The District Six Museum is a living space that is “continually shifted, layered, and subverted by its visitors.” It focuses on the past destruction of a neighborhood by celebrating that neighborhood’s current vibrancy and by drawing visitors into the story. The collection itself––street signs, personal objects, small family photographs––is humble, yet beautiful. The museum is also a real actor in Cape Town social life, hosting discussions and forums on issues such as land reform and diversity.
Nothing in this museum is glitzy, fancy, expensive, or electronic, but the result is inspiring. What makes the jumble of ingredients that comprise the District Six Museum successful? How does its collection compare with those of other museums of memory––or, for that matter, with the collections of traditional museums?
References
Karp, Ivan, Corinne Kratz, et al. Museum Frictions: Public Cultures/Global Transformations, 299-300. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006.
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Design of District Six Museum
Upon entry to the District Six Museum, a large, interactive map on the floor and a display of old street signs give visitors a palpable sense of what life was like in District Six. The map was created as part of a 1994 exhibit called “Streets: Retracing District Six.” Former residents were invited to mark places they remembered from the neighborhood. “As the exhibition captured the public imagination,” former museum director Valmont Layne wrote, “ex-residents flooded the organizers with memorabilia from the District: family photographs, bottles, toys, even items of furniture and doors. However, we were not ready for this influx of museum objects. Even so, receiving the deposit had to be part of the spirit of accepting the positive community response with grace.”
The first floor of the museum presents the historical background of some of the policies of the Apartheid regime, particularly the Group Areas Act. The second floor guides the visitor through District Six, exploring its daily life activities through recreated workplaces and social scenes. There are also large, translucent portraits of well-known former residents. One highlight of the Museum is the “memory cloth” on which comments, messages, and personal memories by ex-residents of District Six have been written. The cloth is over 300 meters long and still growing as visitors continue to write on it.
At any given time, the museum hosts several different exhibits, but the main, permanent exhibit is entitled “Digging Deeper.” This exhibit is a varied, multi-textured presentation, consisting of lifelike recreations, panels, timelines, pictures, and sound domes broadcasting the voices of the displaced. Meanwhile, the museum houses an impressive archive collection of visual, oral, textual materials, such as photographs, newspapers, paintings, artifacts, interviews with former residents, video footage of forced removals, and musical recordings.
References
“Streets.” District Six Museum Official Site.
External Link
Layne, Valmont. “The sound archive at the District Six Museum: A work in progress.” S. A. Archives Journal 40 (1998): 22.
Topol, Sarah. “What’s Being Done on Memory Projects?” World Movement for Democracy.
External Link
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