Ciraj Rassool: Trustee ( District Six Museum Foundation) – Cape Town.
There is a relationship between return and the work of memory. District 6 was a part of the inner city which was razed to the ground during the Apartheid era, but there were other experiences of removals from it in 1901. The District 6 Museum is a museum as a site of memory and conflict and was started by the movement Hands Off District Six committee.
In the 1980s it struggled against plans to develop District 6 as a very middle class area. The Memory Project of restoration is also part of the project in support of a land claim. Since its creation, it has inspired a variety of museum projects which exist outside structures of official circuits for memory projects. It is an independent site of engagement and questioning. In 1994 the first exhibition of District 6 streets, maps, paintings and street signs were displayed. These are stored signs and part of the memory clock. The archaeology of memory and the detailed social landscape of memory are used as a means of healing.
District 6 embraced problems of its own internal changes and of sustainability. It is a continuing organisation for a particular kind of social reconstruction, land restitution process. It is now Hands On District 6. It will be involved in the slow development process in the return of some of the original residents.