New objects for the museum collection – Goldie’s Mitti Handi

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As part of the Dining Room project, we have been working with the community curator group to consider the breadth of the current museum collection. What objects are there and most important what is missing? Where are the gaps in the collection that mean a certain story of Rochdale isn’t being told. When looking at the domestic objects in the collection the group talked about mitti handi, a traditional Indian/Pakistani cooking vessel made of unglazed clay. It is used for slow cooking and simmering dishes such as curries, biryanis, and stews and most often used over a fire. It is a really common pot in South Asian cooking but there wasn’t an example of one in the museum collection. Responding to the gap, one of the community curators put forward their mother’s mitti handi to enter into the museum collection. Over different sessions we have talked a lot about the pots and how good food tastes when made them – the porous nature of the clay allowing for even heat distribution, which helps to cook the food evenly and makes it incredibly tasty. Now part of the museum collection Goldie’s mitti handi helps build a better picture of Rochdale’s food story, what is cooked in the borough and how we cook, enabling future museum visitors to reflect on the different communities in Rochdale.