Year 12 student Peace Pullet shares her perspective on the importance of ‘saluting our sisters’:
“Black History Month is a time where we come together as a community to highlight Black culture and educate others about Black history. This year we chose the theme of Saluting our Sisters for our assemblies and this felt like a really empowering and relevant message to be sharing with our school community. Women in history can be overlooked, and this is even more true of women of colour, so we decided to highlight the crucial roles that Black women played in shaping history, inspiring change and building communities in Britain. This focus is also linked to the Sacred Heart’s ethos goal of Personal Growth and we hoped that our assemblies would encourage other Black students, or people of colour, to exceed expectations and change norms.
As a young Black woman, I was really delighted to be one of the group of students who designed and delivered assemblies to all year groups to showcase what this month really means to us. I have had my own experiences of racism and at times in the past, I have felt insecure about my own skin colour. But I can say with confidence today that I feel so proud of being Black. I feel so proud to be who I am. I feel so proud to have embraced my identity.
Throughout my time at Sacred Heart, I have had the chance to find my identity and who I really am.
I hope that this year, more girls who think they don’t fit in the puzzle realise they are the perfect piece. I hope we can all come together and Salute our Sisters, paying homage to Black women whose contributions to history were ignored, ideas appropriated, and voices silenced. This month, we will not be silenced! Joins us with Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Harriet Tubman and many more amazing Black women to change our society so that it is a place where everyone can flourish and feel safe.”
