Description: This video, made for Black History Month in 2001, records an exhibition called Connections at the Hall Place Heritage Centre, organised by Bexley Council,to record contributions to the borough by minority people, with a focus on Sikh, Somali, Romany Travelers and Vietnamese.

Jessica Vale, collections manager, talks about an 1816 picture of the Nag's Head Inn in Welling which features a black man.

Next section of the film focuses on the Sikh community in Bexley. Filmed interviews with two local elderly Sikhs discuss their first impressions of the UK. The next section does the same with two Vietnamese residents, followed by two Somali refugees. The two Somalis discuss various aspects of Somali culture. The next section focuses of Romany Traveler families; a woman talks about horses and their importance to her community and its history. Other women talk about their experiences, each other, and their history, as well as their language,

The travelers then discuss ceremonies and traditions surrounding birth, followed by the Somalis and Sikhs talking about traditions in this area in their cultures, thereby implying similarities across these cultures (woman being isolated after birth, kept separate from their husbands). Vietnamese woman discuss how Vietnamese do not really celebrate birthdays.

This is followed by a section on traditions surrounding death; travelers' possessions are burned after death, whereas a Somali woman sees it as simply part of life.

Somali marriage customs are discussed next; here men are expected to take care of the wife. A Somali woman discusses the importance of preparations for weddings. A section on Sikh marriage customs follows; the wife discusses how she was married at eleven but did not see her husband for several years. Some younger Sikh girls then talk about cultural differences relating to marriage growing up Sikh in the United Kingdom. Romany marriage customs are discussed next; the lack of parental control here is implicitly contrasted with the importance of parental approval in Sikh marriages discussed previously.

Sikh religion is then discussed in some detail by Sikhs; religion in Somalia is discussed next, followed by religion in Vietnam, and the differences in the way it is practiced in Vietnam and in the UK.

The different groups discuss living in the Bexley area; a traveler woman says she remembers when the whole area was fields and villages but has since been built upon.

The interviewees discuss how much they love living in Britain; the Somali woman says how much she loves Thamesmead and we see her looking over the river at the area.