The Chagos Research Initiative (CRI) is a mutli-media documentary and art project about and for the Chagossian community. We collect, document, develop, and share research that aims to reclaim and aid in the fight for justice for the Chagossian diaspora who seek self-determination. 
 

The British Government, in order to build a US Naval Base, forcibly displaced the Chagossians from their homeland and as part of ongoing political strategies created a fiction that a permanent population never existed there. As a stateless nation without an official national archive, the physical, photographic and material evidence of their heritage is dispersed and largely unobtainable. 
 

Beginning with testimonials and evidence offered by the community, the project manoeuvres through this fiction, reassembles and shares material in order to recover this history and heritage. Further records were obtained from a wide variety of sources such as Wikileaks; The Imperial War Museum, London; The Seabee Museum, California; individuals and retired US Navy Seabees. 
 

Through collaboration, the initiative brings these dispersed resources together, until now inaccessible to Chagossians, and helps build a narrative and celebration of heritage. 
 

The Chagos Research Initiative was founded by Paula Naughton in partnership with The Chagos Refugees Group. It is dedicated to the displaced Chagossians and all those who have helped tell their story. 
 

As an ongoing project we invite people to share in this collaborative initiative. Please contact us if you have any information to offer.