CHAGOS: Cultural Heritage Across Generations

查戈斯是一个紧急的、创新的文化遗产和社区参与项目，与流离失所的查戈斯社区成员共同设计。1968至1973年间，英国政府减少了印度洋查戈斯群岛的人口，为美国在迭戈加西亚的军事基地让路，并将1500多名岛民送往毛里求斯和塞舌尔，那里流离失所的社区面临种族歧视和长期贫困。2002年，英国政府授予查戈斯岛民及其第二代后裔英国公民身份，自那时起，已有2000多名扩大社区的成员在英国重新定居(主要是在克劳利和曼彻斯特)。分散的查戈斯家庭越来越多地使用数字通信技术。与此同时，在过去的40年里，土著岛民的数量减少了一半，在过去的10年里，平均每个月有两人死亡。查戈斯的老年岛民是查戈斯文化知识的宝库，他们的衰落不可避免地引起了人们的极大关注。地理上的分散、垂死的老一辈人以及缺乏文化、社会和经济资本，对流亡中的文化知识和手工艺技能的代际传播构成了重大挑战，这反过来又对分散的社区的集体认同构成了挑战。该项目是与查戈斯团体和扩大查戈斯社区的成员合作设计的，目的是克服这些挑战。我们将与一名顾问语言学家、一名常驻诗人、一名策展人和一名网络开发人员合作，共同组织和记录代际文化遗产传播讲习班，长辈/专家将在讲习班上将文化知识和手工技能传授给社区的年轻成员；在毛里求斯和英国共同策划展览，展示共同制作的文物；设计一个社区遗产网站，向分散的社区和其他人提供数字输出，并为子孙后代保留；举办创造性扫盲讲习班；制作双语(Kreol/英语)出版物，以提高查戈斯人的识字能力和创造性表达能力；该项目有能力对我们的项目伙伴(查戈斯难民集团毛里求斯、查戈斯难民集团英国和克劳利博物馆)、更广泛的查戈斯社区和毛里求斯政府产生一系列影响，例如：通过承认过去的不公正来应对边缘化的历史；促进社区成员的学习和能力建设；增强社区凝聚力和相互关联性；庆祝多样性并为文化特性感到自豪；促进被边缘化社区参与博物馆的价值；支持承认边缘化做法为教科文组织世界非物质遗产；在项目活动中嵌入了评估项目实现这些影响的程度的创新方法，包括由我们的常驻诗人举办的创造性扫盲研讨会，在该研讨会上，查戈斯人将创造性地反思他们通过该项目参与查戈斯文化遗产的情况；记录对参与者的采访，以衡量研讨会在多大程度上满足了他们对文化遗产的期望和实现了关于文化遗产的目标；向参展者发放问卷以产生游客反馈；以及网络分析，以记录通过网站参与在线展览的程度和内容

CHAGOS is an urgent, innovative cultural heritage and community engagement project co-designed with members of the displaced Chagossian community. Between 1968 and 1973 the UK Government depopulated the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean to make way for a US military base on Diego Garcia, and sent over 1,500 islanders to Mauritius and Seychelles, where the displaced community has faced ethnic discrimination and chronic impoverishment. In 2002, the UK Government awarded UK citizenship to Chagos islanders and their second-generation descendants, since when over two thousand members of the extended community have resettled in the UK (predominantly in Crawley and Manchester). Dispersed Chagossian families are making increasing use of digital communication technologies. Meanwhile, the number of native islanders has halved over the past forty years, with an average of two deaths per month over the past decade. There is great concern about the inevitable decline of elderly Chagos islanders who are the repositories of cultural knowledge about Chagos. Geographical dispersal, the dying elder generation, and a lack of cultural, social, and economic capital pose major challenges for the intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge and artisanal skills in exile, which in turn poses challenges for collective identification amongst the dispersed community. This project was designed in collaboration with Chagossian groups and members of the extended Chagossian community with a view to overcoming these challenges. Working with a Consultant Linguist, a Poet-in-Residence, a Curator, and a Web Developer we will: co-organise and record intergenerational cultural heritage transmission workshops at which elders/experts will pass on cultural knowledge and artisanal skills to younger members of the community; co-curate exhibitions in Mauritius and the UK to showcase co-produced artefacts; design a community heritage website on which digital outputs will be made accessible to the dispersed community and others and preserved for future generations; deliver creative literacy workshops; produce dual-language (Kreol/English) publications to enhance Chagossians' literacy and creative expression; and contribute to the Mauritian Ministry of Arts and Culture's preparation of a dossier for the nomination of Chagossian sega music as UNESCO World Intangible Heritage.The project has the capacity to provide a range of impacts for our Project Partners (Chagos Refugees Group Mauritius, Chagos Refugees Group UK, and Crawley Museum), the wider Chagossian community, and the Mauritian Government, such as: addressing a history of marginalisation through recognition of past injustices; facilitating learning and capacity building for community members; enhancing community cohesion and interconnectedness; celebrating diversity and generating pride in cultural identity; promoting the value of engaging marginalised communities in museums; supporting the recognition of marginalised practices as UNESCO World Intangible Heritage; and contributing to debates on heritage as a living process and the application of Intellectual Property concepts to intangible cultural heritage.Innovative methods for assessing the extent to which the project achieves these impacts are embedded in project activities and include techniques such as creative literacy workshops run by our Poet-in-Residence in which Chagossians will reflect creatively on their engagement with Chagossian cultural heritage via this project, 'before and after' recorded interviews with participants to gauge the extent to which the workshops have met their expectations and fulfilled objectives regarding cultural heritage, questionnaires with exhibition attendees to generate visitor feedback, and web analytics to record the extent and content of engagement with online exhibitions via the websit