North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has today spoken in support of two petitions calling for the teaching of Welsh history, and Black and POC UK histories, in Welsh Schools.
The petition calling on the Welsh Government to ‘create a common body of knowledge about Welsh history that all pupils will learn’ received 7,927 signatures, while the petition calling for the teaching of Black and POC UK histories in the Welsh education curriculum to be made compulsory received 34,736 signatures.
Taking part in this afternoon’s Welsh Parliament Debate on the Petitions, Mr Isherwood spoke in support of both calls.
He said:
“The teaching of our history in Welsh Schools matters. The past informs the future. The loss of the past would mean the most thoughtless of ages.
“History teaches us that Welsh means British.
“Both England and Scotland are named after their invaders. However, the Britons remained.
“Wales is named after the term used by the invaders, meaning foreigner in their language, to describe the Britons across our Islands who referred to each other as fellow countrymen and women, Y Cymry.”
He added:
“The teaching of Black and POC UK histories in Welsh Schools matters.
“From one of the first black people to have lived in Wales, named John Ystumllyn, brought to Wales in the eighteenth century and believed to have to have married a local woman, to the likes of Shirley Bassey, Colin Jackson, Cardiff’s current Mayor and the former Mayor of Colwyn Bay, Dr Sibani Roy, the BAME population of Wales has made significant contributions.
“Most societies have exploited slave labour at some stage in their history. This is also true of Wales.
“A slave chain discovered on Anglesey, made to fit five people, can be dated to the Iron Age, about 2,300 years ago. When the Romans invaded, they brought their own slaves with them – slaves from nations across the Roman Empire in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. After the Romans left, British tribes enslaved those they defeated in battle.
“The transatlantic slave trade flourished from the early sixteenth century until 1807, when, the British Parliament passed an Act to abolish trading slaves within the British Empire.
“Campaigners had been laying the groundwork by publishing documents about the cruelty of slavery. One of those was William Williams of Pantycelyn – who wrote the hymn Bread of Heaven.”
Mr Isherwood also stressed that “illegal slavery still continues in many parts of the world today — even in Wales”.