South Asian exhibition inspires community poem

The exhibition includes a passport control office, a family home and a radio studio

An exhibition which focuses on the experiences of a South Asian family has inspired a community poem,

The display centres on a family who moved to Coventry in the 1960s and opens at the Herbert Art Gallery in Jordan Well on Friday.

As part of the project, more than 25 people created and recorded a poem with the work also being translated into Hindi and Punjabi and other languages.

Visitors to the exibition will walk through four rooms - a 1960s passport control office, a 1970s living room, a teenager's bedroom in the 1980s and a 1990s studio.

Balbir Lakha, who took part, told how her father, a member of the Indian Workers' Association, brought her to Coventry when she was three, when he moved to the city to work.

She told how she took part in an anti-racism march in the city in 1981.

Describing her love of the city, she said: "I've lived away from Coventry but I've always come round like a bit of a boomerang."

A government officer in India before he moved to Coventry to work and get married, another participant Ram Lakha later went on to become Lord Mayor.

"My wife used to say she imported me," he said.

The city saw anti-racism demos in the past

Artist Hardish Virk went through his personal archive to tell his own family's story.

He said South Asian communities were "a vital part of British life for hundreds of years", and he wanted to show younger generations they belonged.

A 1990s studio represents the "joy and company" of a Punjabi radio show broadcast by Mr Virk's mother.

Hardish Virk drew on his personal archive to create the exhibition

Indy Donald, community engagement coordinator at CV Life, which manages the gallery through Culture Coventry Trust, said the exhibition focused on objects but said: "It's not limited to what you own.

"A lot of people have come here from other countries with very little, because they've had to leave a lot of material behind.

"But just because you don't have the material, doesn't mean that you don't have the memories, that doesn't mean you don't have the voice."