Sorry, I was getting feedback in my ear on the translation. Apologies. 

So, my colleague, Jane Hutt, the Minister for Social Justice, spoke yesterday about how Wales is a community of communities, and her statement to the Senedd spoke about how the Welsh language and culture are something to celebrate and how we as a Government and our partners should embrace our Welsh identity and language as something that should bring the people of Wales and communities together. 

Llywydd, John Griffiths spoke about his Welsh identity and his city's relationship with Welshness, and as the Minister with responsibility for culture and heritage, I welcome the question that John poses today, and that is: how do we learn from the past to ensure a prosperous future for Wales, Newport and the Welsh language? And he also mentioned football, of course, and he immediately got my attention at that point, because that's something that he knows is very close to my heart. So, I'd also like to add my tribute to Chris Gunter's outstanding contribution to the Wales national football team over the years—a team that is also very important to our national culture. 

Llywydd, if I could now just briefly highlight what we are doing in the Newport area specifically, but across Wales as a whole. I'll start by talking about the culture strategy, and we're working with Plaid Cymru on a shared commitment to develop a new culture strategy for Wales that we hope will be available later this year. Our vision for that new strategy is that it will offer forward-looking, values-based direction for the sectors in scope, and that it will strengthen collaborative working and cohesion across our cultural sectors, and underpin all areas of society. The concepts of cultural democracy and developing the links between culture and well-being will be important considerations for the new strategy, and in developing that strategy, we will want to ensure that our sectors, our collections and our cultural activities reflect Wales as a confident, bilingual, diverse, inclusive, reflective and forward-looking nation.

Culture and identity are based on an immeasurable variety of perspectives and experiences, which you've set out very clearly in your introduction, John. So, it's not for Government to attempt to define what this should be at an individual or a community level, but we can and should be thinking about how we include, reflect, support, celebrate and better understand the multidimensional nature of culture and identity in Wales. And the strategy will hopefully be a catalyst to bring communities together to celebrate that rich diversity of identities that exist not only in Newport, but across the whole nation.

But can I now turn specifically to Newport? It’s an excellent example of how a locality’s history impacts on wider Welsh and UK history, helping shape not only local, but also national identity. You already referred to the Chartists; nobody can talk about Newport without talking about the Chartists, and the museum’s Chartists collection, of course, tells the story of a proud and significant Welsh contribution to a British movement that actioned significant political reform. And it’s 20 years since the Newport ship was uncovered during excavations on the riverside, and the planks of that fifteenth-century vessel have now been conserved and are ready to be pieced back together. This is a find of international significance and reflects the importance of maritime travel and trade for Wales across the centuries, which has greatly influenced the Wales that we see today.

I’ve already talked about what we’re going to do, but I think it’s probably right that I highlight a few things that we already have done, and what we continue to do to ensure that Welsh culture thrives within Newport. So, Newport’s museums celebrate a broad spectrum of cultures, communities, industries and eras, which all contribute to developing Newport’s present-day Welsh identity. Museums exist at the heart of a community. It is where people go to connect with each other and to share in and experience our history and our culture. The Welsh Government, via the Arts Council of Wales, fund a number of activities in the Newport area, and these include the Arts Portfolio Wales organisations, Ballet Cymru and the Riverfront, which you also mentioned. And a number of other Arts Portfolio Wales organisations have undertaken activity within the Newport local authority area. Key programme areas, such as creative learning and arts in health, also cover Newport. For example, the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has recently delivered an extensive Celf ar gyfer y Faenor programme as part of the development of the new Grange.