Uuganaa Ramsay, founder of SIDA member Mongol Identity SCIO, sees East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) Heritage Month as being about more than celebrating culture – it is an active reclaiming of voice, identity and solidarity.
Every September, East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) Heritage Month in the UK reminds us that heritage is not passive. It is lived, contested, evolving, and central to how communities imagine belonging. In 2025, we see that Heritage Month is doing more than celebrating culture. It is part of an active reclaiming of voice, identity and solidarity.
Over the past year initiatives such as We Are Here for You, run by Mongol Identity SCIO, backed by The National Lottery Community Fund, have demonstrated what community-led change looks like when investment, creativity and inclusion intersect. Networks like ESEA Creatives deepen representation in the arts; events such as the Liquid Identities Festival (28 September, Edinburgh) bring together artists and audiences in ways that affirm complex identities. These efforts offer important lessons for global citizenship, cultural competence and how societies cope with division globally and locally.
Community-led Change: We Are Here for You
In 2024, We Are Here for You, a project of Mongol Identity SCIO and funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, set out to do more than provide cultural visibility. It sought to build a platform where identity is fluid, where people from minority ethnic communities in Scotland including ESEA heritage communities could gather, share, express, and thrive.
Over twelve months the project has provided regular storytelling and intercultural workshops allowing participants to share histories of migration, language, family and memory. Such spaces allow for identity not to feel forced into rigid categories but to breathe and evolve. The project has supported public celebration events where music, food, art, spoken word are shared with the wider public, helping to challenge stereotypes and reduce isolation. Throughout this, there has been support for dialogues on belonging, belonging in Scotland, and the multiplicity of identity. These help participants articulate concerns, hopes and sometimes tensions around identity, racism, invisibility or being seen only as “other”.
The We Are Here for You project has shown how modest but consistent support from funders can enable communities to shape their own narrative rather than be simply objects of representation. It underlines that collective identity work is also social infrastructure: it supports wellbeing, connections and resilience.
Cultural Competence and Global Citizenship in Practice
To understand why projects like We Are Here for You and networks like ESEA Creatives matter, we must think about what cultural competence and global citizenship entail.
Global citizenship is not only about knowing global issues. It is about living interdependence: understanding difference, recognising power, willing to act and to share space. Cultural competence is central to this. It means:
- Recognising that identities are layered: by geography, language, ancestry, migration and generation.
- Listening to voices that are marginalised: those whose stories are seldom centre stage in policy, the arts or public discourse.
- Instituting change in institutions such as funding bodies, arts councils, city councils ensuring underrepresented voices are included in decision-making, not just performance or exhibition.
When cultural competence is embedded, societies are better equipped to resist prejudices, reduce exclusion, and nurture solidarity. These are qualities of healthy global citizenship; not idealised, but practiced in daily life.
Global Unrest, Local Responses: Worry, Hope, Solidarity
Recent global events such as protests, increasing polarisation, rising nationalism and xenophobia are deeply worrying for many. Minority ethnic groups in Scotland, including ESEA communities, observe these with concern.
At the same time, there are local responses that give reason for hope. Community-led festivals and creative events serve as counter-spaces: places where difference is honoured rather than feared. Networks across minority ethnic groups are forging alliances: sharing resources, collaborating across art forms, across diasporas and generations. Public participation means people not only attending, but also organising, advocating, pushing for structural and policy change, and demanding genuine visibility rather than tokenism.
We must be informed about global injustice, but we must not let fear prevent action. Instead, we can let solidarity be our response, not as vague sentiment but as concrete, collective work.
Representation Gaps and the Role of ESEA Creatives
ESEA Creatives, as a network, has been vital in articulating what representation and cultural participation ought to look like in Scotland. Their mission includes:
- Increase Visibility and Representation. While ESEA heritage communities are smaller in number compared to other groups, the underrepresentation is large. In film, very low percentages of East Asians appear on and off screen in senior roles. Southeast Asians are often excluded from national datasets altogether. Similar gaps appear in visual arts and music. ESEA Creatives insists on more than being seen, it insists on agency and voice.
- Grow and Strengthen Community. ESEA is not uniform. Differences of migration history, language background, class, generation, region, gender, etc. ESEA Creatives respects this diversity while building solidarity and shared space.
- Celebrate Talent, Challenge Myths. It uplifts artists at all stages and challenges received narratives. It insists that strength can lie in the margins and that stories from ESEA communities must be told on their own terms.
These are not distant ideals. The festival, the We Are Here for You project, allied with conscious funding and public engagement, show this work in action.
A Call for Collective Responsibility
As Scotland celebrates ESEA Heritage Month, the call is clear. Solidarity must move beyond symbolic gestures. It requires institutions, funders and the wider public to recognise and support the ongoing work of communities. It requires individuals to step into the role of informed, engaged global citizens, ready to listen, learn and act.
The marches and unrest we see on our streets and screens remind us of the fragility of justice. But the festivals, projects and networks flourishing in Scotland remind us of resilience. They show us that unity is not about sameness but about celebrating complexity, acknowledging difference and committing to collective futures.
This September, as artists, organisers and communities come together to celebrate ESEA heritage, we reflect on belonging, creativity and cultural competence. We recognise that everyone has stories to share, and that by listening and working together, we can shape a Scotland where all people are included and valued. We are here for you.
Liquid Identities Festival – Details and Significance
One of the major highlights of this year’s ESEA Heritage Month in Scotland is the Liquid Identities: Celebrating Scotland-Based ESEA Talents festival.
When & Where: Sunday 28 September 2025, Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, 1pm-11pm. Free admission with a donation option. All ages welcome.
- Over 30 artists from Scotland with ESEA heritage performing or exhibiting across multiple artistic domains: visual art, literature, music, dance, spoken word and film.
- A visual arts exhibition especially focussed on identity, belonging and expression.
- Film screenings.
- Panels and conversations exploring creative practice, identity, belonging and the intersection of lived experience.
- Food vendors showcasing culinary traditions from across East and Southeast Asia, enriching cultural expression with communal sharing.
Organisers & Partners: ESEA Creatives, Big Lottery Community Fund (We Are Here For You project) in partnership with Mongol Identity, besea.n Peiwen Legacy Fund, Wu Asia Pacific, Tattu, EHFM, We Are Here Scotland, and Edinburgh Council’s Local Open Event Fund.
This festival is not merely entertainment. It is assertion. It is bringing into public space the complexity of ESEA identities, making visible what so often is marginal. It is a moment to build connections, not just artist-to-audience but peer-to-peer across artists, across communities of identity, background and generation.
What’s Next
- Encourage schools, colleges and museums to learn from and partner with community-led networks around identity, culture and heritage
- Attend Liquid Identities on 28 September and other heritage month events
- Support artists and organisations from ESEA and minority ethnic communities through funding, attendance, commissioning and collaboration
- Push for representation in leadership, decision-making bodies, funding agencies, the arts and culture sectors.
About the Author:
Uuganaa Ramsay is CEO and Cultural Consultant at Wise Moon International, writer of the award-winning memoir Mongol, and founder of Mongol Identity SCIO. Based in Scotland, she champions cultural competence and global citizenship. She also advises organisations on becoming more inclusive, offering strategic guidance and training, while working to amplify underrepresented voices and build stronger, more connected communities.
Image: ESEA Creatives Scotland
Credit: Chi Wai Photography