I've made a new film that I would love to share with you about what was lost when our ancestors were severed from their land.
Over the past three years, I've been on an ancestor trail, taking me to all the places where my seventh-generation ancestors lived.
These ancestors were the last to be born in the countryside.
Their lives were transformed by being forcibly removed from their land through the Enclosures as they moved into the industrial towns and cities of Victorian Britain to find waged labour in the factories and mills.
On my recent trip, I visited the home of one of the landed gentry who enclosed the land where one family up my mother's paternal line lived. In doing so, he removed my ancestors ability to support and feed themselves.
In this film, I share my reflections on visiting not just that man's home, but also the kinds of homes my ancestors lived in before enclosure.
The message that came through is how important it is to tell our ancestors' stories. We ned to re-write the story from that which we have been told. Through this retelling, by understanding what they lost - sovereignty, autonomy and power- we can reclaim it back.