Imagining Futures through Un/Archived Pasts - Development Proposal

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Debates about the past are negotiations about the future. At the centre of these the archive plays a unique role as a trace of a moment, a trend, a life, a culture, an atrocity. It bears witness to the past, situating communities in the present and shaping the future. This is why decisions over what is to be collected, recorded or preserved are crucial, as this affects what will have future presence. The archive exposes the connection between memory and the persistence or transformation of identity. It is about whose story will continue to be told and how, and whose will be silenced. These issues become acute in moments of post-conflict, displacement and reconstruction. Our Network depends on linking expertise from regions where they are most urgent: the Middle East and Africa, specifically Lebanon and Tanzania. Our starting point is the early 20th century Maji Maji War in Tanzania, its landscape and memorialisation, accessible and in-accessible - in prisons and monasteries. It will act as the site of discourse for the team and, through sharing images and writings, bring in voices from Baddawi Camp in Lebanon. In re-imagining past or present places and lives from a distance, the analysis will trace surprising connections between (formerly/still) colonised, incarcerated, travelling and forcibly encamped people, exploring the ways that such an engagement can engender (real and imagined) lives and narratives beyond the confines of refugee encampment.The Network provides an opportunity for convergence and co-creation of knowledge, from geo-political contexts that rarely get to share ideas and experiences directly, especially the creation of South to South connections. Each represents a different point in a future: the crisis in the Middle East, the long-term post-conflict reconciliation in Africa, and the colonising past of Europe. Within each of these moments the archive has a distinct power. We want to examine its role and articulate archiving practices that contribute to a future which promotes, not suppresses, just, peaceful and inclusive societies. Acts of archiving that draw on local knowledges, self-archiving methods, joint decision-making in what is to be remembered or forgotten, with dialogues across generations, gender and class, have a unique authority. In contrast, stereotypes, gentrification, discrimination, and deprivation - all of which can create discord, tension and physical conflict - often result from insufficient knowledge and narrow understanding. They stem from a lack of appreciation for shared histories and of community's place in the global context. Imagining Futures will use the intrinsic power of the archive for its capacity to build confidence, to enhance understanding and reveal co-existing multiple narratives, and thus, to reduce conflict within and between groups, increasing the potential for sustainable peace. Our aim is to facilitate the opening-up and sensitive use of existing archives, to create new methods and types of archives and to articulate jointly what a different more egalitarian archive would be. This will be achieved through two Labs in Tanzania and Lebanon (with a supporting technologies workshop), that will co-produce, through engaging with existing archives, special and non-traditional archives in-situ; creative open digital tools; and protocol recommendations. These activities will allow for articulating shared questions, scoping case studies, and piloting approaches that can be scaled up, tested and developed in a wider Network Plus project. Our goal is to create methodologies and tangible proposals for the best archiving practices building towards a policy-manifesto, with heritage preservation as an element. Our wider ambition, through exposing cultural practices as important sites of negotiation, is to advocate for culture to be officially recognised as a humanitarian need.