A NEW exhibition by the Migration Museum is charting 400 years of emigration from Britain.

Departures, which opens on 30 October, will shine a light on the history of emigration through personal narratives, contemporary art and a range of media.

The exhibition features dozens of emigration stories spanning four centuries – from Mayflower Pilgrims to Windrush deportees, Cornish and Welsh emigrants to South America to “Ten Pound Poms”, Black Londoners resettled in Sierra Leone in the 1780s to Black Britons who have recently moved “back” to their parents’ countries of birth across West Africa.

British emigration has been one of the largest movements of people in modern history. Tens of millions of people have left the British Isles over the past 400 years.

“It is impossible to quantify the huge impact that British emigration has had”

Aditi Anand, head of creative content at the Migration Museum and curator of Departures

Today, some 75 million people across the world self-identify as having British ancestry, greater than the population of the UK itself. But while immigration dominates debates, Britain’s emigration story is often overlooked.

Departures will put this history in focus, and showcase some of the many millions who have departed these shores and the reasons why they left, while asking if their motivations can help us better understand the motivations of people who arrive and what impact has this mass movement had on the world – and on Britain.

Visitors will embark on an immersive journey starting in a “Departures Lounge” featuring guidebooks for emigrants and an animated timeline, proceeding through “Passport Control” to a series of themed “Departure Gates” exploring reasons and motivations for leaving, finishing in an interactive “Baggage Reclaim” hall in which visitors are invited to share their thoughts on the complex legacies of British emigration.

The Disowned Briton, a textile tapestry by artist Rachelle Romeo, whose father, Elwaldo, fought for a decade to prove his British nationality after he was affected by the Windrush Scandal will also feature in the exhibition.

“It is impossible to quantify the huge impact that British emigration has had – both on Britain and the wider world. Yet we rarely talk about emigration in Britain, and when we do, we do so in a way which is largely detached from broader debates around migration – and often using very different language,” said Aditi Anand, head of creative content at the Migration Museum and curator of the exhibition.

“We cannot begin to understand immigration, or contemporary Britain and its relationship with the world, without understanding Britain’s emigration story. Departures places this story at the centre of conversations around migration and identity, inviting us to reflect on the reasons why people have left these shores over the past 400 years and how these are often similar to the reasons why people arrive.”

Departures opens at the Migration Museum, Lewisham Shopping Centre, Molesworth Street, London SE13 7HB on 30 October 2020. It runs until June 2021.