Black History Month 2023 and RCOT

The theme of this year’s UK Black History Month is ‘Saluting our Sisters’. This theme highlights the crucial role that Black women have played in shaping history, inspiring change, and building communities. Join in on social media and celebrate the incredible work that Black women have done, people you know, that you’ve worked with, that you appreciate!

This year we’re featuring a significant number of articles in October’s OT News written by members of the Caribbean Network of OTs, along with members of B.A.M.E. OTUK and more. You’ll also be able to read several blogs about people’s experiences working as Black occupational therapists, and personal stories on our website across the month.

Thank you to our members for their contributions, we’re excited to share them with the wider RCOT membership. Our internal Ethnos colleague network continues to grow, and support colleagues from historically marginalised and racialised groups, we’re grateful for its presence and proud of the work it’s doing.

This month's online blogs

Aicha Djalo Balde, OT lecturer, University of Huddersfield

Occupational therapy lecturer, Aicha Djalo Balde, shares how being at the vibrant intersection of culture and identity has informed her teaching and what it means to work as an educator in Britain today.

You can read her full blog via our blog section.

Sarah Selina Macmillean on her guest lecturing experience at Leeds Beckett University

In January 2023, Sarah Selina Macmillean was invited by Leeds Beckett University to guest lecture to the first year BSc occupational therapy students. She was joined by fellow guest lecturers, Steven Delsol and Stephen Antoine. Together they spoke on mental illness and the black community and promoting occupational justice: using music, song writing and poetry as meaningful occupations.

You can read her deeply moving reflection via our blog section

Ebenezer Baiden reflects on the impactful mentoring he received while studying

Former occupational therapy student, Ebenezer Baiden, shares with us the experience he had with his mentor while studying in Leeds and how it helped shape his learning experience.

You can read his full blog via our blog section.

Eden Samuels-Coke on how reading can be a means of connecting with Black identity, history and consciousness

Eden Samuels-Coke shares with us his thoughts on how reading gives us a way of connecting with Black identity, history and consciousness. Reading is an occupation that offers us chance to reflect on who we are, to explore rich and varied histories and perspectives, and a means of contextualising our own experiences – see Eden's recommended reading list at the end of his blog.

You can read his full blog via our blog section.

Black History Month is every month; this one is just marked in the calendar.

Ketan Davé, RCOT Equity, Diversity and Belonging Lead.

As we did last year, to mark this month, we'll be changing the ‘O’ in our RCOT logo for this month to show solidarity with our Black members, colleagues and people everywhere. Using a design celebrating the colours Red, Green, Gold and Black – colours with significant meaning, used widely to denote BHM. The ‘O’ in our logo represents our identity as an organisation as well as ‘occupation’. Black History Month is a brilliant time to talk about Black culture and heritage with your group, but make sure everyone knows that Black history is a part of history that can (and should) be learned about all year round.

To help you celebrate, we’ve got lots of exciting resources to talk to friends and colleagues about in this iconic month:

If you’d like to join the Caribbean Network of Occupational Therapists to assist with this project, please contact Dr Blaine Robin via b.robin@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.

If you'd like to find out more about B.A.M.E. OTUK you can visit their X (formerly Twitter) profile, which is frequently updated on activities and actions.

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