Rachel has been a heritage officer for over 19 years, starting at Birmingham Museums Trust in 2002. Rachel has always been interested in making stories from history relevant to people’s lives today. She has fulfilled a variety of roles within the museums’ service and delivered a wide range of successful and award-winning projects during this time. Her most rewarding roles have been those that linked most closely with community and education.
Her interest in the Handsworth area began in 2002 when she first worked at Soho House Museum and since joining Legacy West Midlands, she has delivered a wide range of tours, walking talks and outreach talks about Soho and the Lunar Society since this time, including the life and work of Olaudah Equiano, a West African merchant and abolitionist who liaised with Lunar Society.
As an Associate Researcher for Black Heritage Walks Network, Rachel has supported our key annual events, such as the Windrush Garden Party and Black History Month. Rachel was instrumental in supporting allyship and highlighting the link between Birmingham’s heritage assets in history of slavery, forced labour, colonialism and racial injustice.
Following the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Rachel has been championing the growing global recognition of long histories of systemic racism and acknowledging the presence of empire, confronting its meanings, especially its unsavoury ones.
