How is it Remembered?

By 1982, the life of District Six was over. In defiance, the former residents waged fierce battles against redevelopment. The District Six Museum was a powerful force behind the eventual victory that reclaimed the land for the dispossessed.The people of District Six realized memory was the only weapon they had, but they needed an organized way to remember and a place in which to do it. The District Six Museum filled both needs.

Located in the Central Methodist Church, one of the few buildings left after the devastation, the Museum “collection” consisted of a cache of street signs, secretly saved, and a huge floor map where visitors could mark sites important to them. This simple recreation of place stimulated an outpouring of memories; people literally wrote themselves back into the center of the city.

The process continues today. The Church is renovated and restored, but the original street sign exhibit and map remain. People still sign their names and write comments on calico banners. As they walk under huge banner portraits of figures from the community, former neighbors still encounter each other after more than twenty-five years apart.

Imaginative work with memory has led to the creation of three ‘memory rooms,’ and gallery exhibits explore the labouring life and cultural heritage of District Six.

The result is a place that both stimulates and contains the most intense outpouring and feeling from people who suffered the humiliation of losing their place in time. Within its walls resides the intangible “spirit of community.”

district 6 street signs

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How is it Remembered?