Preserving Cultural Heritage

CITIZEN-ARCHIVIST TRAINING SCHEME

 “We want memories of the bad trip we had. When I go and settle down in another country, I want to remember my way.” - Mehar Ahmed Aloussi, Syria, 2015

One of the most precious objects that refugees bring with them is their mobile phone. The phone is not only a vital communication and navigational device - it’s a keeper of memories - a digital scrapbook. Mobile phones hold vital links to memories of homes, family members and communities left behind.

During an era when most memories are recorded digitally, the potential for loss of information due to obsolesence is massive. Adding environmental risks that refugees face, such as an ocean crossing, a waterlogged or dust-filled tent, or a camp under threat of being bulldozed, and the chances of preservation sink even further. We must be proactive to save the historic record documenting an unprecedented moment in history – the mass displacement of over 68 million people.

“Residents of refugee camps are becoming increasingly disconnected from their identity, as their links to home are broken.” -Giovanni Buccardi, Chief of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Unit, UNESCO, to the author, FAC Rome 2017

The loss of refugee documents can create a personal fracturing, as fragile links to home are further dissolved. These digital memories serve as wayfinding signs for people left vulnerable and disoriented by war and conflict. The loss of refugee documents causes a multiplier effect with humanitarian consequences, having both immediate and long term economic and social costs to nations. Protecting critical documents like identity papers, birth and marriage certificates and diplomas, help support a passage to resettlement. Without them, refugees are stuck in limbo. With no identity, they become stateless.

The archival field lab is a capacity building training scheme for refugee “Citizen-Archivists” who learn how to protect both their business and personal records, even under difficult circumstances.

Preservation of documents:

>contribute to a pathway that lead to refugee resilience

>provide the possibility for refugees to protect their own personal heritage, so they can tell their story, in their own words

>create the opportunity for future scholars, public policy-makers and refugee descendants to study an authentic historic record

>build an appreciation for cultural heritage overall

…I find your work and the concept of cultural first aid incredibly important, and there is no doubt that the destruction of cultural heritage is linked to the neuroscience of identity, shame, and stress… Notions of belonging and social identity grow attached to symbols in times of threat. I've seen this process with Syrians. I've watched identities unravel, literally as refugees lose their identification papers, and figuratively.

-Mike Niconchuk, Neuroscience researcher based at Beyond Conflict, to the author, 2017

CITIZEN ARCHIVIST TRAINING SCHEME

>We raise awareness of the fragility of documents stored in digital form

>We discuss different types of value (evidential, artistic, informational and historical)

>We teach transferrable technical skills related to preservation, with a focus on born digital records

>We modify training according to refugee resident needs 

>We will create a strategy among university-based archival communities and refugee networks to protect refugee documents, through workshops and discussions

>We will analyze the success of these first initiatives with the support of measurement and evaluation specialist who has an expertise in conflict transformation theory

WORKSHOPS

City Plaza Refugee Accommodation Center, Athens Greece (2017 & 2018)