
Correcting the Record
With their unique expertise in documentation, oral history collection, and community engagement, Sites of Conscience have a key role to play in addressing the challenging and complex issues of our time by providing a public platform for those whose voices are marginalized by wider society.

The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience’s 2022 project Correcting the Record: Building Inclusive, Equitable and Engaged Societies One Narrative at a Time aimed to expand the impact of Sites of Conscience in countering hatred, violence, and discrimination in their societies by fostering more inclusive historical narratives. Believing change must come from within, the year-long initiative equipped participating Sites of Conscience with the skills, partnerships, knowledge, and tools to recalibrate their organization’s practices, approaches, and/or repositories (including, but not limited to, archives, documentation centers and museum interpretive plans) in order to amplify marginalized voices, promote more inclusive and equitable public narratives, and mitigate societal discrimination and exclusion.
Correcting the Record project partners included six Sites of Conscience from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, who piloted and tested the Correcting the Record methodology and helped document the learnings of their respective processes to ensure global best practice, accessibility and replicability. Over eight months, each project partner developed a case study – a set of actions carried out to address the gaps in their organization’s practices, approaches and/or repositories, while piloting the methodology – and assessed its impact in countering discrimination, hatred and violence in their communities by fostering more inclusive historical narratives. In this, they were supported by ICSC staff and two mentors, Radhika Hettiarachchi and Lebogang Marishane, from Sites of Conscience in Sri Lanka and South Africa respectively.
The project built upon ICSC’s 2021 Global Summit “Building Global Capacities for Inclusive Democracies,” which equipped members with an understanding that discrimination is rooted in systemic inequality.
For more information, and to view resources and recordings of available workshops, please see below.
Outputs

Correcting the Record:
A Toolkit to Foster More Inclusive Historical Narratives
This toolkit is a step-by-step guide to implementing ICSC’s unique “Correcting the Record” methodology, which was developed to support the efforts of Sites of Conscience and like-minded organizations around the world to promote more inclusive and equitable historical narratives, and confront intolerance, discrimination and exclusion within their societies.

Correcting the Record:
Impact Report
The Correcting the Record Impact Report shares the impact of the new skills, tools and partnerships acquired by Sites of Conscience while piloting the Correcting the Record methodology.
Capacity-Building Workshops
As part of the project, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience hosted a capacity-building workshop and a two-day global conference in 2022 to enhance the capacity of Sites of Conscience to lead their communities in correcting historical records, amplifying new voices for change, and promoting democratic norms and respect for human rights.
Both virtual events were open and accessible to all Sites of Conscience members, with some sessions open to members’ local partners as well. Recordings in Arabic, English, French and Spanish are available below.
Collecting and Centering Communities’ Voices
As part of the 2022 Correcting the Record: Building Inclusive, Equitable and Engaged Societies One Narrative at a Time project, the Coalition hosted a four-hour virtual capacity-building workshop, “Collecting and Centering Communities Voices,” on May 24, 2022. The workshop enhanced Sites of Consciences’ skills to carry out community-based oral history, archiving and documentation projects. Learn more.

Correcting the Record Virtual Global Workshop
In order to ensure global best practice, accessibility and replicability, ICSC organized the Correcting the Record virtual global workshop on November 29-30, 2022. The workshop presented the Correcting the Record methodology; helped disseminate the learnings of the Correcting the Record project; and supported the assessment and recalibration of Sites of Conscience repositories at the global level. Watch here.

Participating Sites of Conscience Members






Mentors

Lebogang Marishane is a South African social justice activist working to advance development of African communities and increase civic engagement. She firmly believes in the strategic use of information, communications and technologies to center and amplify the voices of those that live in the margins.

Radhika Hettiarachchi is a Sri Lankan researcher, curator, and peacebuilding practitioner with over 16 years of experience working on oral history and memory, socio-economic stability, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding.