The Power of Place: How historic sites can engage citizens in human rights issues (English)

8/9/2019 The Power of Place: How historic sites can engage citizens in human rights issues (English)

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by Liz evenkoEdited by Liam Mahony

The Power of PlaceHow historic sites can engage citizens in human rights issues

A Tactical Notebook published bythe New Tactics Project

of the Center for Victims of Torture


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Published byThe Center for Victims of TortureNew Tactics in Human Rights Project717 East River RoadMinneapolis, MN 55455 USAwww.cvt.org, www.newtactics.org

Notebook Series EditorLiam MahonyLayout and CopyeditingTricia Cornell

The Danish Institute for Human Rights and The Center for Victims of Torture wish to acknowledge thefollowing institutions that provided support for the New Tactics in Human Rights West Group regionaltraining workshop, of which this and other tactical notebooks are a product:

The Paul & Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation,

The United States Department of State,

The United States Institute of Peace,

The European Masters Programme in Human Rights and Democratization

Donors who wish to remain anonymous.We are also greatly indebted to the work of numerous interns and volunteers who have contributed theirtime and expertise to the advancement of the project and of human rights.

The New Tactics project has also beneted from more than 2000 hours of work from individual volunteers

and interns as well as donations of in-kind support. Some of the institutional sponsors of this work includeMacalester College, the University of Minnesota, the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs, theMinnesota Justice Foundation and the public relations rm of Padilla Speer Beardsley.The opinions, ndings and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this site are those of the NewTactics project and do not necessarily reect the views of our funders For a full list of project sponsors seewww.newtactics.org.

The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reect those of the New Tactics in Human Rights Proj-ect. The project does not advocate specic tactics or policies.

The views and analysis of this document are based largely on experiences of Peace Brigades International,

but are entirely the responsibility of the author.

2004 Center for Victims of TortureThis publication may be freely reproduced in print and in electronic form as longas this copyright notice appears on all copies.


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66

5 4Author biography

Letter from the New Tactics project manager

Introduction

Case study one: Sweatshops past and present

10Building an international coalition of sites of conscience

The Center for Victims of TortureNew Tactics in Human Rights Project

717 East River Road

Minneapolis, MN 55455 USAwww.cvt.org, www.newtactics.org

12Case study ve: Civic engagement

11Case study two: Seeking truth11Case study three: Reparations

11Case study four: Reconciliation

12Challenges13Outcomes

14Transferring the tactic

15Conclusion


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Liz evenkoLiz evenko is vice president of interpretation atthe Lower East Side Tenement Museum and secretary

general of the International Coalition of Historic SiteMuseums of Conscience. At the Tenement Museum, shedevelops internationally recognized programs for all agesthat connect the dramatic stories of the neighborhoodsimmigrants past and present. She also develops initia-tives to inspire civic dialogue on cultural identity, labor

relations, housing, welfare, immigration and other issuesthese stories raise.

As secretary general of the International Coalition ofHistoric Site Museums of Conscience, evenko coor-dinates exchanges among historic sites around the world

that develop programs and practices to address contem-porary issues in historical perspective. Completing herdoctorate in American history at New York University,evenko has most recently published The Makingof Loisaida in Mambo Montage: The Latinization of New York City.

Contact InformationInternational Coalition of Historic SiteMuseums of Consciencec/o Lower East Side Tenement Museum91 Orchard StreetNew York, NY 10002Tel. +1 212 431 0233

Fax +1 212 431 0402

www.sitesofconscience.orgwww.tenement.org

International Coalition ofHistoric Site Museumsof ConscienceThe Coalition (www.sitesofconscience.org) works tobuild the capacity of historic sites around the world to

foster dialogue on pressing social issues and promotedemocratic and humanitarian values. It seeks to change

the role of historic sites in civic life from places of pas-sive learning to centers for active citizen engagement. Itdevelops sites of conscience as places for communitiesto have ongoing dialogues about the meaning of theirpast and the shape of their future as places to build

a lasting culture of human rights. Connecting sites fromMemoria Abierta in Argentina to the Gulag Museum atPerm-36 in Russia to the District Six Museum in South

Africa, it supports consultations, workshops, conferencesand joint projects among historic site directors, humanrights organizations and NGOs. The Coalition is cur-

rently coordinated from the Lower East Side TenementMuseum in New York City.


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September 2004

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the New Tactics in Human Rights Tactical Notebook Series. In each notebook a human rightspractitioner describes an innovative tactic that was used successfully in advancing human rights. The authorsare part of the broad and diverse human rights movement, including nongovernment and government per-spectives, educators, law enforcement personnel, truth and reconciliation processes, womens rights and men-tal health advocates. They have both adapted and pioneered tactics that have contributed to human rights intheir home countries. In addition, they have used tactics that, when adapted, can be applied in other coun-tries and other situations to address a variety of issues.

Each notebook contains detailed information on how the author and his or her organization achieved what

they did. We want to inspire other human rights practitioners to think tactically and to broaden therealm of tactics considered to effectively advance human rights.

In this notebook the author describes how human rights activists as well as the museum community canmake more effective use of the spacial impact of historic sites to help educate people about social change andhuman rights. The Tenement Museum in New York City has joined with more than a dozen other institu-tions that have focused their attention on sites of conscienceplaces where terrible human rights abusehas occurred that should never be forgotten. Their goal is not only to remember the past, but also to use theemotional power of these places to catalyze critical thinking about the ongoing social issues of today, throughdialogue and educational activities.

The entire series of Tactical Notebooks is available online at www.newtactics.org. Additional notebooks arealready available and others will continue to be added over time. On our web site you will also find othertools, including a searchable database of tactics, a discussion forum for human rights practitioners and in-formation about our workshops and symposium. To subscribe to the New Tactics newsletter, please send ane-mail to [email protected].

The New Tactics in Human Rights Project is an international initiative led by a diverse group of organiza-tions and practitioners from around the world. The project is coordinated by the Center for Victims of Tor-ture and grew out of our experiences as a creator of new tactics and as a treatment center that also advocatesfor the protection of human rights from a unique position one of healing and reclaiming civic leadership.

We hope that you will find these notebooks informational and thought-provoking.

Sincerely,

Kate Kelsch

New Tactics Project Manager


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IntroductionAround the world, people instinctively turn to placesof memory to come to terms with the past and charta course for the future. From makeshift roadside

memorials to ofcial commemorations, millions ofpeople around the world gather at places of memory

looking for healing, reconciliation and insight onhow to move forward. Memory is a critical languageand terrain of human rights. Its here, through theprocess of preserving the past, that evidence of hu-

man rights violations is maintained and made public,issues this evidence raises are debated and tactics forpreventing it from happening again are developed.In short, these places can be critical tools for buildinga lasting culture of human rights.

Our project is to take a fundamental human instinctand develop it as an identiable, self-conscious tacticin the service of human rights and social justice.

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum preservesa ve-story building at 97 Orchard Street, home to

over 7,000 immigrants from more than 20 differentnations from 1863 to 1935. The Museum restores thetiny apartments of the diverse immigrant familieswho lived there and tells the stories of their dailychallenges and triumphs in America. The human

rights issues they faced labor exploitation, racialand ethnic discrimination, poverty and immigrationrestrictions are very much alive today. Locatedin a neighborhood that is today nearly 40 percentforeign-born, the Museum hosts public dialogues on

immigration, welfare, housing, cultural identity andother related issues; teaches English and activism tonew immigrants; and promotes immigrant voicesand issues through changing arts programs.

The Museum believes that historic sites can bepowerful catalysts for public awareness and action

on human rights issues. To promote this idea theMuseum initiated the International Coalition ofHistoric Site Museums of Conscience. The Coalitionwas founded in 1999 when the Tenement Museumbrought together leaders of nine historic sites fromaround the world: the District Six Museum (South

Africa); Gulag Museum (Russia); Liberation War Mu-seum; (Bangladesh); Lower East Side Tenement Mu-seum (USA); Maison des Esclaves (Senegal); MemoriaAbierta (Argentina); National CivilRights Museum (USA); Terezn Memo-rial (Czech Republic); Womens Rights

National Historical Park (USA); and theWorkhouse (United Kingdom).

The group pledged to work togetherto develop effective strategies foractivating our places of memory as

centers for dialogue on contemporary

issues. Our goal is to transform historicsite museums from places of passive

learning to places of active citizen engagement.We seek to use the history of what happened atour sites whether it was a genocide, a violationof civil rights, or a triumph of democracy as thefoundation for dialogue about how and where theseissues are alive today and about what can be done

to address them.

We dene sites of conscience as initiatives that:

!" Interpret history through sites;!" Engage in programs that stimulate dialogue on

pressing social issues and promote humanitarian

and democratic values; and!" Share opportunities for public involvement in

issues raised at the site.

The Coalition conducts program developmentworkshops, staff exchanges and web-based resource

exchanges. We also collaborate with leading hu-man rights organizations to link our histories withcurrent campaigns and inspire citizen participationin current struggles for truth and justice. The Coali-tion is currently coordinated at the Lower East Side

Tenement Museum.

Case study one: Sweatshops pastand presentEach Coalition member museum developed a specictactic for using history to address pressing human

rights issues in their communities. Located in thebirthplace and ongoing center of New York Citys

garment industry, the Lower East Side TenementMuseum took on the issue of sweatshops. Althoughthere is no single denition of a sweatshop, theword is associated with garment factories employing

immigrant, often illegal, workers, laboring extreme-ly long hours in difcult and dangerous conditions.For labor activists and garment manufacturers alike,it is an explosive term.

The mission of the Lower East Side Museum is to pro-

mote tolerance and historical perspective throughthe presentation and interpretation of the variety ofimmigrant and migrant experiences to Manhattans

Lower East Side, gateway to America. The Museuminvites guests to enter the historic tenement build-ing and tour the carefully restored apartments of

families who actuallylived there.

On one tour, we in-troduce two familiesstruggling to make

ends meet and beaccepted in Ameri-ca during econom-ic crises. Nathalie

Gumpertz is a Ger-man single mother

The Workhouse


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The Power of Place 7

who struggled to raise her three children as a dress-

maker after her husband disappeared after the Panicof 1873 (a major economic downturn in Europe andthe United States). She fought to maintain her rightto speak German in the face of therst English-onlylaw to be introduced in the United States. The other

family, the Sicilian Baldizzis, went to great lengthsto enter the country illegally, only to be forced togo on government relief during the Great Depres-sion of the 1930s.

Our newest tour introduces guests to two families

toiling in the business that has been a source ofpromise and sorrow to immigrants for more than acentury. Guests pick their way through piles of fabricto meet Harris and Jennie Levine, the Russian immi-grants who opened a dressmaking shop with threeemployees in their tenement apartment in 1892

creating the very type of space the word sweat-

shop was, in that moment, coined to describe.

After hearing of all the reforms that were intro-duced to eradicate the sweatshop, guests visit theRogarshevsky family in 1918 and hear how Abraham,

who worked as a presser in a new modern factory,nevertheless fell victim to tuberculosis, called thetailors disease or the Jewish disease.

We layer this historic home for immigrants with theexpressions of immigrants arriving today, inviting

immigrant artists to develop visual art installations,theater programs, poetry readings and digital art

programs about their experiences and issues.

Individuals like the Levines and the Rogarshevskys,whether they knew it or not, were at the center of

national debates taking place from Congress to thecorner store. Their stories provide a generative placefrom which to explore pressing questions werestill grappling with today, like: Who is American?Who should help people with economic needs (theneighborhood, private charities, the government)?

What are fair labor practices? What is a sweatshop?If we tell a single, static story of what happened inthe past and force visitors to accept a single moral

from it, then we do nothing more than reinforce

conicts taking place in the present. Instead, webelieve it is the obligation of historic sites to engagecommunities in dialogue around issues of justice pastand present. And an engaged citizenry is the bestweapon against human rights abuse.

At the turn of the 20th century, 97 Orchard Street

stood at the center of Americas garment produc-tion 70 percent of the nations womens clothing

was produced in that neighborhood and at thecenter of Americas debate about sweatshops. Onthe Lower East Side today, there are more than 150garment shops employing thousands of immigrant

workers. The Department of Labor classies nearlythree-quarters of them as sweatshops, but thedebate still rages over what a sweatshop is, whatshould be done to address labor abuses and who isresponsible.

LOOKING TO THE PAST FOR PERSPECTIVEWhat is the role of a historic site here? We decided toreturn to the moment when the word sweatshop

PIECING IT TOGETHER: SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE GARMENT INDUSTRY

Participants Human Rights!" Lawyers Committee for Human Rights

(now Human Rights First)!""Human Rights Watch!""Columbia School of Journalism, Human Rights Reporting

Labor!""UNITE! (Union of Needle, Industrial and Textile Employees):!"" International Labor Organization

Government!""New York State Department of Labor, Wage and Hour

Division

Designers/Retailers!" Toys R Us!"" Phillips Van Heusen!""Eileen Fisher!""Levis

Contractors/Industry Groups!""Kings County Manufacturers Association!""New York City Apparel Industry Compliance

Association!""Garment Industry Development Corporation

Inside the Levine home and dress shop


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was rst introduced in the United States and open

a space for addressing the history of rights abuseand reform in the garment industry. We foundHarris and Jennie Levine, immigrants from Posk,in whats now Poland, who opened a dressmakingshop in their apartment with three workers in 1897.

From the outset, our goal was to make therestoredLevine family home an ongoing center for address-ing current sweatshop issues.

How exactly could we do this? What was the bestrole for a historic site in a human rights debate? Tond out, we knew we had to carefully identify and

collaborate with as many different constituencies aspossible. So as the tour narrative was being shaped,and as the exhibit was physically being built, we heldfocus groups with anyone in the industry who wouldlisten. We began with those with whom we had the

closest contact, mainly unions and immigrant serving

organizations in our neighborhood.

But what about other perspectives? During ouroutreach process, we were contacted by WorldMonitors, Inc., a small company that consulted with

businesses on socially responsible practices, special-izing in the garment industry. WMI worked withretail companies to ask: How can you prevent theegregious labor abuses in the garment industry, infactories from Los Angeles to Laos, while remainingeconomically viable? But after attempting to bring

together New York retailers and contractors withunions and other labor groups working to improve

factory conditions, WMI said they were at a deadend. Discussions were deadlocked: The same ac-cusations were made in every meeting about whowas really responsible for labor abuses, the same

ideas were proposed for who should change whatand the same arguments were made for why thischange was impractical or ineffective. WMI felt thatthe Museum provided an opportunity to open anew conversation, to inspire new ways for differentsides to communicate with each other and that

this new conversation might inspire new ideas andnew commitments.

Together WMI and the Museum put together a list,a combination of their contacts and ours. We didthe inviting, but used their name with retailers and

others who might be suspicious of our politics.

In the rst week of the exhibits opening, we helda day-long roundtable among representativesthroughout the garment industry, cosponsored bythe Museum and WMI, that used our new exhibit as

the starting point for dialogue about how conict-ing sectors could work together to address abusesin the garment industry. Participants included EileenFisher, Toys R Us, Human Rights Watch, UNITE! (the

garment workers union), Levis, the Kings CountyManufacturers Association and others .

The day began with a visit to the restored Levinefamily dress-making shop. Packed in an intimatecircle, leaders of conicting sectors of the garmentindustry today workers and manufacturers, retail-ers and union organizers listened to the story ofhow this Russian immigrant family slept, ate, raised

a family and turned out hundreds of dresses in atiny 325-square-foot space during the 1890s. Theythen moved forward in time to 1918, to the homeof Abraham Rogarshevsky, a presser who, togetherwith his daughter Ida, a sewing machine operator,worked in a large loft factory outside his home.

After taking an intimate look at the daily livesof these two families, the group gathered in theMuseums cozy Tenement Kitchen, with its mis-matched chairs, no central conference table andno ofcial place cards bearing delegates names.

Through a series of dialogues facilitated by a Mu-

seum staff person, participants were divided intosmall groups containing at least one representativefrom each sector (labor, designers, contractors, etc.).Together they discussed the experiences of the two

families and then used these examples to analyzehow change was made or why it wasnt and whatwere the consequences. Finally, they returned to alarge group discussion about what perspective thesestories from the past can provide for the industrytoday, specically about how different sectors must

work together to address persistent abuses. Theformat of the dialogues for instance, the sizeand composition of the small groups, as well as the

wording and sequence of the questions was care-fully designed by Museum staff.

Three aspects of our work created the conditionsfor effective dialogue on issues in the garment in-dustry and other immigration-related issues. First,by discussing current issues in the context of the 19thcentury, we created a sense of distance that allowedcertain conversations to happen that would havebeen too difcult otherwise. Second, by looking at

the stories of individual, real people, we brought dif-cult, abstract issues down to a human level, a scaleon which they could be productively discussed. Third,

we brought people together in an emotional settingfor dialogue that, in the words of one participant,set everyone a little off balance, shifting people

out of their normal, rigid, stances and allowing themto look at these issues in a new light.

What resulted? The group developed a report withideas and commitments in two areas: how differentsectors could work together locally and who else

they were going to bring to the Museum.

Inspired by this summit, nearly a dozen garmentindustry organizations brought their staff for tours

and dialogues around the question, How can wework together?


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Many of the participants voiced their desire to reach

consumers. More than 100,000 consumers come tothe Museum every year. To raise their awareness andengage them in the issues of how their clothes weremade, we built the industry participants conversa-tion into the Museums exhibit itself. Now, before

entering the Levine home, visitors hear the voicesof participating workers, retailers, union organizers,manufacturers and inspectors giving their differentperspectives on their experience with sweatshopstoday. A gallery guide provides them with referencesto organizations and campaigns addressing the is-

sue, encouraging them to get involved.

Since the garment industry summit, the Museumnow hosts regular public dialogues with trained fa-cilitators. After their tour, visitors can now choose toshare their personal experiences and their reactions

to the personal difculties of the families of 97 Or-

chard Street, as a starting point for exploring largerimmigration-related issues. We compose some of thegroups ourselves, such as when we bring togethercommunity leaders or local immigration policy-mak-ers and advocates on different sides of a neighbor-

hood debate. And some groups come to us becausethey want to wrestle with an issue internally. Wevehad groups as diverse as Lower East Side librarians,local garment workers union members and Germansenators working on immigration policy.

This tactic to use history and historic sites tofoster dialogue on contemporary human rights

issues only works if it is sustained and engagesmany different constituencies on many levels. Forexample:

!" The museum offers English classes to recentimmigrants, inviting them to meet theirhistoric counterparts and explore their parallelexperiences as newcomers in the United States.I not only learned English, one graduate said,

I learned that I was not alone. Using this

historical perspective, students discuss how tochange their own futures. One class was inspiredto develop a multilingual resource guide by andfor new immigrants.

"

!" After neighborhood leaders participated indialogues at the Museum in which they sharedpersonal histories and discussed contemporarycommunity issues, they decided to form theLower East Side Community Preservation Proj-ect. This coalition of Chinese, Latino, Jewish andAfrican American leaders of libraries, churches,

synagogues and immigrant organizations workstogether to identify and interpret local historicsites as starting points for dialogue on sharedcommunity issues. Their latest project was awalking tour of the neighborhood designed toraise public awareness of the cultures, experi-

ences and unresolved social justice issues inthe neighborhood. This tour has become theMuseums ofcial walking tour.

!" Inspect This! is a program in collaborationwith New York Citys Department of Housing

and Preservation that invites school children tolearn about how housing standards and condi-tions change over time and how they can takeaction against violations in their own homes.

Building an international coalitionof sites of conscience

The Tenement Museums idea that historic sites couldbe centers for addressing contemporary issues wasinitially met with resistance. Most other museums,and funders of museums, compared their collections

of Wedgwood or Vermeer to that of the TenementMuseum, which includes a few hundred buttons, alaundry ticket and a mummied rat found in ourceiling, and couldnt see how we had much in com-mon. When we approached human rights and social

welfare agencies,

they said, Youre amuseum, by whichthey meant some-

thing that was self-indulgent, preciousand a big waste

of time. So we feltcaught between twoworlds and began tofear that we wouldnot survive unlesswe abandoned our

mission.

We put out a call tomuseums around

the world describ-ing the role we felt

The environment here puts everyone off balance, in a way that finally opens discussion. It allows us tolook at all these issues together.

Gareth Howell, International Labor Organization

The Museum provides a living sense of what a shop was like, allowing visitors to enter the world of thepeople who lived and worked there. That is real value added for our compliance efforts.

Marcela Reubens, Phillips Van Heusen

Sweatshops are an extremely complicated issue and we adults, after all our work, have not figured outa solution. The Tenement Museums exhibit on the garment industry will get our youth aware andthinking about these issues from an early age. That way, we can hope that they will be the ones to findthe solution.

Dik Fong, Kings County Manufacturers Association

I want to show this exhibit to teenaged consumers. They should know how their clothes are made and be

aware of the consequences of their choices what it means if they shop for bargains. This exhibit makespeople aware of the work and human cost of making clothes.


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historic sites could play in their societies and asking

if anyone else felt the same. Eight responded: theDistrict Six Museum (South Africa), rememberingforced removal under apartheid; the Gulag Mu-seum (Russia), the only Stalinist labor camp to bepreserved in Russia; the Liberation War Museum

(Bangladesh), excavating killing elds and memo-rializing the genocide of the Bangladeshi peopleduring the Liberation War of 1971; the Maison DesEsclaves (Senegal), an 18th-century slave transportstation; the National Park Service Northeast Region(USA), representing the Womens Rights NationalHistorical Park in Seneca Falls and other sites; Me-

moria Abierta (Argentina), commemorating thedisappeared during the dictatorships of the 1970sand 80s; Terezn Memorial (Czech Republic), a laborcamp used to model the humane practices of theNazi regime to the Red Cross; and The Workhouse

(England), a 19th-century building designed to house

people in need.

When we met for therst time, we were surprised tond that most of us were not people with traditionalmuseum backgrounds. Rather, we were activists who

had come to believe that our best contribution couldbe made through history and, specically, throughhistoric sites. Many had amassed evidence and docu-mentation of human rights abuse and were faced

with the challengeof using it to build a

broader public con-sciousness of what

happened. Pastingour photographsand documents upon a wall was not

enough. We wantedto activate this mem-ory and galvanizeour communities tomake change.

By the end of thew e e k , w e h a dformed the Interna-

tional Coalition ofHistoric Site Muse-ums of Conscience

with the followingdeclaration:

We hold in commonthe belief that it isthe obligation of his-

toric sites to assistthe public in drawingconnections betweenthe history of our site

and its contempo-rary implications. We

view stimulating dialogue on pressing social issuesand promoting humanitarian and democratic valuesas a primary function.

This statement established a new role for historicsites in the world, partnering us with the interna-tional movements for democracy, human rights andsocial justice.

We established strict criteria for membership in theCoalition as a way of challenging ourselves andother museums around the world to meet our civicobligations. We should not only interpret the history

of our sites, but

!" Engage in programs that stimulate dialogue onpressing social issues and promote humanitarianand democratic values as a primary function;and

!" Share opportunities for public involvement inissues raised at the site.

!" How? Each site developed its own applicationof the tactic, producing a program designed toinspire our visitors to use what they learned andfelt at our sites to think and participate in newways about important issues we face today. Each

sites program denes larger civic questions forvisitors to consider and strategies for engagingthem in dialogue around these questions.

Sites of conscience and the activities we organizecan serve as powerful new tools in at least fourprocesses in the defense of human rights: a) truth

seeking and building a culture of never again; b)reparations; c) reconciliation; and d) civic engage-ment, or democracy building.

Case study two: Seeking truthMemoria Abierta (Open Memory) is a coalition of

human rights organizations in Argentina that hasamassed a powerful archive of documents, pho-tographs and sites associated with human rights

COALITION FOUNDING MEMBERS:District Six Museum (South Africa): remem-bering forced removal under apartheid

Gulag Museum (Russia): the only Stalinistlabor camp to be preserved in Russia

Liberation War Museum (Bangladesh): ex-cavating killing fields and memorializing thegenocide of the Bangladeshi people during theLiberation War of 1971

Lower East Side Tenement Museum (USA):interpreting immigration past and present ina neighborhood that has served as the gateway

to America to newcomers from all over theworld

Maison Des Esclaves (Senegal): an 18th century

slave transport station

National Park Service (USA): representing the

Womens Rights National Historical Park inSeneca Falls and other sites

Memoria Abierta(Argentina): commemorat-

ing the disappeared during the dictatorshipsof the 1970s and 80s

Terezn Memorial (Czech Republic): a laborcamp used to model the humane practices of

the Nazi regime to the Red CrossThe Workhouse (England): a 19th-century

Former Navy School and torture center that will become the newMuseum of Memory in Buenos Aires


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At first we conceived of [the museum] as

a place to store documents and then as a place

from where we could disseminate information to

reveal what had happened and to display items that proved

it so. Because one of the realities we were dealing with was that

people didnt believe us... you would start to talk about how your

children had been taken away and they would answer, Youre lying...

even our relatives and people who knew us well, who knew my childrensaid, Are you sure? Arent they in Europe? Maybe they just left. And I

thought, How can they say that? How can they believe that? You wanted

to die... and so I thought that if there were so many people like this

that I had to show them, to throw the truth in their faces so that they

wouldnt keep believing. And so we thought a place like this would

reveal the truth and prove that everything we had been through

and everything that we were talking about was real.

Ilda Milducci, Argentine Historical and SocialMemory Foundation

abuses during the dictatorships of the 1970s and

80s. Memoria Abierta hopes to use this material tostimulate citizens to make a commitment to solvethe problems of our country. Further, the projecttransformed the ordinary landscape of Buenos Airesinto an ongoing series of public events reminding

people of what happened under everyones nosesin the recent past. These events are designed toinspire every citizen to take responsibility for en-suring that the abuses in Argentina never happenagain. Memoria Abierta has mapped the ordinaryplaces around the city gas stations, grocery stores,

schools that functioned as torture centers, trans-forming the whole city into a site of conscience.They have recorded the stories of those who weredetained, those who lived or worked right next doorand were unaware or unwilling to admit what washappening and those who resisted. This material

will form the basis of a new Museum of Memory to

be installed in the former Navy School that servedas the headquarters for political violence in BuenosAires. The museum will ask visitors, What are thesteps a society takes to make horror seem normal?When I see an injustice happening, does it involve

me? How am I responsible or implicated?

Case study three: ReparationsIn Cape Town, South Africa, the District Six Museumcreated an ongoing, community-based center forremembering and recovery that served as the basis

for material compensation for victims of apartheid.In 1966 the racially integrated neighborhood of

District Six was razed to the ground to make wayfor a new whites only development. The onlybuildings left were houses of worship. A group offormer residents covered the oor of a Method-

ist church with a detailed map of their destroyedneighborhood and invited their neighbors to placetheir homes, streets, stores and community spaceson it. This memory-mapping project became thefoundation for land reclamation claims. The mu-seum organized and hosted one of the Land Courts

on its site. Former residents sat in chairs directly onthe map of their old neighborhood, as the courtgranted them, in the words of one, our land back,

our homes back, our dignity back.1 Since then, themuseum has developed exhibitions on the historiesof smaller neighboring communities destroyed un-

der the Group Areas Act, including Kirstenboch andTwo Rivers, to publicize and support their unresolvedland claims.

Case study four:ReconciliationSites of conscience can alsoserve as powerful catalystsfor negotiation and recon-ciliation.

The Gulag Museum at Perm-36 in Siberia is the only

Stalinist labor camp in Russia to be preserved as ahistoric site. The museum preserves the barrackswhere thousands of people from the former SovietUnion were imprisoned for anything from minorwork infractions to political opposition from theStalin era through the 1980s. Nearly everyone knew

someone sent to the Gulag. Prisoners were forcedinto a massive labor system that fueled the indus-trialization of Russia.

The Gulag Museum invited former prisoners andformer guards to give each other tours of the

site from each of their perspectives. The dialoguesforced these individuals to confront each other ashuman beings and allowed them to take signicantsteps in their personal recoveries.

But the Gulag Museum also realized that to build a

functioning democracy in Russia, they would needto do more than heal the rifts among a few indi-viduals. In Russia, a poll reported that 53 percentof Russian citizens interviewed supported Stalins

policies and practices. Fourteen percent felt thatStalin did both good and bad for the country, while

only 33 percent felt he had committed any humanrights violations. Facing war in Chechnya and othergovernment repression, the museum was strugglingto activate the memory of the Gulag system to raise

When we were told about the museum we thought, A museum? How can we build a museum?

It seemed somewhat antiquated. How could our problem be kept in a museum? Well, we went

anyway and we saw a proposal for something that we had never thought could become a mu-

seum.. .and we changed our minds.

Mabel Penette de Gutirrez, Relatives of Persons Disappearedand Detained for Political Reasons1 Audio recording of Land Court pro-

ceedings, District Six Museum


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awareness about the threat of totalitarianism andthe consequences of a passive citizenry.

So the museum serves as an educational centerabout the Gulag system and about the role of in-dividual citizens in creating and sustaining humanrights and democracy. After visitors walk throughthe barracks, cells and interrogation rooms of thecamp, a facilitator leads visitors in a discussion aboutthe future of democracy in Russia and what each one

of them can do to guarantee it. The Museum doesspecial outreach to school children, integrating theexperience into local curricula.

Case study ve: Civic engagementThe Workhouse in England preserves a rare surviv-

ing example of a Victorian solution to poverty:structures that once loomed on the outskirts of everytown as threats to the idle and proigate. In thisvision of helping the needy, people who could notsupport themselves and were forced to take shelterin the Workhouse were separated from their families

and forced to do menial work. After touring the seg-regated quarters and labor yards of the Workhouse,visitors enter an exhibit titled, What Now? WhatNext? It compares the classication and segrega-tion of Britains poor from the Victorian era throughthe present. The Workhouse invites policy-makers

and advocates such as representatives of Britains

welfare system and the international leadershipof Oxfam, people struggling on public assistancetoday and anyone else who walks through the doorto address the following questions: Where wouldthe people of The Workhouse be today? How have

things improved, or become worse? What solutionsto poverty and its related issues may we try in thefuture is there anything new that has not beentried before?

ChallengesDIVERSE UNDERSTANDINGS OF DIALOGUEWITHIN THE LEADERSHIPThe Coalition itself has been a spirited forum inwhich to debate how historic sites can serve as

democratic institutions and demonstrate demo-

cratic processes. At the heart is a debate over whatdemocracy looks like and what is the most effectiveway to achieve it. Coalition members come from awide array of political contexts. All sites interpretexperiences and events that relate to pressing issues

today but some, like Memoria Abierta, are livingin the immediate aftermath of these events, whileothers, like the 18th-century Maison des Esclaves(Slave House) in Senegal, are looking back on alonger legacy. This difference in distance informshow different members view the role of their sitein their society, what they see as the most urgent

democratic project and how they seek to engagetheir audiences.

Some sites, particularly those representing govern-ments, like the U.S. National Park Service, or larger

institutions, like the British National Trust, were

concerned that being a site of conscience was toopolitical. By political they meant explicitly ad-vocating a specic position on a contemporary issue,such as who should receive public assistance and forhow long, or who should be allowed to immigrate to

the United States. Instead, these members resolvedto serve as open forums for dialogue on all sides ofcontemporary debates, taking care to pose ques-tions with a variety of possible answers. For many,that meant including multiple perspectives in theirnarratives, as in the Tenement Museums audio in-

troduction to its sweatshop exhibit, featuring thevoices of workers, contractors, designers and union

organizers. For others, it meant inviting participantsfrom a variety of perspectives to exchange experi-ences at the site, such as when the Gulag Museumbrought together former prisoners and former

guards to meet and tell their stories, or when theJapanese American National Museum invited bothan Immigration and Naturalization Service agentand a former internee to speak on racial proling.

For other sites, multiple perspectives smacked of

moral relativism. Directors of the District Six Mu-seum, Memoria Abierta and the Liberation WarMuseum are just a few of the members based in

human rights movements. Their projects are anintegral part of larger truth-seeking efforts, relatedto proving that crimes against humanity occurred,

bringing perpetrators to justice and establishingtruth commissions. These sites specic goal withinthe larger human rights effort is to develop apublic consciousness or acceptance of certain factsas indisputable. Exposing the total abrogation ofdemocracy and developing a strong public memory

of this abrogation is their highest priority in theireffort to build a democratic culture. These sites leavethe truths of human rights violations unquestioned,but offer the future of their countries as an open

debate, inviting visitors to consider a variety of waysthey can participate in shaping it.

Former residents mark their homes on a map at the District Six Museum


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TRAINING STAFF TO CONNECT PAST AND PRES-

ENTEven within the Tenement Museums own staff andvolunteer corps, some resisted the idea of addressingcontemporary issues explicitly and engaging visitorsin open-ended questions. They felt most comfort-

able being the authorities on the past, telling asingle story that visitors would simply listen to. Weneeded to provide signicant training to our front-line educators, as well as redene what educationat the Museum would mean. So we rewrote ourscripts to include larger civic questions and time todiscuss them and offered a monthly training in dif-

ferent dialogue techniques.

ESTABLISHING A SAFE SPACE FOR PARTICI-

PANTS

To organize the garment industry dialogues, theTenement Museum had to assure participants from

all sectors of the garment industry that their voiceswould be heard and respected. Designers and re-tailers were apprehensive that they would be usedas foils, while workers and union organizers wereconcerned we would gloss over the serious problems

plaguing the industry. When we initially invitedthese groups to participate in shaping the exhibit,we asked them to come to preliminary meetingswith others in their sector. These meetings allowedthem to feel that their voice would be heard andrespected by the Museum and made them feel

more comfortable having subsequent meetings withother groups. Nevertheless, a participant from one

designer company came to preliminary meetingsand even agreed to be interviewed for the audioprogram but was then reprimanded by his superiorsand had to pull out of the project altogether.

OutcomesSites of conscience have been signi-cant factors in the recognition of hu-man rights abuse in their countries,in bringing perpetrators to justiceand to creating precedents for ac-

countability to ensure abuses will nothappen again. But, most importantly,

they have begun to develop a cultureof human rights and peace to bringtogether a broader citizenry that will

actively oppose human rights abusein the future. Through the efforts ofthe Gulag Museum in Russia, the localgovernment in Perm and the nationalgovernment have supported the intro-duction of information about the Gulag

into school curricula. After many years,they have also publicly supported theGulag Museums efforts and publicized

their work. In Argentina, Memoria Abiertas copi-ous documentation of the testimonies, documents,photographs, sites and other evidence of abuses, aswell as their tireless pressure to make this evidencepublic in a museum, contributed to the creationof an ofcial commission to investigate the disap-

pearances.

The movement is growing, both in size and, happily,in the range of issues we explore. We now includemore sites associated with victories, like the EleanorRoosevelt National Historic Site and the Womens

Rights National Historical Park. Other new membersinclude the Japanese American National Museum,on the site of a Buddhist temple where JapaneseAmericans were rounded up before internment inplaces like Manzanar as well as the Martin LutherKing, Jr. National Historic Site, the place of his birth,

and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine

Motel, the place of his death. This new geographicand thematic diversity opens up still more opportu-nities for civic engagement, as well as opportunitiesfor exchanges among staff on how to deal withsensitive issues.

As activists we are looking for ways to ensure thathistoric sites become vital parts of the civic life oftheir communities. We must make their storiesmeaningful to people in the present day. Individualsites, as well as large networks, have asked the Co-

alition to work with them to help their leadershipand membership identify how sites might identify

important contemporary issues their site raises andfoster dialogue on them.

The Gulag Museum at Perm-36


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ADVISING ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ME-

MORIALPerhaps no memorial project is more contested orhas more international interest than the develop-ment of the World Trade Center site in New YorkCity. Recognizing the Coalitions rich experience

with memorializing tragedy and interpreting dif-cult issues, its experience creating effective andforward-thinking civic spaces at sites of destruction,several developers of the site came to speak withthe Coalition about the challenges they faced. TheCoalition engaged in important exchanges with the

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the

entity responsible for developing the site; DanielLibeskind, the master planner; and the FreedomCenter, a team developing a museum at the site.We discussed issues such as making memorializing

a democratic process, using historic fabric to createa civic space and designing a museum as a centerfor dialogue.

Transferring the tacticWhether you are a small grassroots victims group oran established human rights organization, whether

you have a traditional museum or no museum atall, if you seek to harness the power of places of

memory to inspire dialogue and citizen action, keepthe following in mind:

!" Use the power of place. Connect visitors to the

specic history of your site; understand and usethe ways the spaces make people feel to helpthem connect to the broader issues you are try-ing to raise.

!" Make the process part of the product. Con-

troversy is too often avoided as somethingdamaging to an institution or a project; in fact,engaging conicting perspectives is one of the

greatest opportunities for sites of conscience.Involve stakeholders from different perspectives

in the development of the project. The process

of developing the story and experience is a

productive starting point for dialogue aboutthe contemporary issues at stake. Involving dif-ferent perspectives at the outset ensures thatthese perspectives will be raised in the exhibitand that different groups will participate in

dialogues after the project is completed.

!" Develop different forms of dialogue that canengage people with different amounts of timeto spend, different cultural backgrounds, differ-ent personalities, etc. In addition to offering anin-depth dialogue program after the tours, sites

are developing ways to generate discussionsamong visitors during the tours. Others are alsodeveloping other ways to stimulate dialogueand address contemporary issues through theweb, printed material and other media.

!" Manage visitor expectations. To prepare visi-tors for the sensitive issues they may encounter,sites work to communicate their commitmentto addressing contemporary questions throughinformation on web sites, at visitors centers, by

distributing maps of the site that indicate wherevisitors will encounter material on the presentday and by training front-line staff to speak tovisitors before they go on the tour.

!" Serve as an open forum. Raising both sides of anissue and encouraging debate stimulates citizen

participation more effectively than teaching asingle story to a passive audience. But museumsmust nd ways to do this without becomingmoral relativists or appearing to excuse or con-

done perpetrators.

!" Serve as an ongoing forum. Memorials mustbe active places where issues are constantlydebated, where stories are told and retold. Thesite and program must be exible enough to

accommodate the ways the meaning of the pastchanges for each generation, to be constantlyreinvented. A static narrative or permanent

sculpture will foreclose dialogue and becomeobsolete in short order.

!" Focus on individual human experience as a start-ing point. This helps visitors to connect the storyto their own personal experiences and imaginewhat they would have done in each situation.This kind of imagining is the rst step in inspir-ing people to take action.

WHERE TO BEGIN?Groups that are exploring how a place of memorycould help address a human rights issue in their

communities might begin by bringing key constitu-encies together for a discussion of the following

The double staircase at the Slave House in Senegal


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questions:

1. Identify a place associatedwith the history of a conictthat is still unresolved today.(This place could be some-

where a human rights abuseoccurred, a human rights vic-tory occurred, or an issue ofrights was debated. It couldbe a place that already hasa museum or a memorial or

a place that does not.) Whathappened there?

2. What do you think people would feel or learn byvisiting this place? What perspectives would it givethem on the current conict?

3. Imagine using this place to negotiate a conict.What individuals or groups would you bring to thisplace? What would they see and do there? Whatquestions would you discuss with them?

4. How would you present the story of what hap-pened at this place what would people see anddo there?

5. How would you commemorate what happened ina way that allows for ongoing dialogue and future

reinterpretation?

6. What questions would you discuss with peoplehere? How would you engage them in dialoguearound these questions?

7. What difference would it make to have this dia-logue at this place? How do you think remembering

the history of this place could help to negotiate thecurrent conict?

8. What challenges do you think you would face indeveloping this place as a center to address contem-porary issues and to engage people in dialogue?How would you overcome these challenges?

9. What is the potential impact of using this place

as a center for ongoing dialogue on human rightsissues? How can the experience of visiting this placehelp promote peace and negotiate the currentconict in a way other strategies cannot? In otherwords, what difference does it make?

ConclusionWe are dedicated to creating new forums wheresocieties can come together and come to terms with

events that have changed them forever. The legacyof conict is not static, but continues to evolve witheach passing day. After the critical stage of legal

or political redress, there needs to be an ongoingmechanism for reconciliation and remembering.Each of us in our own contexts needs a place thatwill be there after the courts have disbanded, afterperpetrators have been removed from power, afterthe reparations have been awarded. Historic sites are

critical forums for ongoing dialogue on past trau-mas and their legacies. They are a permanent placefor democratic engagement, which itself helps toensure against future suppression of human rights.

The Coalition was formed to make sure that everysociety that needed it would have the capacity to

make its places of memory signicant resources forlasting justice and reconciliation. I hope you, too,will harness the power of place in your work to buildcultures of peace.

These museums of conscience offer a unique and much-needed complement to our efforts by making clearthe outlines of historic abuse and social problems so that we may recognize it when and where they takeshape in contemporary society.

Ken Roth, Human Rights Watch

Coalition sites are working to build a new society a human rights culture, a new consolidation ofdemocracy.

Alex Boraine, International Center for Transitional Justice

Historic sites have great potential to bring these issues forward in an accessible way to make them personal.The human rights community has a lot to gain by being part of the Coalition.


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science.org.

Appendix 1OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATIONS: HOW HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVES CAN PARTNER WITHSITES OF CONSCIENCEThis tactic focuses on stimulating dialogue and inspiring citizen engagement on human rights issues. It aims

to create the conditions for action. It requires partnership with a human rights organization or project.Examples of past collaborations include:

!" Human Rights Watch and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights worked with the Coalition to developits web program, www.sitesofconscience.org. The web program links online tours of sites of conscienceto human rights campaigns on related issues today. Human rights projects are invited to submit linksto the Coalition on work related to any of the issues raised by our member sites.

!" The International Center for Transitional Justicepartnered with the Coalition to promote the devel-opment of sites of conscience as an integral part of the process of transitional justice. Through thework of a shared freelance project manager, we are piloting a set of resources for local human rightsgroups and NGOs, including: a presentation offering an overview of how different memorials aroundthe world have contributed to transitional justice efforts; a workshop that helps participants imagine

activating a site of memory to address the unresolved issues in their societies; and a workbook of casestudies and resources on developing sites of conscience. The presentation and workshop have beenpiloted in Sierra Leone and South Africa and is now being piloted in Peru.

!" Amnesty International USA asked the Coalition to conduct workshops at its annual meeting on howhuman rights workers can use sites of conscience to further their campaigns, particularly in their new

economic, social and cultural rights initiative.

!" The Coalition conducted workshops for fellows in the International Institute for Mediation and Conict


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Appendix 2RESOURCES AND ACTIVITIES OF THE INTERNATIONAL COALITIONThe International Coalition offers individuals and organizations a variety of opportunities for learningand exchange, including:

!" An online newsletter featuring the latest news and practices from sites of conscience around the

world,!" Online forums on sites of conscience issues,!" Staff exchanges and consultations on developing sites of conscience and

!" Learning exchanges of all sizes, from small workshops to large conferences.

Please contact [email protected] for more information, or see our web site at www.sitesofcon-


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The Center for Victims of TortureNew Tactics in Human Rights Project

717 East River Road

Minneapolis, MN 55455www.cvt.org / [email protected] / [email protected]

To print or download this and other publications in the Tactical Notebook Series,go to www.newtactics.org.

Online you will also nd a searchable database of tactics andforums for discussion with other human rights practitioners.

The Power of Place: How historic sites can engage citizens in human rights issues (English)

Documents

Transcript of The Power of Place: How historic sites can engage citizens in human rights issues (English)