The Huis Kombuis Design and Craft Memory Project started in March 2006. It was conceived of as a transformative space where memory could be performed and creatively re-appropriated through a revival of traditional home based crafts like embroidery, sewing and appliqué work. December 2006 saw the launch of an exhibition which showcased the handmade products of the project participants.

Regular workshops have since become part of a broader institutional practice, and these that continually provide a platform for creative exchanges to make claims for the future by using design, craft and storytelling as mediums for imaginative communication.

The conceptual framework was organised around a complex set of dynamics built around the Museum’s understanding of how memory is perceived as a creative tool to mobilise collective storytelling. The project title was drawn from participants’ responses, calling on an existing cultural reference – Huis Kombuis (literally translated as ‘home kitchen’)- and affirmed the hearth of the home as a central nurturing space.

The workshops allow for the forgotten voices, fragile memories and skills of elderly, retired homemakers, as well as former residents who had worked as seamstresses in the clothing industry, to be acknowledged and made visible. Through prioritising their stories as key to product development, Huis Kombuis attempts to present narrativised versions of the participants’ lives in a specific context and time, utilising a number of reflexive lenses to tell a story of loss, memory and symbolic reconstruction. These interpretations are skillfully developed into functional product designs that embody their stories, and have resulted in the ‘reincarnation’ of a District Six aesthetic.

A hand-embroidered range consisting of aprons, oven mittens, tea-cosies, tablecloths and tea towels was produced.

The project is ongoing and has experimented with more ambitious designs derived from an interplay between the personal stories of the participants and the archival collection of the Museum.

A number of years have passed since the Huis Kombuis idea was first born in the Museum. There have been several milestones which include a book production and launch, an exhibition and a range of Huis Kombuis inspired products.

(All projects and programmes of the District Six Museum are structured inter-departmentally,  with a lead department being assigned to each. The Huis Kombuis Design and Craft Memory Project is a project of the Exhibitions Department of the Museum and is co-ordinated by Tina Smith.)