The Unfinished Shawl

Diasporic Pasts, Futures, and the Fabric of Memory

Register your interest

Hyphen Poetry x Currents & Threads present:

Reclaiming our past. Stitching our future.

As the generation that lived through Partition and colonial rule ages, we are in a race against time to preserve the stories that live in our kitchens, our clothing, and our family lore.

The Unfinished Shawl is a community-led programme designed to help the South Asian diaspora move from curiosity to active archiving. Over three months, we will move family history from the kitchen table into a protected, community-owned legacy.

The Journey

This is an immersive experience that goes beyond traditional genealogy. We focus on decolonial archiving, which means we value oral traditions, ordinary lives and personal objects, just as much as official documents. Our journey will look like:

  1. The First Thread: Context setting, introductions and sharing intentions

  2. The Memory-Keeper’s Calling: Emotions, motivations and commitments

  3. Tracing the Pattern: How to ask about family histories and holding multiple perspectives

  4. Stitching the Fabric of Memory: Starting your family archive

  5. Weaving Resilience: Building your family archive

  6. The Shawl’s Promise: Visioning for the future and showcasing personal projects

Programme Details

Register

  • When: May to July 2026.

  • Where: Hosted online.

  • Who: This is for you if you

    • Are part of the South Asian diaspora and feel moved to document your elders’ stories, but are unsure where to start

    • You are already your family’s memory-keeper and are ready to lean into curating them into a physical and/or digital archive.

    • Love history and want to extend it to celebrate and preserve your family’s own lore.

    • Are simply curious about your family’s past and have questions you would like to explore.

  • Commitment: 90- 120 minute weekly sessions on weekday evenings (6-8 PM GMT).

  • Privacy: To protect the intimacy of our stories, sessions are never recorded. Detailed weekly toolkits are provided for all participants.

  • Register: We are currently accepting registrations of interest to finalise our 2026 cohort. Joining the interest list ensures you are the first to hear when official enrollment opens. Sign up here.

The Investment

We operate a sliding scale to ensure this work remains accessible to our whole community. We trust you to choose the tier that best reflects your current financial situation.

  • The Gold Thread (£450): The solidarity rate for those who wish to support a scholarship spot for another member of the community.

  • The Artisan’s Hand (£300): The sustaining rate, which reflects the true cost of expert facilitation and resources.

  • The Seed Cotton (£150): The access rate for students or those on lower incomes.

Your Facilitators

Our shared mission is to empower a new generation of memory keepers to own their narratives, preserve them for the future and to create a cultural legacy and heirloom that can be passed down to future generations.

Nikita Yasmin Shah

Decolonial Strategist & Founder of Hyphen Poetry

Nikita Shah is a decolonial facilitator and researcher bridging the gap between global policy and the somatic reality of the human body. As the founder of Hyphen Poetry, she translates over 13 years of experience in international development into restorative, creative practice. Her work in reclaiming ancestral narratives was catalysed by writing Tales of Migration, sparking a commitment to using art as a tool for decolonising history and bringing life to lived experience.

A seasoned poet and dancer with 20 years of artistic practice, Nikita moves beyond traditional frameworks to frame Rest as Resistance. She uses somatic grounding and collective inquiry to help individuals move from systemic burnout into spaces of imaginative abundance. Through The Unfinished Shawl, she invites the diaspora to treat heritage not as a static past, but as a living fabric of memory.

Cultural Strategy & Narrative Consultant at Currents & Threads

Ishani Rege

Ishani Rege is a cultural, narrative, and media strategist with over six years of experience shaping responsible marketing strategies for global brands. Her work is grounded in the belief that commercial power and cultural influence demand cultural responsibility. Ishani has partnered with organisations such as Reckitt, Financial Times and PepsiCo to embed equity, inclusion, and cultural fluency into marketing processes. Her expertise spans cultural analysis, semiotics, and storytelling, helping businesses understand the cultural contexts they operate within and craft narratives that resonate authentically while mitigating risk.

As a strategist and storyteller, Ishani excels at diagnosing gaps and uncovering opportunities for brands and communities to build inclusive legacies. Through her work, Ishani enables organisations to nurture sustainable growth by aligning behaviours, partnerships, and communications with cultural insight and responsibility. Ensuring that every story told is both impactful and inclusive.

Funding & Support

We are currently seeking grants and sponsorships to make this programme as inclusive as possible. If you or your organisation would like to sponsor a scholarship spot or support our archiving goals, please reach out to us directly. Your support ensures that financial barriers do not keep these vital stories hidden.

Contact us at: nikitayasminshah@gmail.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Still have questions? Take a look at the FAQ or reach out anytime. If you’re feeling ready, go ahead and apply.

Register

  • It is a three-month immersive journey (May–July 2026) designed for members of the South Asian diaspora to reclaim their roles as "Memory-Keepers." Part workshop and part community circle, we move family history from the kitchen table into a protected, community-owned legacy.

  • Yes. Many of us only have "fragments": a single faded photo, a half-remembered proverb, or a story about a village we've never seen. This course is designed to help you work with those fragments and learn how to find and mend the missing threads.

  • The journey runs from May to July 2026. We will finalise the specific weekday evening based on the availability of the registered interest group (likely 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM UK time).

  • By the end of the journey, you will have left with:

    • Your curiosity unlocked and encouraged

    • A ‘toolkit’ to ask questions with care and compassion

    • An accountable and encouraging community of memory-keepers

    • A personal storytelling project that captures your family’s histories

  • No. While we use professional archival and interviewing techniques, this is a decolonial, community-led space. We focus on "lived history", the stories found in kitchens, clothing, and oral traditions rather than just dry dates or textbooks.

    1. The Gold Thread (Solidarity Rate) – £450. This rate is for those who are financially secure or have institutional backing. By choosing this option, you are "paying it forward" and directly subsidising a spot for a community member who would otherwise be unable to attend.

    2. The Artisan’s Hand (Sustaining Rate) – £300 This is the "true cost" of the course. It honors the craft and time poured into decolonising our histories. Choose this if you are comfortably employed and can afford the standard investment.

    3. The Seed Cotton (Access Rate) – £150 This rate is reserved for those who face significant financial barriers (e.g., students or those on low income). We want your voice in the circle regardless of your current financial season.

    4. Scholarship Interest: Yes. We are currently applying for grant funding to provide a limited number of 100% free spots. If you require a scholarship, please indicate this on your registration of interest form. If you are able to fund this spot please get in touch via the form.