Reimagining Maritime

On 17 July 2020, the Royal Museums Greenwich Youth Collective curated the Museum's first ever Youth Online Takeover. This years collective known as RMG Youth consisted of Sharon Adebayo, Joy Akintan , Rabia Akter, Jojo Kouame, Medhan Hewarathne, Lorena Lima-Moore, Ciara Meehan, Dami Ojobaro, Tomi Olugbile, Olaitan Onibuje and Yasmin Ziv.

The collective set themselves the task of reimagining a museum where all voices are heard and where history is reinterpreted to account for a collection of untold narratives. Here you can see the contents of the takeover and the evening online event. 

Welcome to the Youth Takeover

Meeting virtually to co-produce the takeover, the collective created a lively event of reflection, projection and reimagining by young people for young people. The event responded to the following themes: 

• Identity
• Habitability
• Inequality

The collective also created the hashtag #reimaginingmaritime to invite others to join in the conversation online.

Highlights of the day

Lorena spoke about what the Brazilian birimbau means for her identity, Sharon discussed the Afro comb, Medhan talked about the statue of Lord Gautama Buddha. Watch the playlist below and see what other objects from home mean for these young people.

Tips and Tutorials: 

Youth Recommends 

Youth Takeover Live

Watch the recorded Takeover Live event here featuring Mahesh Parkar, Brixton Life Drawing, Daniel Oduntan, Koko Brown and Nine8 Collective

Listen to the songs chosen by the group that respond to themes of inequality, identity and habitability.

Inequality

by Rabia, Sharon, Lorena, Ciara, Dami, Dami’s Mum Ruth and Olaitan

Identity

by Dami, Rabia, Ciara, Lorena, Joy, Olaitan, Sharon and Tomi

Habitability

by Dami, Rabia, Ciara and Lorena

Here, they discuss what key objects in the Museum mean to young people, from the bust of Olaudah Equiano to Kehinde Wiley's Ship of Fools.

Billy Waters, T.L. Busby

Olaudah Equiano – African, slave, author, abolitionist, Christy Symington

Ship of Fools, Kehinde Wiley

The United Service, Andrew Morton

Two Ladies of Barbadoes, Captain Edward Pelham Brenton