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What's Being Done On . . . Memory Projects?
www.d6.co.za/ The District Six Museum is dedicated to the memory of the neighborhood of District Six in Cape Town, South Africa, which was declared a "whites-only" area in 1966, forcing the relocation of over 60,000 people by 1982 and the destruction of the community. The Museum is "dedicated to ensuring that the history and memory of forced removals in South Africa will endure and that the process of remembering will challenge all forms of social oppression." The Museum was founded in 1994, when the Central Methodist Church showed a collection of street signs that were secretly salvaged from the demolition and a floor map where visitors could mark previously standing sites. It has grown to house three memory rooms and a gallery exhibiting the life and culture of District Six. Additionally, the Museum engages in a variety of projects to preserve the memory of District Six, provide a community atmosphere for the relocated residents, as well as create a space for South African historical awareness. The District Six Museum is a member of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. See also: www.sitesofconscience.org/eng/d6_how.htm Below the following Interview is a list of programs run by the District Six Museum. Interview: We would like to thank Valmont Layne, Director, for answering the following interview questions. Q: Please tell us about the founding and evolution of the Museum and how the idea for such a museum emerged. The District Six Museum has multiple origins. Its initial impetus came from a campaign during the 1980s to defend the barren site of District Six from encroachment by the old apartheid government and by commercial interests. By the end of the 1980s, District Six had become a site of considerable symbolic importance. It was coveted greedily by the government for its potential to help legitimize the Tricameral parliamentary system, a system designed to make apartheid more palatable to the outside world, and to South Africans. In essence the system left the basic political hierarchies of apartheid intact while pretending to bring about reforms that included a limited franchise for certain minorities. Furthermore, a campaign to save the Silvertree creche from forced closure was conducted in the late 1980s. Silvertree was one of a handful of institutions that survived the destruction of the area. Out of this and other such individual campaigns, a group of activists, artists, and concerned citizens got together and formed the Hands Off District Six Campaign. The upshot of all this is that the Hands Off District Six Campaign convened a conference in 1988. Recognizing that District Six would remain a contested site, the delegates agreed that some kind of institutional form should be sought to ensure that the community of District Six would have a substantive role in shaping an agenda for the future of District Six. The call was therefore made to establish "a museum of District Six." We trace the origins of the Museum to this resolution and the subsequent work to make it happen. This formative moment also reveals much about the methodological approaches we take to the work that we do. Q: How do you think the District Six Museum and its projects contribute to the healing process of the community and the country? Central to the District Museum's methodology has been the various ways in which people have performed memory in the space of the Museum, from donating invaluable artifacts central to their experiences of home to the living memory narrated by ex-residents and current residents who visit the Museum. Each re-telling of their stories re-emphasizes the enormous value that the Museum places on these memories and remembrances, individually and as a community; and this helps to ameliorate the negativity inherent in any site of forced removals and displacement. The Museum also has a number of programs that deal specifically with community healing. The Reunions give ex-residents the opportunity to re-establish connections with one another, to reassert their experiences as individuals and a community through the exchange of stories, experiences, photographs, and other expressions of memory. The Oral Histories of ex-residents are collected by museum staff, allowing the ex-residents the space, time, and attention to choose how they represent themselves and how they narrate their stories. This practice of collecting life histories and oral histories is a form of individual and community recognition, and a way of placing the ex-residents and their lived experiences at the center of the Museum. Public meetings and community gatherings play a pivotal role in the land restitution process, allowing for a sense of political and collective voice to be fostered. School visits, youth programs and other education programs extend the audience of the Museum beyond the ex-residents to those of a younger generation who learn about human rights abuses and the possibility of change for the better - the District Six story is as much about reclaiming power and hope as it is about dispossession. District Six has become a national symbol to people who have been affected by forced removals from other places across the country, and the Museum acknowledges these communities and works to incorporate their histories. Q: One of your projects focuses on the land restitution issue in the District Six community. How has the Museum's existence and activities contributed to the land restitution process? The District Six Museum has played a key role in raising consciousness in the country about the history of the area, the legacies of forced removals, and the results of divisive political processes. All this work has fed into the movement towards land restitution and the awareness that the 'salted earth' policy can be reworked to the benefit of those who were dispossessed. The direct role of the museum in the land restitution process has included providing a space for community gatherings used by the District Six Beneficiary Trust (which drives the legal process of land restitution) and the Land Claims Commission (to verify information provided by clients). The Museum also works very closely with returning residents in collecting their stories, providing support, and documenting their homecoming. The workshops and public meetings that the Museum has led humanized the legal restitution process for the District Six community, and provided space for the articulation of ex-residents' voices in a meaningful and constructive way. The physical return and the rebuilding of the area presents both challenges and opportunities for conservation to the Museum in what is, essentially, a destroyed urban landscape. Future projects that are part of the physical rebuilding of the site include a memorial park in the area, and the museum will continue to play a pivotal and active role in working with the intangible heritage of the area. Q: Do you face a problem of youth apathy in your outreach efforts? Considering that young people are somewhat removed from the direct memory of the displacement, how have you tried to combat such apathy? How have the youth of the country responded to the Museum's Ambassadors Program? Retaining and increasing the relevance of the District Six story is, of course, of critical importance. We have a very active engagement with youth. The Ambassadors Program is a flagship, now called "Baluleka" or "Be Important." We are placing much more emphasis on the careful selection of programming impact. That is, we want to balance large-scale impact on school learners with a more leveraged approach, recruiting youth leadership from partner organizations and mobilizing the story of forced removals in ways that speak to them. With Baluleka, for example, we have a human rights-themed Internet café where young people sign up for learning modules. Membership in the Baluleka Program means that they have to participate in structured program such as intergenerational dialogues, and in the process, learn life skills and human rights values. Q: Your floor map exhibit is the longest-running installation within the Museum. What role does it play? In 1994 the street locations and street names of District Six were painted onto a large grid to create a map of the area, surrounded by poems and inscriptions. This map is very much the center of the Museum, an installation that provides a physical orientation to District Six, linking the museum space with the geography and layout of the bulldozed streets. It is an imaginative tool that helps visitors to the Museum reconstruct the landscape of intersections and neighborhoods through a shared visceral experience of retracing addresses, routes, and homes step by step. The streets of District Six are written, drawn and retraced onto the landscape of the church that houses the Museum as ex-residents and family members are invited to write on the plastic cover placed over the map and record and commemorate their homes. Many events that occur at the Museum are literally centered on the map where people tread, sit, and dance on the streets. The map links the intangible heritage of the Museum with the very real; it concretizes the idea of forced removals as one is able to imagine the scale of the physical destruction of buildings and gardens and the rerouting and disappearance of streets. Q: In general, what role do you think memory plays in the democratization process in South Africa? Memory is often invoked as one of the tools of democracy. Because memory is so ephemeral, it can be used as a means either to hamper or promote democracy. For example, certain recollections of particular apartheid structures actually promote an anti-democratic agenda. At the Museum, memory work is used to understand the extent of human rights violations perpetrated through acts of forced removals by the state as well as everyday acts of prejudice and violence by people. These stories are showcased and one of the offshoots of these exhibitions is the contribution made to the processes of democratization. For example, the return of a Mr. Nzimande to District Six was marked by his joyful acceptance of restitution as well as by his speech that highlighted the prejudice he experienced in the area as an African person. By listening to these stories and promoting a human rights-based approach to museum work, the institution joins in on a shared national project of deepening democracy. Q: Can you give our readers advice on initiating a memory site? We have three elements in our institutional mission. The first relates to facilitating the process of restitution, in terms of land, but also in terms of cultural restitution. The second element involves developing the ability to be self-reflective and to engage in critical thinking, recognizing that all knowledge inherited from the old order is contingent and that we need to engage in a dynamic way with the centers through which power is diffused in our society. Race, for example, is of key concern to us in the sense that we want to confront and transcend its legacy, but we recognize that this takes work. The third element relates to your question. Our purpose as an institution is to make a particular set of arguments about memory practice, particularly about the importance of community ownership, about critical independence, and about the need to keep alive a public discussion of the ways in which the legacies of an oppressive past continue to operate in society, not to dwell on it, but to use the Museum disciplines and competencies to build a rights-based society in which all can share. So we believe in giving advice, but also in sharing through mutual learning. We all have something to learn about building a more humane society on the ashes of the old order. Programs: From the District Six Museum web site (www.d6.co.za/), users can access the following:
The photographic collection consists of approximately 8,500 photographic prints, 1,000 transparencies, and 4,500 negatives. These images date back to the turn of the century and document the process of the removal itself and the accompanying human tragedy. Audio-Visual Collection: This collection was started in 1997, when the Museum recognized the need to combine oral history with a musical resource for students and the public. The audio-visual collection evolved to contain many different media related to District Six. Historical Documents: Documentary evidence has been gathered by the Museum from the founding through the destruction of District Six. This collection includes District Six newspapers from the 1940s until today, identification cards, pamphlets, posters, and original correspondence and legal documents. Artwork: Original artwork by local residents is also collected and shown. Consolidation: The Consolidation department is working toward the creation of a digital database of the Museum's collection that will allow free public access to the collections. Land Restitution: The District Six Beneficiary and Redevelopment Trust is attempting to drive, co-ordinate, and monitor the process of land restitution in District Six. Working jointly with local, provincial, and national authorities, the Trust functions with the express purpose of facilitating the return of previously displaced persons to their ancestral land.
The Museum works with the Central Methodist Mission on community development initiatives to fill the social vacuum created by the dislocation of members of the District Six community. They provide a shelter for street children as well as a day care center for children of parents who were displaced but still work in the city. http://www.sitesofconscience.org/eng/d6_programs.htm Educational Outreach: The Museum Ambassadors Program trains teenagers to educate their peers on the history of District Six to facilitate community development and tolerance. 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. |
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