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Oct/Nov/Dec 2005 |
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Join the Movement: Become a Member of the Coalition
Support this unique network by becoming a member of the Coalition. As a member, you will help sustain an enlarging network dedicated to actively using history to promote humanitarian and democratic values, and redefining museum practice. Visit www.sitesofconscience.org/eng/about.htm to sign up today!
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CONTENTS:
Kitchen Conversations: Dialogues on Immigration at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, USA
Historic Sites Aid Social Reconstruction Efforts in Conflict Areas
Art Recalls Human Catastrophes in Latin America
Memory Inspires Human Rights Awareness in Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Sites of Slavery Partner Across the Atlantic
`Iolani Palace, Hawaii, USA
Discovery Center for Interactive Learning, Pritina, Kosovo
"Using the Past to Shape the Future" Online
Gandhi Memorial Museum, Joyag, Bangladesh
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Kitchen Conversations: Dialogues on Immigration at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, USA
How can a museum cultivate conversations between strangers on difficult immigration issues? The Lower East Side Tenement Museum in the United States offers "Kitchen Conversations", a public dialogue program that encourages visitors to examine and confront their own views, and the views of other visitors from around the world, on pressing immigration-related questions.
Visitors begin with a guided tour of a historic tenement building and the carefully restored apartments of actual residents who lived there from 1863 to 1935. The tour shares the stories of how these immigrant families struggled to make their way in America, confronting challenges that remain for present-day immigrants. Following the tour, guests are invited to join a trained facilitator for a discussion based on ideas sparked by the tour. Seated around a cosy table full of beverages and light snacks, visitors introduce themselves and use stories from the tour as a starting point to share their own related experiences. As the discussion progresses, the facilitator challenges visitors on their assumptions and beliefs around larger immigration issues today, with questions such as:
- What does it mean to be a citizen?
- How and why do people link "national security" issues with immigration issues?
- Should there be universal standards for working conditions?
- What is bilingual education, and should it be legal?
- What is an ethnic enclave? What are the benefits and drawbacks of living in such communities?
By the end of the discussion, participants are encouraged to learn more about contemporary immigration issues in their communities, to think about what changes they would like to see in immigration in the future, and to explore how they can take action to contribute to that change. When asked what they liked about Kitchen Conversations, many participants noted that they enjoyed hearing new opinions, saying it gave them a "chance to meet people with different perspectives," and to "hear others' sense of current related problems." For more information on this program and tours at the Tenement Museum, visit http://www.tenement.org/tours.html
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Historic Sites Aid Social Reconstruction Efforts in Conflict Areas
(September 25, 2005)
How can the experiences and strategies of Sites of Conscience influence policy and rebuilding efforts in areas recovering from violent conflict? The US Institute for Peace invited the Coalition to help launch its Working Group on Social Reconstruction and Reconciliation. The Working Group, which is part of the Institute's larger effort to identify policy options for improving performance during reconstruction and stabilization operations, will focus specifically on how public memory processes can advance social rebuilding. Over the course of four sessions, the Group will explore examples of the interventions memorials and archives have made in diverse processes of social reconstruction. Discussions will analyze lessons learned in different settings and the specific contributions that international actors can make. During their first meeting, Liz Sevcenko, Secretariat Director, presented examples of how Sites of Conscience have contributed to the development of reconciliation, transitional justice, and other democracy-building efforts in a variety of cultural contexts.
Art Recalls Human Catastrophes in Latin America
(November 1-4, 2005)
"Art: Representation of the Memory of Terror," an international conference held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, promoted the need for open spaces that question and debate how art and literature can be strategically used to speak the unspeakable, and to construct an archive of collective memory of the human catastrophes of the 20th century. Patricia Tappatá de Valdéz from Memoria Abierta presented on "The representation of traumatic experiences through testimonial archives and the reconstruction of spaces of repression." Participants included Claustro de Sor Juana University , Mexico; Emilio Mignone Centre for Human Rights; State University of Campinas, Brazil; the German Embassy in Argentina; Museo de la Memoria - Rosario; and the
Secretary of Culture of the Presidency of the Nation. The conference was conceptualized by head organizer Eugenia Bekeris, and co-organized by Irene Jaievsky (Museum of Architecture and Holocaust Museum Buenos Aires) and Ralph Buchenhorst (German-Argentine Centre). For more information and to view the full program, visit http://www.memoriadelterror.com.ar
Memory Inspires Human Rights Awareness in Krasnoyarsk, Russia
(October 29-30, 2005)
 How can a museum in a remote location use the painful past of totalitarianism to cultivate far-reaching discussion on present-day human rights abuses? Krasnoyarsk Museum Centre, a branch of the central Lenin Museum in Moscow, organized their second "Methodological Seminar for Scholars on the Study of Political Repression" , which convened more than 1,800 attendees, including university professors, museum directors and curators, memorial societies, high school teachers, and members from ethnic minority groups. Representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Krasnoyarsk Pedagogical University, the Jewish community, and Legal Human Rights Centre discussed how the history and historical evidence of political prisoners of the Soviet era in the 1940-50s can help students and the public in Krasnoyarsk region better understand contemporary human rights issues. These issues are particularly pressing given what is happening today. For instance, Vladimir Stephanovich Vedenkov, Curator of the Legal Human Rights Center and member of the Helsinki Group, discussed the case of Dr. Valentin Danilov, a physicist and one of several Russian academics and journalists prosecuted by the internal security services (the FSB) on espionage charges.
A powerful exhibit accompanied the seminar, displaying techniques the Russian state used to erase the memory of political prisoners from history and the social conscience, including the effacement of political prisoners' images in old textbooks, official posters and documents. The event ended in the evening, with flowers and floating candles released into the Enesey River in honor of the victims of totalitarianism. For more information on the event and the work of Krasnoyarsk Museum Center, please visit http://www.mira1.ru
Sites of Slavery Partner Across the Atlantic
(October 15-30, 2005)
This year, the 11th International Conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation invited preservationists and conservationists from around the world to showcase best practices and effective strategies on collective advocacy to sustain world heritage. Conference sessions explored international and US perspectives on challenges and opportunities for sustainability of heritage sites, impacts and opportunities for tourism, and how public policy and legal advocacy can be used to promote heritage conservation. Eloi Coly, Deputy Director of Maison des Esclaves, was invited to discuss ways in which historic sites interpreting issues of slavery in Senegal and United States can collaborate to raise contemporary issues of slavery and its legacies. For more information, including downloadable conference presentations, visit http://www.nationaltrust.org/international
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Institutional Members of the Coalition are part of a growing network of organizations and individuals dedicated to teaching and learning how historic sites and museums can encourage active civic engagement in their communities and around the world. Institutional Members receive of a range of benefits, including eligibility to participate in international conferences and learning exchanges, a feature in the Matters of Conscience e-newsletter, and discounted admission at Accredited Sites of Conscience. For full details on the list of Institutional Member benefits or to sign up today, visit http://www.sitesofconscience.org/eng/about.htm
`Iolani Palace, Hawaii, USA
Situated in Honolulu, `Iolani Palace is the only royal palace used as an official residence by a reigning monarch in the United States. The Victorian-style mansion once housed the Hawaiian Kingdom's last sovereigns: King Kalakaua, who built the palace in 1882; and his sister and successor, Queen Lili`uokalani. During the monarchy, it was the center of social and political activity in the Kingdom of Hawai`i. In 1893, Queen Lili`uokalani was imprisoned in a coup, organized by American businessmen and backed by the US Marines. One hundred years after the overthrow, President Clinton signed a Congressional resolution in which the United States government formally apologized to the native Hawaiian people. Open to the public since 1978, this potent symbol of Hawaiian independence provides an ideal venue for discussion on the present proposal by the US Congress to adopt legislation (the "Akaka Bill") that would set up a governing body for native Hawaiians. Proponents say the measure grants native Hawaiians the same rights as Native Americans, whereas opponents fearing a two-tiered political system claim it an insult to Hawaiians of non-native descent. To learn more about `Iolani Palace, visit http://www.iolanipalace.org
Discovery Center for Interactive Learning, Pritina, Kosovo
Exciting plans are underway for the development of the Discovery Center for Interactive Learning in the former war-torn province of Kosovo. The Center will provide a secure and open environment, where youth are encouraged to be curious. Emphasis will be placed on creating a safe space to afford young people the chance to examine a wide range of topics and interests, from exploring issues of ethnic identity, to learning how electricity works. Initiated in 2003, the first phase of the Discovery Center's development will include a traveling exhibit to access remote, rural communities and to collaborate with Serbian, Albanian and Roma youth and activists. Director Karmit Zysman has received interest from other communities in the Balkans, notably in northern Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro. Contact discoverycenter@gmail.com to learn more about the work of the Discovery Center.
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Gandhi Memorial Museum, Joyag, Bangladesh
The Gandhi Memorial Museum remembers a transformative visit of Mahatma Gandhi to this small village. In 1946, the villages of the Noakhali district suffered brutal rapes, killings, and arson in a Hindu-Muslim riot. In response, Gandhi vowed to walk throughout the villages and promote peace and tolerance of all religions. The house in which Gandhi stayed for one night in the village of Joyag during his march was later donated to preserve the memory of Gandhi's campaign, and to promote the cause of peace among different communities. The Museum carries on his legacy by preaching peace between Hindus and Muslims to younger generations, and by providing social and economic development assistance to local women and children.
Today, rural villages like Joyag are devastated by poverty and dislocation, conditions that have permitted religious fundamentalism and violence to flourish. The Gandhi Memorial Museum has recently partnered with the Liberation War Museum in the Asian Sites of Conscience network, with the desire to address issues of religious conflict today more explicitly. Plans are underway for a collaborative project, "Retracing the Footsteps of Gandhi in Search of Inter-religious Tolerance and Harmony in the Villages of Noakhali", which will map and retrace Gandhi's tour promoting peace and tolerance through regional villages in 1946-47. Every village that will partake in the march is a site of religious conflict or reconciliation associated with this period: from violent Hindu-Muslim riots, to brave individual acts of reconciliation and dialogue. For more information on the project or to learn more about the work of this Institutional Member of the Coalition, contact gandhiashram_db@yahoo.net
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Matters of Conscience is supported in part by the Ford Foundation, National Endowment for Democracy and Open Society Institute. |
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