lots of discussions with many diverse people, listening to their needs and interests, planning how to make things happen, working with volunteers, and meeting working partners. I easily work, meet and talk to about 50 Londoners with diverse and different backgrounds in one week. And everyone has something valuable to say, to contribute which we can feed into our plans to make us a place that is relevant to Londoners.

This week Mia asked me what does a typical week look like for me in my job. It got me thinking, now how do I actually explain what I do? My family and friends often ask me and I cannot explain that it is about legal compliance and stuff like that. Because they’ll say - now what exactly do you mean?

Now you’d think working for a museum means sitting in a stuffy place whole day. No, that is indeed far from the truth, because museums are about people out there (about you as readers and where you are) and getting to know more about you and other Londoners and inviting you to “own” this museum where we work for you and in your interests. But that also means that I do a lot of work with my colleagues inside the walls of the museum building.

I am very busy and do many interesting things. For example, I am at the moment arranging a lot of meetings with colleagues for one to one discussions on their progress with making equality and diversity happen in their departments. For example, last week the Head of Design (she puts up exhibitions that make breaking news on television) and I discussed how to bring in more volunteers from Black and Ethnic minorities and disabled people for training into her department where these communities are severely under-represented in museums in the UK. So we worked on a plan and agreed on a strategy to make this happen. I gave her some advice (where she can find the money and support for this ) and promised to be there for her to help her in achieving this as an important milestone for her department.

Sometimes, the solutions come as we speak and work and plan together. For example, another colleague of mine (who manages about 1 million urban objects - the largest in the world) and I got this idea that we could work with the Police Department to promote the importance of Archaeology skills in every day life of solving crimes, for example! His department already works very successfully with volunteers and vulnerable adults. So the two of us and his department are currently thinking through a plan for this for youth, especially London boys from cultural backgrounds that have been excluded from heritage.

I also established a relationship with the Diversity Manager of SOAS who is a disability champion and she has told me that SOAS serves a community of 400 languages; so we can see how we can strengthen a partnership that will attract more Londoners to come work for us. I also work on LGBT issues with the Tower Hamlets Council and have shared with our head of Schools and Learning, the “Schools Out” project, which is about working on sexuality issues with schools.

And, oops just got an email from a colleague in Press and Marketing who has come up with this absolutely fascinating idea of addressing new ideas about beauty in our London, Sugar and Slavery gallery! Now I’ve just been talking about this with a colleague who sits next to me works in the fashion industry, and she is very excited. Because you see there are still people who think women from Africa are ugly and research shows that this affects their chances to get work and be treated fairly. And did you know that we talk about these things in our London, Sugar and Slavery gallery at Museum in Docklands which you must go see! Now International Women’s Day is coming up next year in March, the archaeologists are arranging something exciting around objects found in London and what the diverse women around the world think of them…and then we may also have a new take on beauty and women. A fashion show perhaps? Or perhaps a fashion design workshop? What do you think? Want to come along?

Last week, my colleague Mia, asked me to write about myself and how I came to work at the Museum of London Group as Diversity Manager.

Now how did I land here at 45 years of age, and in London of all places? See I was born in that beautiful place called Cape Town in South Africa - ever been? It is written on the doors of the London black cabs as one of the places you must visit before you die!

I grew up as a girl called “coloured” (a very bad term there then , like calling someone “pikey” or “paki” here today). A major part of my life (like most South Africans my age and older) has been a struggle just for basic human rights which I only got as a right to vote and citizenship at the age of 32 years - I was already then a proud mother of two lovely boys (who were also born into apartheid). Fortunately the one was eight (who spent his early days campaigning with me and being dragged to endless meetings to free Mandela. The other one was two when apartheid ended, so fortunately was saved from much of the trauma of living in a country where we did not enjoy human rights. I am telling you this because I want you to understand where my passion for diversity and equality in heritage comes from and how this connects to my present job.

In South Africa, I was determined to fight for human rights and to survive an evil system. I worked my own way into the University of Cape Town and taught myself English (Afrikaans is my first language). I enrolled for a course in History and also in Archaeology. And I was not sorry. My world opened up. I became interested in museums, culture and in what it is that makes us all so different yet from the same human race. I also worked in museums on how to change them from telling the old story which had casts of my ancestors (the Khoisan people) along with animals and plants on display. I also worked in the Medical Museum of Cape Town to look at how we can include indigenous medicines and knowledge of the Khoisan and African people in telling the story of the history of medicine in South Africa.

After marrying a Londoner (a Kingston university computer scientist who shares my passions for equality and human rights), I found myself in this place of the world and I had to find a new job! I landed the job as Diversity Manager of Museum of London Group.

In the coming weeks I will talk about a typical week in my role and about the types of discussions I’m involved with.