Contents When it rains, look for rain bows

When it Rains Look for Rainbows

Jessica Daniels

The body of work ‘When it Rains, Look for Rainbows’ documents those who have been working through the lockdown caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic to ensure the UK is ticking over: volunteers to paramedics, refuse collectors to teachers.

Jessica describes those working tirelessly as “heroes, the rays of sunshine in this current storm” and explains her motivations for the project: “I wanted to complete this project to give back to my local community that I have revisited during lockdown. I owe Lowestoft almost everything I know and I hope the passion I feel for my hometown is reflected in this body of work, the end goal is to thank all involved and everyone who has worked through the pandemic to keep our country afloat, I would describe them as rainbows”.

Growing Up British

Maria Lovatt

When you hear someone speak of ’Guatemala’, how many of you know exactly where it is, let alone the culture and history of the place? A lost country just underneath Mexico and its historical Mayan temples depicted for all Star Wars fans as Planet Yavin 4.

With such a rich and colourful culture for the most part, its capital, Guatemala City has become one of criminal gangs and serious corruption, one of which directly affects the diverse population of the United Kingdom.

“The suspension (of adoption in 2008) was introduced in response to evidence demonstrating that: there are insufficient safeguards in the Guatemalan adoption system to prevent children being adopted without proper consents being given and improper financial gain being made by individuals in the adoption process. In particular that: there is a trade in babies being sold for overseas adoption; and mothers being paid, or otherwise encouraged, to give up children for adoption. Such practices are contrary to the principles of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.” - UK Government, Department of Education.

As two adopted children from Guatemala, who have grown up in white families and developed perfect English, artist Jose Mario and myself know all too well that this information is not generally a subject that gets spoken about within a family, unless it’s brought up by the adoptees themselves. We discovered this on our own during each of our separate journeys to discover who we were as people. Needless to say, many questions followed before finally finding peace in the knowledge that we do have new, loving families here in the UK.

With Brexit having just happened and now a massive world wide movement of Black Lives and Minorities Matter, where does that leave us as coloured adoptees who have the same surname as our white relatives, yet have no physical similarities with them? Having been mistaken on numerous occasions for an Asian ethnicity or mixed race, ticking the “any other ethnicity” on the British census or while filling out an NHS form and then being asked if we’ve misunderstood the question leaves us adoptees in a very grey area.

With over 30,000 children having been adopted out of Guatemala and into various countries all over the world, the UK had to close these adoption borders on the 1st January 2008. The youngest of us would now be 12 and beginning to plan their 13th birthday. Jose Mario and I wanted to take this opportunity to record and document eight interviews from Guatemalan/UK adoptees to where about they were in their own journey of self discovery. Each interview took roughly two hours, being led by Jose Mario, with a vast number of different topics being spoken about, depending on each individual. Questions were asked and some were answered. A sharing process took place, between one Adoptee and two others.

This is our Journey to sharing our collective story.