Tape letters: The cassettes that capture Bradford's migration stories

When sound artist Wajid Yaseen discovered a collection of old cassette tapes at his mother's home it wasn't the sound of his father's singing that intrigued him but a collection of recorded messages exchanged between his mum and her sister after they emigrated from Pakistan.He quickly learned that so-called "tape letters" were a popular means of keeping in touch with relatives in the 1960s and 1970s.Now, the tapes - and the stories they contain - are featured in a new exhibition at Bradford's Loading Bay arts space, chronicling the experiences of 12 families who left Pakistan to find a new home in the city. "What we have here is the Bradford testimonies," Mr Yaseen said."We've got Bradford experiences. What is was like when they first arrived here and the whole thing of what it was like to send tapes back."Two of the people have since died since we interviewed them. So it's a nice way of honouring their contribution to the archive."
Mr Yaseen said his mother moved from Gujar Khan in Pakistan to join her husband in Bradford in the 1960s, while her sister migrated to Canada.Instead of writing to each other, the two women used tapes to send messages across the seas as well as other loved-ones.Mr Yaseen's interest in the recordings led him to create an archive of tape letters from families living in Bradford, Leeds and Halifax, as well as Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Warwick, Glasgow and Edinburgh, which has been nationally recognised.Through his work, the 56-year-old discovered a rich seam of oral histories, painting a picture of what life was like for Pakistani-heritage families living in Britain at the time."I thought it was just our family that did it. It turns out there are thousands of families right across the UK," he said."The language on the tapes isn't Urdu and for the most part isn't Punjabi either."It's a language called Pothwari and something like 70% of the Pakistani-heritage families in the UK speak this language. It's an oral-only language."Tapes were used by people like my mum in the 60s, 70s and 80s, we've got some stories that go up to the 90s."
The stories on the tapes range from describing the mundanities of everyday life to one Bradford couple who conducted a four-year courtship before committing to an arranged marriage.Mr Yaseen, who was born in Manchester but now lives in London, said many of those who used this type of communication were women. He said: "People like my mum couldn't read or write Urdu. "And the reason they couldn't...was because they didn't go to school, and the reason they didn't go to school was because she was a girl."[There were] instances where my mum needed to reconcile something, issues with families in Pakistan."It got to the point where she was just 'right, okay, I'm actually going to have my own voice heard in my own way' and she'd use these tapes."
Tape Letters: Migration on Tape is part of the Bradford City of Culture programme and runs from 22 May until 15 June at the Loading.Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

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