Erasure and Collective Memory

A Parktown Stories Bank

Blake Samuels

MArch 2022

Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Gregory Katz
Unit Tutor: Jaco Jonker
Unit Assistant: Senzo Mamba

UNIT 17
Making... A Difference 2022

Awards
Unit 17 Prize

Collective Memory is defined as the memory of a group of people, passed on from one generation to the next. This collective memory shapes and defines the soul and identity of a group of people or a nation. A nation’s collective memory is built on signifiers, moments, and events that have taken place, that shape its identity. Public memory is built from an intersection of official and vernacular versions of the past and museums are agents of the past. This is where the issue of perspective comes in – “the pen that writes the story is ultimately the pen that controls the perspective of the memory”. It needs to be ensured that those previously denied agency have their voices incorporated into projects of remembering and national belonging.

This proposal is to transform the current Inyanda Building 4 into a Stories Bank – a  place to engage in conversations and learnings about identity; an archive of historical physical artifacts, intangible stories, and narratives, through recordings of spoken word, writing, photography, and visual artworks; an unsanitised collection of physical history, where historically marginalised people’s voices can be heard.

Keywords:
Parktown, Stories Bank, Identity, Artifacts, Memory, Virtual Reality