What's Being Done On . . . Memory Projects?
 |
Main
List of Memory Projects
Iran: Omid Memorial, Interview with Ladan Boroumand, Co-founder
Cambodia: Documentation Center of Cambodia, Interview with Youk Chhang, Director
South Africa: District Six Museum, Interview with Valmont Layne, Director
Argentina: Memoria Abierta, Interview with Patricia T. de Valdez, Director
International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience, Interview with Liz Sevcenko, Director, Secretariat
|
The World Movement secretariat would like to thank its consultant, Ms. Sarah Topol, for her assistance in assembling this installment.
This installment of "What's Being Done On...?" focuses on "Memory Projects" and their relationship to democracy. Memory projects can take a variety of forms but are most generally projects established specifically to preserve and come to terms with a country's past and create hope for the future.
While there have been many efforts to memorialize eras and events in countries around the world, this installment highlights memory projects with a particular focus on their political aspects as they relate to democracy promotion.
This installment features five case studies (see menu to right), each of which profiles an organization that maintains a physical site of memory, and provides information about its mission, the work it does, and the programs it runs. Interviews with representatives of these organizations present analyses of the challenges of constructing a memory site, strategies for confronting those challenges, and how the sites promote democracy through their work.
The projects and organizations presented are illustrative of different kinds of initiatives, and are provided for consideration as examples for others who may be interested in constructing a site of memory or who may wish to benefit from the work being done.
Memory projects are part of larger efforts of societies to achieve national reconciliation after a period of social trauma. After a period of conflict or repression, a society may seek to attain some form of resolution to make peace with its past and to function collectively as a nation. This process of understanding and coming to terms with the past is a critical part of post-conflict transitions on the road to democracy, a system of peaceful mediation of conflict. In order to function, a newly emergent democracy must develop working relationships and networks of trust among previously warring social groups. Former enemies must be prepared to trust and work through nascent governmental structures to resolve differences, which creates the biggest challenge to creating functioning institutions. If members of the polity do not trust or mutually respect each other, there can be little cooperation among them, and the established institutions will then remain meaningless and ineffectual.
To create functioning networks of trust for democracy to work, a society often must go through a process of internal reconciliation to address past human rights abuses. The feelings of individuals, politicians, and communities must be transformed from mutual antagonism to acceptance. There are generally three stages in the reconciliation process.
- First, fear must be replaced by non-violent coexistence, meaning there must be an alternative to revenge in the form of communication between victims and perpetrators.
- Second, confidence and trust must be developed within the citizenry, with different factions acknowledging each other's humanity.
- Finally, there must be a move towards empathy, with both sides willing to listen to each other's motives and explanations. Through these three stages, the reconciliation process can help a warring society evolve into a functional national entity.
Reconciliation is both an individual and a societal process in which past events are incorporated into the national history. Truth finding commissions, pardons, trials, and memory projects are some of the avenues available through which a country can pursue reconciliation and transitional justice. They can be used in conjunction with one another or separately to establish greater national unity and a democratic culture. To legitimize the polity, regardless of which measure is used, the truth about past events must be known and understood as completely as possible. Victims should know exactly how the violence against them was planned and executed; the fates of victims must be uncovered; and the individuals responsible for issuing orders must be exposed. In addition, such information must be made public; hiding the truth only deepens fear and hatred, perpetuates animosity, and makes future reconciliation especially problematic.
Focusing on Memory Projects:
Memory projects have an important role in, and can be powerful tools for, reconciliation.
- A place of memory ensures that the past is not forgotten or repeated.
- Monuments, places of remembrance, or memorial days add a collective dimension to private pain and establish an enduring healing mechanism.
- Places of memory can allow for competing memories to coexist, and since memory is part of cultural construction, symbolic places and dates can become centers of empowerment and resistance to forgetting the past.
- Memory can also create a positive group identity depending on what is chosen to be remembered, while memory projects can empower communities by creating dialogue, fostering trust, and reuniting societies.
- Memory Projects can serve as places that educate future generations about how to identify growing distrust in a population and thus prevent future conflict.
When memory projects go beyond the role of museums to become centers of discourse on the past, they become living examples of the reconciliation process, signifying the population's recognition of the past and its affirmation of a different future. There are different kinds of memory projects-museums, memory walls, sites of oral testimony and written records-but all of them aim at the same final objective: providing an opportunity for victims to share and describe their experiences. They are critical to the process of deepening a country's democracy by creating avenues for building trust and mutual understanding. Identity is forged and renewed, networks of communication are developed, and society is reconfigured, all of which can contribute significantly to a successful transition to democracy, the creation of functional democratic institutions, and a more unified society.
This installment also includes an illustrative, regionally grouped list of organizations with memory projects. Their work contributes to contemporary democratization efforts around the world. If your organization is working on a memory project, please send us information so we can consider adding it to the list. Send information to the .
Information for this summary of the subject was drawn from several sources, including:
The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing Societies, edited by Alexandra Barahona De Brito, Carmen González-Enrquez, and Paloma Aguilar (2001).
The Web site of the Transition and Reconciliation Program of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, based in South Africa: www.wits.ac.za/csvr/projects/truthcom.htm
"Collective Memory and National Identity in the Spanish Democracy: The Legacies of Francoism and the Civil War," by Paloma Aguilar, in History & Memory (Fall 2002)
Reconciliation after Violent Conflict, a handbook published online by International IDEA, found at: www.idea.int/publications/reconciliation/index.cfm (available for download with free registration).
About "What's Being Done On . . . ?"
For several months at a time, we highlight the activities of various organizations in different global regions, and links to important resources, that are focused on a particular theme or area of democracy work. Each new theme is announced via DemocracyNews, and the information from the previous installment is placed in the "What's Being Done On . . . ?" archives. We hope to receive and post information about the work you or others may be doing that is focused on these issues. Send information via e-mail to the or by fax to (202) 378-9889.
|
