The story of the Mayflower’s voyage has come to define England’s relationship with America, yet it has also denied indigenous Americans their part in this history. What lessons have we really learned about power, politics and presenting the past? What is the influence of ambition, economics and expectation in the present? Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy opened at The Box, Plymouth – during the pandemic. Its curation raised ethical questions about cultural collisions then – and now.

Jo Loosemore, Visiting Curator of ‘Mayflower 400: Legend & Legacy’ for The Box, Plymouth

Jo is a Senior Producer at BBC South West. She specialises in community engagement projects – often about history (World War One at Home) or living memory (The Listening Project). Having created Plymouth’s oral history archive, she returned to museums to curate Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy for The Box, Plymouth, and co-curate Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America for national tour.