CHAGOS: Cultural Heritage Across Generations

Funded by AHRC, the CHAGOS: Cultural Heritage Across Generations project supported displaced Chagossians to share and preserve their cultural heritage via intergenerational transmission workshops, a touring exhibition, a website, a Chagos Tambour Group album, and the inscription of Chagossian tambour music on UNESCO's Urgent Safeguarding List.

The forcibly displaced, chronically marginalised, and geographically dispersed Chagos Islanders from the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean have faced multiple challenges in practicing and transmitting their cultural heritage. Funded by AHRC, the CHAGOS: Cultural Heritage Across Generations project supported Chagossians to share and preserve their cultural heritage. During workshops in Mauritius and the UK in 2017, Chagossian elders shared with the younger generations their knowledge of coconut handicrafts, medicinal plants, cuisine, musical instruments and song and dance. Photographs, instructive films, and artefacts generated at these intergenerational heritage transmission workshops were displayed in exhibitions installed six times in Mauritius, La Réunion, and the UK. The CHAGOS project website displays photographs, instructive films, downloadable recipes, and the Chagos Tambour Group album which was produced by the CHAGOS project in 2018. The CHAGOS team contributed to the Mauritian government’s nomination file for the successful inscription of Chagossian tambour music on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2019.

Project Details


Location: London, Manchester, Crawley, Port Louis, Pailles, Beau Bassin-Rose Hill, Mauritius, United Kingdom, Eastern Africa, Northern Europe, Africa, Europe Organiser(s): Laura Jeffery Project partner(s): Chagos Refugees Group, Crawley Museum Funder(s): Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Funding received: £100,808 Commencement Date: 04/2017 Project Status: Completed
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