North East Narratives – Art, Collaboration and Decolonial Practice
Join us for a special event that presents the extraordinary work and decolonial practice of visual artists and North East-based collaborators.
Artists Elisabeth Efua Sutherland, Paul Nataraj and Ziza will share new work and work in progress, opening up the complexities of colonial legacies. The artists have centred unheard voices and experiences traced across the past and the present, and explored the entanglement of local and international connections.
Wednesday 15 July | 10:00–14:00
The Customs House, Mill Dam, South Shields, NE33 1ES
Free event - please register here
Over the past two years, the artists have worked in Chile, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK, as part of the international programme Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues. D6 has had the pleasure of hosting Elisabeth, Paul and Ziza as artists in residence this year, enabling the time and space to build new relationships and connect to untold North East narratives.
Elisabeth (via video), Paul and Ziza will reflect upon their recent time as D6 artists in residence and will be joined by regional collaborators and special guests from African Lives in Northern England and Sangini.
Dr Leona Vaughn, human rights change-maker and scholar, will lead a panel discussion to reflect on how coming together through decolonial practice has nourished new relationships and possibilities.
Artists Elisabeth Efua Sutherland, Paul Nataraj and Ziza will share new work and work in progress, opening up the complexities of colonial legacies. The artists have centred unheard voices and experiences traced across the past and the present, and explored the entanglement of local and international connections.
Wednesday 15 July | 10:00–14:00
The Customs House, Mill Dam, South Shields, NE33 1ES
Free event - please register here
Over the past two years, the artists have worked in Chile, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK, as part of the international programme Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues. D6 has had the pleasure of hosting Elisabeth, Paul and Ziza as artists in residence this year, enabling the time and space to build new relationships and connect to untold North East narratives.
Elisabeth (via video), Paul and Ziza will reflect upon their recent time as D6 artists in residence and will be joined by regional collaborators and special guests from African Lives in Northern England and Sangini.
Dr Leona Vaughn, human rights change-maker and scholar, will lead a panel discussion to reflect on how coming together through decolonial practice has nourished new relationships and possibilities.
'This is not a rewriting of history… it is future building.
You are all part of building futures – for our collective care and repair.'
Reflection from Dr Leona Vaughn concluding ‘Let’s Talk about Decolonisation’, July 2025
This event is an inclusive space inviting anyone working in or interested in decolonial practice across arts, heritage and community settings. Everyone is welcome.
This event is an inclusive space inviting anyone working in or interested in decolonial practice across arts, heritage and community settings. Everyone is welcome.
What to expect
The artists will each bring their understanding and experience of decolonisation through reflecting on their practice. In conversation with collaborators, they’ll discuss the challenges and possibilities of decolonial practice and the role of art in building pathways toward solidarity, connection and responsibility.
The event will include:
Guests are invited to lunch afterwards catered by Sangini’s Community Chef, Azizun Nessa.
This event follows D6’s conference Let’s Talk about Decolonisation that took place in South Shields last year on 17 July. Each event stands on its own while sharing subject matter and contributors.
Who is speaking
Elisabeth’s Acts of Witnessing will be presented via video, tracing the lives of Black and African people connected to the North East. This will be followed by a conversation with Beverley Prevatt Goldstein from African Lives in Northern England and the North East of England African and Caribbean Community Association - whose members provided invaluable insights into many of the stories explored in Elisabeth’s practice.
Ziza will share Free to Roam and the research journeys to international museums, archives and sites of significance that shape this multidisciplinary project that playfully and critically interrogates how history is constructed and sustained.
Sangini will join Paul in conversation, discussing the collaborative relationships and participatory methodologies behind his new works, including Good Hope Solidarity Project and Ballad of the Scapegoat.
The day will close with guest speakers joined by Dr Leona Vaughn in a panel discussion.
The artists will each bring their understanding and experience of decolonisation through reflecting on their practice. In conversation with collaborators, they’ll discuss the challenges and possibilities of decolonial practice and the role of art in building pathways toward solidarity, connection and responsibility.
The event will include:
- A series of presentations including visual and audio content
- A live performance;
- Refreshment and comfort breaks;
- A final panel;
- Opportunity for audience questions and interactions.
Guests are invited to lunch afterwards catered by Sangini’s Community Chef, Azizun Nessa.
This event follows D6’s conference Let’s Talk about Decolonisation that took place in South Shields last year on 17 July. Each event stands on its own while sharing subject matter and contributors.
Who is speaking
Elisabeth’s Acts of Witnessing will be presented via video, tracing the lives of Black and African people connected to the North East. This will be followed by a conversation with Beverley Prevatt Goldstein from African Lives in Northern England and the North East of England African and Caribbean Community Association - whose members provided invaluable insights into many of the stories explored in Elisabeth’s practice.
Ziza will share Free to Roam and the research journeys to international museums, archives and sites of significance that shape this multidisciplinary project that playfully and critically interrogates how history is constructed and sustained.
Sangini will join Paul in conversation, discussing the collaborative relationships and participatory methodologies behind his new works, including Good Hope Solidarity Project and Ballad of the Scapegoat.
The day will close with guest speakers joined by Dr Leona Vaughn in a panel discussion.
With thanks
Special thanks to Elisabeth Efua Sutherland, Paul Nataraj, Ziza, Dr Leona Vaughn, Sangini, African Lives in Northern England and North East of England African and Caribbean Community Association.
Special thanks also to Aisha Khateeb who is at D6 on a part time secondment from Sangini. As D6’s Creative Producer in Residence, she’s working closely with the artists on the Contested Desires residencies, supporting the sharing of their work and helping D6 capture the impact of three years of deep research and collaboration across the residencies.
Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues is an international programme rethinking shared colonial histories through artistic practice. It is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. In the UK we are grateful for support from Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund.
Special thanks also to Aisha Khateeb who is at D6 on a part time secondment from Sangini. As D6’s Creative Producer in Residence, she’s working closely with the artists on the Contested Desires residencies, supporting the sharing of their work and helping D6 capture the impact of three years of deep research and collaboration across the residencies.
Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues is an international programme rethinking shared colonial histories through artistic practice. It is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. In the UK we are grateful for support from Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund.
more about the artists and Speakers
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Elisabeth Efua Sutherland (Ghana) comes from a background in theatre and dance. She is concerned with layered colonial histories, following bodies through different geographies and spaces by diving into images, texts, maps, landscapes, and traces of feet and where they once trod. She explores the power relationships of our past to our future; and the idea of custodianship of people, narratives, culture, history, and the future. She is the founder of Terra Alta, an artist-led performing arts space in Accra, Ghana. She will share her presentation via video.
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Ziza (UK) is a multidisciplinary artist of Rwandan heritage, engaging with mediums of performance and installation to challenge preconceived ideologies about identity, power and blackness. They create a variety of work that explores and challenges euro-centric and Western knowledge systems. Through their unfolding embodied practice and research, they reveal the entangled legacy of colonialism in the contemporary world and the everyday things we are exposed to but rarely question.
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Paul Nataraj (UK) explores the intersections of sound, materiality, memory, diaspora and identity. His methodology emphasises collaborative storytelling and immersive listening experiences. He was included in Jerwood Survey III and has contributed to Sonic Faction: Audio Essay as Medium and Method (2024). His recent tape work, Soil, Leaf, Root, was released on Collapsing Drums.
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Beverley Prevatt Goldstein, PhD, is a distinguished academic, community activist and pioneering advocate for racial equality in the North East of England. Born in Trinidad, she made history in 1968 as one of the first Black women to enroll at Oxford University from a mainstream British school before pursuing a prolific career in social work and education. She is co-founder of the African Lives in Northern England Project, which raises awareness of influential individuals of African descent who have visited or made the North East their home. She is the former chair of the North East of England African Community Association and her lifelong commitment to anti-racism has been honoured with an honorary doctorate from Northumbria University.
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Padma Rao is the director of Sangini - a Black and minorities women led community arts project that is committed to ending gender based violence. Based in the North East of England, Padma is a visual artist, a visiting lecturer, arts facilitator and a published poet. Padma has over 20 years’ experience in the arts, heritage, community development, equalities and women’s issues. She has an art studio, Makaan, in South Shields where she has shown art by artists based locally, nationally and internationally. She is passionate about the role and status of marginalised women in our society and by exploring these issues through her work, both as an artist as well as at Sangini, she aims to create a platform for the wider discussions around creativity, equality, feminism, identity and displacement of Global Majority women.
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Leona Vaughn, PhD, is a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in anticolonial approaches to studies of slavery and unfree labour at University of Liverpool. She holds a PhD in Sociology and Masters in Social Research. She has led a number of global interdisciplinary research projects, including the international consultation and development of safeguarding principles for UK Collaborative for Development Research. Leona is a skilled programme evaluator and policy writer, most recently leading global research on vulnerability to modern slavery at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (New York). She has designed, delivered and evaluated various projects related to equality and human rights. She is the External Evaluation Expert for Contested Desires.
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useful information
Event documentation
The event will be documented on the day by Von Fox Promotions. The D6 team will be asking guests on the day if they do not wish to be photographed or filmed.
Location
The Customs House, Mill Dam, South Shields, NE33 1ES.
The event will take place in the Dalton Suite situated on the first floor of The Custom's House.
Access
The building can be accessed by three steps or a ramp. There are lifts up to the first floor to get to the Dalton Suite.
There is free parking and disabled parking next to and behind The Customs House. More details about venue access can be found on The Customs House website here.
Travel
We encourage guests to choose sustainable travel methods for the event, if they feel it is safe to do so. The venue is ten minutes walk from South Shields Metro and a short walk from the South Shields ferry stop. There are frequent buses to the South Shields Interchange, which is a ten minute walk to the venue.
Safeguarding
This event aims to create a safe place to ensure a shared positive experience for all. The colonial subject matters that will be discussed or referenced, may contain sensitive, emotional and distressing details. We ask everyone to take the personal and necessary steps they need to support their wellbeing during the event.
Healing Justice London have produced a short and useful Aftercare Menu which you can access here: https://healingjusticeldn.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/HJL_Aftercare-Menu_Web.pdf
Image credits: Elisabeth Efua Sutherland, Acts of Witnessing, 2026. Photo: Luke Waddington | Ziza, 'Gaggle' part of Free to Roam at the Late Shows 2026. Photo: Von Fox Promotions | Portrait of Paul at the Contested Desires exhibition, 2025. Photo: Amelia Read
The event will be documented on the day by Von Fox Promotions. The D6 team will be asking guests on the day if they do not wish to be photographed or filmed.
Location
The Customs House, Mill Dam, South Shields, NE33 1ES.
The event will take place in the Dalton Suite situated on the first floor of The Custom's House.
Access
The building can be accessed by three steps or a ramp. There are lifts up to the first floor to get to the Dalton Suite.
There is free parking and disabled parking next to and behind The Customs House. More details about venue access can be found on The Customs House website here.
Travel
We encourage guests to choose sustainable travel methods for the event, if they feel it is safe to do so. The venue is ten minutes walk from South Shields Metro and a short walk from the South Shields ferry stop. There are frequent buses to the South Shields Interchange, which is a ten minute walk to the venue.
Safeguarding
This event aims to create a safe place to ensure a shared positive experience for all. The colonial subject matters that will be discussed or referenced, may contain sensitive, emotional and distressing details. We ask everyone to take the personal and necessary steps they need to support their wellbeing during the event.
Healing Justice London have produced a short and useful Aftercare Menu which you can access here: https://healingjusticeldn.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/HJL_Aftercare-Menu_Web.pdf
Image credits: Elisabeth Efua Sutherland, Acts of Witnessing, 2026. Photo: Luke Waddington | Ziza, 'Gaggle' part of Free to Roam at the Late Shows 2026. Photo: Von Fox Promotions | Portrait of Paul at the Contested Desires exhibition, 2025. Photo: Amelia Read
