Stories to tell: Matt Turtle and Lisa Ogun’

A MUSEUM is creating a “people’s history” as an act of resistance and a way of keeping the community alive.

The Museum of Homelessness in Seven Sisters Road is creating a people’s history of Finsbury Park made up of testimonies of people who have lived in the area and have, or are currently, experiencing homelessness, squatting, or wild camping.

Lisa Ogun’ has contributed her story to the people’s history. She first came to Finsbury Park when she was just about to turn 19. She was homeless and living in a hostel in Hermitage Road which she describes as a “dire situation”. She credits the area with helping her “find home”.

“Finsbury Park itself was a less than five-minute walk from where I lived, and I’d get talking to the community that was in the park, and at that time I didn’t even know they could have been the park dwellers.

“Being a Yorkshire lass, you do talk to everybody. Coming to London, I realised that wasn’t the culture, so going into the park and finding people that wanted to do that was fantastic.

“I was coming in and talking to older ladies, and men with their beers, and the ducks, and everything like that – it was just great.”

The park became something even more meaningful to Ms Ogun’ when she discovered that her half brother, who was living in Nigeria, had died.

“I bought a single rose and I went to the park. The only way that I could find a way to deal with [his death], was going and standing in the middle of that area where I always found love and warmth.

“I picked each petal off the rose, I told each petal what I was feeling inside, and I let it go off in the wind and settle in the park.

“It’s really nice to know that my petals are now in the ground of the park, and my feelings are embedded in the park. Finsbury Park is special to me that way,” she said.

The people’s history will be recorded in two ways – a film called Right to Roam by Becca Human, comprising both on- and off-camera interviews, and a book of poems, essays, and oral histories.

Human says they got involved in the project “to be able to hear stories like Lisa’s” and because of their passion around housing and the homelessness crisis.

“If we think about how it’s gotten harder and harder to rent, and buy, never mind squat as well, [it means you’re more likely to] end up street homeless,” Human explained.

“We’ve got harsher and harsher laws around wild camping, roadside camping, and around being able to roam around our own country. There literally is nowhere to go.”

Matt Turtle, one of the co-founders of the museum, says the project is a way of compiling community solutions to the housing crisis.

He said: “How can we look to the past for lessons but also how can we come together to try and exist when all of these difficulties with the system persist?

“The help isn’t necessarily coming from the state or its actors, it’s communities who are having to find solutions.”

You can contribute your story to the project at drop-in sessions in the Solidarity Hub in Seven Sisters Road today (Friday) or September 1, or during Streets Fest on September 5.