FolkDeep

FolkDeep Community Archive is a developing community-led digital archive by FolkDeep CIC, a Belfast-based cultural social enterprise founded by Samridhi Saini. The archive focuses on folklore, storytelling, oral histories, folk art, dance, living traditions, women’s memories, migration, cultural belonging, and everyday heritage practices across Belfast and Delhi.

The archive is currently being developed through FolkDeep’s self-funded pilot project, Radha Sutra: Stories Across Borders, a six-month Belfast–Delhi digital cultural exchange project. The material includes workshop documentation, photographs, participant reflections, cultural stories, oral-history-style interviews, artist conversations, event records, creative outputs, and digital media connected to Indian and Irish cultural traditions.

Current material includes documentation from Indian folk art workshops in Belfast, including Warli and Gond-inspired sessions with school and community groups, as well as Irish cultural exchange workshops in Delhi involving Céilí dance and Irish fairy folklore with NGO children and community participants. The archive also aims to document home rituals, festival traditions, antique markets, folk practices, women’s memories, and everyday cultural knowledge that often remains outside formal archives.

The archive is in its pilot and development stage. Its long-term aim is to become a community-owned digital archive and learning resource where artists, young people, women, schools, NGOs, and community groups can share and access cultural knowledge. FolkDeep hopes to build a model that supports cultural exchange, fair recognition for artists, and accessible heritage learning across different cities and communities.