The Southall Story

The Southall Story was a project was founded by Kuljit Bhamra, Shakila Maan and Ammy Phull, and McMillan was commissioned by the South Bank Centre, to be lead artist and co-curator. Southall is a suburb of West London, near Heathrow Airport, which has been settled by migrant communities including South Asian and Somalian. As lead researcher, McMillan spent a substantial amount of time in Southall carrying out research in liaison with with Kuljit, Shakila and Ammy.

The outcome was a mixed-media exhibition that centred on key themes: Kuljit Bhamra in the development of Bhangra music and the role of Sikh and South Asian activism during the 1970s and early 1980s when there were uprisings in Southall 1979 against a National Front march. This was an era when political Blackness included Black, South Asian and Turkish communities in solidarity to resist racist violence, and some of the activist groups included Southall Black Sisters, a collective of South Asian activists and documentary film makers like Shakila Maan, and the Southall Youth Movement that Ammy Phull played an active role in. 

These aspects were expressed through a series of installations that featured Kuljit’s family portraits, a recreation of his bedroom where he created Bhangra music on computers, and a front room based on his Sikh family’s own living. There was also a typical South Asian market found in Southall designed by George Moustakas and Katerina Angelopoulou. The exhibition was launched with live performances with Bhangra, Somalian and Guyanese musicians, such as Keith Waite, and hosted by the Bend Like Beckham film director, Gurinda Singh in 2010.

The exhibition toured to the The Dominion Arts Education Centre with the support of Linda Singh.