Second Conference Announcement

Hands on District Six: Landscapes of Postcolonial Memorialisation
May 25-28, Cape Town , South Africa
A District Six Museum Conference

The District Six Museum is hosting an international conference to reflect on ten years of its growth as an institution, and to prepare to play a role in the return of community to the barren landscape of District Six. We expect to engage local and international participants from other museums, as well as scholars, practitioners, and activists working with 'sites of conscience', urban justice and restitution, performance, and human rights.  The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience is a key partner in this venture. 

The Conference  will provide a critical space to reflect on emerging practices of memorialisation, heritage and engagements with living memory.  It will also consider challenges for building a humane and democratic public culture in South Africa , ten years into its democracy. The conference will explore the relationships between landscapes and postcolonial memorialisation in terms of human rights, urban justice, and the creation of civil society.

We invite discussion in the following areas:

• Reflections and debates on new directions in memorialisation in South Africa , Africa and around the world. Identify the specific features of the South African memorial complex and consider questions around cultural ownership and politics, as people reclaim spaces in the city.
• Consider the cultural economy of commemoration in relation to histories of trauma, genocide, wars and struggles for liberation.  Also evaluate the powerful influence of genocide and holocaust studies in the cultural field of commemoration and memory.
• The role of expressive arts in the performance of memory
• Critiques of World Heritage, destination and sustainable tourism. 
• Consider comparative methodologies of heritage site management with particular emphasis on managing and conserving historic sites for contemporary audiences. Critique of heritage site management, particularly relations of knowledge and power in key disciplines such as architecture, archaeology.
• Consider museums in relation to international theatres of citizenship and sites of conscience - places of memory committed to using their histories to foster civic dialogue and promote democratic and humanitarian values. Explore the shape and meaning of sites of conscience in the South African context and internationally.

Current Partners: The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience, District Six Beneficiary and Redevelopment Trust. Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Ford Foundation, South African Heritage Resources Agency, Constitution Hill.

We extend an invitation to participants from: museums, human rights practitioners, scholars, activists, persons affected by forced removals and dispossession and other interested persons.

To register or for more information, contact Shamila Rahim at shamila@districtsix.co.za . Please visit the conference page at the museum website: http://www.districtsix.co.za/ . The page will be operational from 1 March 2005.