The Master of Museology of the Reinwardt Academy sponsors an inspiring workshop at the District Six museum on 6 november 2012 as part of the annual COMCOL conference in Cape Town (South Africa).
The thematic focus of the conference is Museums and the Idea of Historical Progress.
Workshop participants will visit the museum and various living and historical memory sites. Aim of the workshop is sharing experiences of the different institutions, museum professionals and students, around collecting memory as a ‘collections’ practice. Hopefully afterwards new insights on collecting memory will be gained.
The District Six museum is community-based, a house of discussion. District Six was named the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town in 1867. Originally established as a mixed community of freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers and immigrants. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the process of removals and marginalisation had begun. The first to be 'resettled' were black South Africans, forcibly displaced from the District in 1901. In 1966 it was declared a white area under the Group Areas Act of 1950, and by 1982, the life of the community was over. 60 000 people were forcibly removed to barren outlying areas aptly known as the Cape Flats, and their houses in District Six were flattened by bulldozers.The District Six Museum, established in December 1994, works with the memories of these experiences and with the history of forced removals more generally.
The relationship between the Reinwardt Academy and District Six already exists for several years. Some years ago a master student from the museum entered the program and more recent one of the bachelor students did her internship in Cape Town at the museum and wrote her thesis on it. Last year Chrischené Julius, collections manager of District six was participating in the first COMCOL conference held in Berlin. Afterwards she visited the Reinwardt Academy for a guestlecture. The workshop in Cape Town is a follow up to last years discussions.