Connecting Sites of Significance – Testing Innovative Approaches to Urban Memory Work in Cape Town, South Africa

Cultural geographer Karen Till (2012) describes Cape Town as a wounded city. A city’s “woundedness” is tied to its particular histories, processes, and traumas. In Cape Town these are intricately tied to experiences of settler-colonialism, slavery, and apartheid, which create a palimpsest that can be difficult to unravel in its nuance. For example, forced removals and segregation in Cape Town are commonly thought of as apartheid phenomena, yet these processes have a much longer history. Understanding Cape Town’s past – however violent, divisive, and traumatic – not merely as a burden but as an indispensable feature of its urban future captures the core ethos of the Connecting Sites of Significance project. We understand the past – enshrined in memory and heritage, relayed through stories, artefacts, cultural practices, and sites – as the cross-cutting foundation for an integrated, inclusive, and healthy city future. At present, culture and heritage are mostly seen through a narrow, legalistic lens of “heritage management” that is ill equipped to meaningfully protect or recognize intangible heritage elements, e.g. oral traditions, food heritage, traditional craftmanship, rituals etc. Thus, culture and heritage in Cape Town are not seldom portrayed as a block to development, instead of being seen as an essential enabler for forging social interconnectedness. Connecting Sites of Significance is trying to create a space where the city’s multiple narratives, voices and ideas can come together through place-based storytelling. In this presentation, we want to share our progress in building an accessible and inclusive platform that allows the city’s diverse publics to tell their own stories and connect in ways that create a sense of dignity, belonging and shared humanity.