S1: Movement

National Museums Liverpool Podcast

In episode five of the National Museums Liverpool Podcast, Jane Garvey introduces stories on movement, each with their own unique link to the museums and Liverpool.

Act One: Anthony Walker Foundation

The unprovoked racially motivated murder of Liverpool teenager Anthony Walker is one of the most shocking incidents in Merseyside’s history. His family, including mother Gee Walker were determined that Anthony's death was not just a statistic and set about creating an anti-racism movement with the Anthony Walker Foundation. The AWF’s most recent campaign is Speak Out Stop Hate and aims to encourage everyone to report hate crime, be it through the foundation or policing channels.

In this story we talk to Ben Osu, Strategy Lead at the foundation about how Anthony’s family set about moving on the conversation about racism in Britain through educational programmes and facilitating better, easier reporting and support.

Act Two: Wilson The Rope Figure

Seized! is the on-display collection for the National Border Force Museum, which sits inside the Maritime Museum. Steve Butler, Curator of the Border Force National Museum Collection talks us through an item that people can see called Wilson, a small rope toy figure created by a Border Force officer to pass out to children of immigrant ships that try to break down barriers as these frightened people are confronted by huge British naval ships and uniformed officers.

Act Three: The Dockers Umbrella

The Liverpool Overhead Railway opened in 1893 and closed in 1956, it ran for 6 miles along Liverpool’s waterfront taking in the docks and the city centre. In this story Curator of Land Transport, Sharon Brown takes us on a ride through its technological advances to its ultimate demise and subsequent reinvigoration through a display in the Museum of Liverpool.