A community exhibition bringing the legacy of the British Empire into conversation with life in North Lanarkshire has been extended after a resounding success at Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life in Coatbridge.
Traces of Empire: Voices, Memories & Our Shared History, organised by North Lanarkshire Muslim Women & Family Alliance (NLMWA), will now remain open until 1 November. The extension gives more visitors the opportunity to explore the personal histories, creative work and memories at the heart of the exhibition, which opened to the public on 4 October.
Representatives of Police Scotland, Councillor Ayeshah Khan and Fulton MacGregor, the SNP MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, were among the guests attending alongside NLMWA partners. Their presence brought together community organisers, public services and elected representatives around a project rooted in the experiences of local people.
For NLMWA, the response marks an important moment for a charity that has worked with women and families since 1994.
Personal stories at the heart of history
Traces of Empire places community voices at the centre of a subject often approached through institutions, monuments and national politics. Its material has been developed through oral histories, workshops and storytelling sessions, drawing connections between the past and the experiences of people who call North Lanarkshire home.
Migration, resilience and belonging run through the exhibition. Rather than treating these as abstract themes, the displays bring them into focus through family memories, everyday objects, creative expression and the accounts of participants themselves. Visitors encounter people’s relationships with more than one place, and the ways in which those relationships are carried into life in Scotland.
The photographs from the event show the breadth of that approach: panels exploring stories of cotton sit alongside a garden narrative, while books, a decorated spinning wheel and community portraits give the exhibition a tangible, personal character. The objects and images help connect large historical questions with the details of ordinary lives.
The exhibition is organised around four themes: Real Stories, Learn & Reflect, Build Understanding and Your Voice Matters. Together, they put listening and participation alongside historical reflection. It is a women-led project intended for everyone, welcoming families, young people, older visitors, faith groups and voluntary organisations.
A community gathering in Coatbridge
Summerlee provides a setting closely connected to the history of work and community life in Scotland. Bringing Traces of Empire into the museum allows the exhibition’s accounts of migration and identity to sit within a wider public conversation about the people and experiences that have shaped the country.
NLMWA organised the exhibition in partnership with North Lanarkshire Council and Historic Environment Scotland. The event brought those heritage and civic connections together with the charity’s established relationships across public services and the voluntary sector.
The attendance of Police Scotland representatives, Councillor Khan and Mr MacGregor added to that gathering of partners. Bushra Iqbal MBE, the charity’s founder and chair, spoke to guests about three decades of work with women and families. Event photographs capture guests meeting contributors, viewing the displays and joining group celebrations within the exhibition space. The emphasis remains on the people whose stories give the project its substance.
The extension is the clearest practical outcome of the exhibition’s success. A project originally scheduled for a three-week run will now be available until 1 November, creating a further opportunity for people who have not yet visited to experience it.
From a mothers’ group to a community charity
NLMWA’s roots stretch back to 1994, when a small group of mothers in Airdrie and Coatbridge sought a place where their children could play and neighbours could meet, talk and learn. The charity was founded and is chaired by Bushra Iqbal MBE, who has led the organisation since those first meetings. What began as a handful of gatherings has grown into a broader programme of support for women and families.
The organisation became a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation and is registered under charity number SC045588. Its work is open to women from different backgrounds, combining practical support with opportunities to learn, build confidence and participate in community life.
Over time, mothers’ meetings and a Sunday school grew into classes for children and adults. Informal help with food and everyday difficulties developed into family support, advocacy and befriending. The charity’s activities now span learning and skills, health and wellbeing, community celebrations and heritage work.
Its relationships include NHS Health Improvement, Police Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service and Interfaith Scotland. Volunteers have also contributed skills in fundraising, communications and community engagement. NLMWA’s longer-term ambition is a permanent community centre in North Lanarkshire where women and families can find support under one roof.
Three decades on, the charity is taking a step that would have been hard to imagine in 1994: putting its work properly online. NLMWA has asked Lo Presti – Business & Marketing Strategies, a Glasgow-based consultancy firm that works worldwide, to redesign its website, manage its social media and develop its brand.
Looking ahead
The consultancy firm was founded by marketing luminary Dr Gaetano Lo Presti, the father of Contemporary Marketing. For NLMWA, the aim is practical: a clearer website, a more consistent voice online, and information that families, volunteers and partner organisations can find when they need it.
For an organisation built on face-to-face contact, the digital work is not a replacement for any of that. It is another way in — the same welcome, extended to anyone who has yet to walk through the door.
Traces of Empire shows why that visibility matters. The exhibition brings decades of community relationships into a public museum, giving personal memories a wider audience. Its extended run now offers more people the chance to encounter those stories in person.
Traces of Empire: Voices, Memories & Our Shared History continues at Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge, until 1 November 2026. Admission is free.
