2026 Annual Huntley Conference 

I Am an Archive, We Are an Archive – 20th Annual Huntley Conference

Over the past two decades, the Huntleys established an unparalleled platform for the recognition, preservation, and critical exploration of Black British heritage.

Eric Huntley’s work consistently centred young people: supporting their learning, encouraging critical thinking, and creating opportunities for them to engage with history, culture, and politics on their own terms. This intergenerational approach was not incidental, but foundational — rooted in the belief that archives, publishing, and education must remain living practices.

Only days before his passing, Eric remained actively engaged with young volunteers involved in planning this year’s conference, offering encouragement and insight as they shaped the programme. He was clear in his wish that the work should continue.

In that spirit, the 20th Annual Huntley Conference, “I Am an Archive, We Are an Archive,” will take place as planned on Friday 21 February 2026 at The London Archives. The conference will also include opportunities for reflection and tribute, allowing participants to contribute spoken or written responses as part of a living archive.

 Read more here: https://fhalma.org/1575-2/

Through the creation of the Huntley Archives and the Annual Huntley Conference series, we have built an intergenerational forum for advancing community knowledge production and cultural memory. The conference has evolved into a dynamic space for political education, intellectual inquiry, and collective mobilisation—centred on the lived experiences, activism, and scholarship of Black communities in Britain and across the diaspora.

Each year, we draw on materials from the archives to shape a thematic focus that resonates across generations and speaks to wider questions of justice, resistance, and representation. These gatherings encourage critical engagement with the past, while nurturing dialogue that is deeply rooted in the present and aspirational about the future. Many participants have been inspired to investigate their own family or community histories, with the conference often serving as a catalyst for reflection, learning, and activation.

Our previous themes include: Researching Our Archives; Arts and Activism; Get Up, Stand Up – Campaign for Rights, Respect and Reliance; Being Young, Black and British; Identity and Community Through the Generations; Looking into Africa; Garvey, Rasta and Rodney; and Writing the Wrongs – Fifty Years of Black Radical Publishing in Britain. Our first conference, Groundings with Bogle-L’Ouverture: A Story of Black Publishing (2006), laid the foundation for what has become an annual landmark. In 2013, we launched the Huntley Youth Forum with the theme Educating Our Children, Liberating Our Futures. In 2024, we centred Black Power Women in Education, continuing our commitment to foregrounding historically excluded voices.

As we mark 20 years of the Huntley Conference, we reaffirm our belief in the radical power of community-curated archives as a tool for historical reclamation, cultural stewardship, and decolonial research practice.