Unit III: Social Justice in Digital Humanities Practice

3.2 Walking the Archive of District Six

This case study is written by Anna Villarica and Ella van Geuns, and is based on the project Walking the Archive of District Six by Siddique Motala and David A. Wallace. The page is designed by Felix Bui.

Introduction

Humanities scholarship has been moving into a more interdisciplinary and hybrid direction. Collaborations between researchers in different fields, and the combination of traditional methods of engaging with or preserving data with new digital methods, can result in new insights. Here we look at the case of Walking the Archive of District Six, a joint project between the University of Cape Town and University of Michigan. Through this case, we illustrate how interdisciplinary research, new technologies and methods can play a role in education and in surfacing individual and community memories that were subjected to forced removal, in turn becoming a tool to advance social justice in the humanities.

District Six

District Six was a densely populated working-class area in Cape Town’s inner-city. It initially developed slowly during the time of colonial (Dutch and British) occupation, and following the abolition of slavery in the 1830’s, there was a growing need for urban housing. A multiracial and multicultural community developed over a period of time, and was spurred on by massive immigration and economic growth. District Six, with its close links to both the port and business district, was an obvious place of development, and later, inner-city decay. In contrast to the growing racialisation of the rest of the country, District Six developed into a community that was cosmopolitan and respected diversity. In one sense, it was a living example of the ‘rainbow nation’ that post-apartheid South Africans would romantically wish for themselves (Soudien, 2021).

Aerial images of District Six from the year 1945 before the demolition to 2019 when the vacant land is slowly being rebuilt. Pictures from the Global DH Symposium presentation (Wallace & Motala, 2022).



In the 1940’s the Cape Town city council planned to demolish buildings in District Six under slum clearance, but it was only during the Apartheid era that this happened. Following the rise to power of the racist Afrikaner National Party in 1948, the policy of Apartheid was introduced. Apartheid was an ideology that institutionalised racial segregation by means of laws, such as the Population Registration Act, 1950.

By this law, people were classified and registered according to their racial group. Overall, the white minority subjugated people of colour, enforcing nearly half a century of brutal racial oppression. By means of the Group Areas Act, District Six was declared a Whites-only area in 1966, and the demolitions began in 1968. This marked the beginning of the forced removal of approximately 60,000 Black individuals from District Six between 1968 and 1983. Families’ homes and businesses were demolished by the state’s bulldozers, and by the mid 1980’s, District Six was mostly vacant land. Today, District Six still has vast swathes of vacant land, but some people are slowly being returned by means of a process of restitution.
                       
      A colored video of families being moved out of District Six on 12 December 1980, following decision to proclaim it a white area.     The Horstley street in Districht Six pre-demolition and today. Pictures from the Global DH Symposium presentation (Wallace & Motala, 2022).      


An interdisciplinary project: District Six archives, memories, geographic data 

In the project ‘Walking the Archive of District Six: Memory, Augmented Reality and Counter-Surveying’, scholars David A. Wallace and Siddique Motala combine their expertise in archives and geomatics to help recover these memories and promote social justice. 

Dr David A. Wallace is a clinical associate professor based at the School of Information at the University of Michigan. His work focuses on how archives shape or misshape our construction of the past and present, accountability in recordkeeping, archival social justice, freedom of information and more, with projects spanning the US, South Africa and Rwanda. Dr Siddique Motala is a senior lecturer based in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town. His interests lie in the fields of geomatics, historical mapping, digital storytelling in education, with a special interest in decolonization efforts. He is known for his work on mapping the site of District Six and his collaborations with the District Six Museum, filmmakers and other scholars. Presenting at the 2022 Global DH Symposium, the authors summarized their project:

“We wanted to virtually reconstruct District Six in terms of the lost built environment and stories of still-living ex-residents and their experiences before, during, and after demolition” (Wallace & Motala, 2022)

        
Interview with Dr David A. Wallace and Dr Siddique Motalla about the making of the project.


Since 2018, they have been collaborating to bring to light the memories of people forced out of District Six. They started by combing through baptismal records from St Mark’s Anglican church, one of the few historical District Six structures still standing. They also worked with former District Six residents who provided oral accounts and personal records. Information extracted from these sources, combined with GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping helped researchers identify the precise locations of addresses on the present-day landscape. These were plotted on a GIS map, virtually reconstructing the demolished environment.

Furthermore, in 2019, this joint project identified key landmarks through oral histories of survivors and records from the District Six Museum. These landmarks, which included schools, social centres, places of worship and cinemas, were likewise plotted on the GIS map. This would later become an online interactive experience on the District Six Museum website: the interactive map on the St Mark’s Memory Mapping Project.

Dr. Wallace's and Dr. Motala'a effort in virtually reconstructing the demolished neighborhood to honor the memory of District Six's ex-residents. Photos from the Global DH Symposium presentation (Wallace & Motala, 2022).

New methods and new technologies

Motala has also developed a walking-as-research (Motala and Bozalek, 2022) methodology called “counter-surveying.” This involves using GIS data to determine and mark locations of demolished homes and establishments, as well as walking with people connected to the sites. In the Global DH conference, Motala remarks on the need for decolonizing education, stating that he developed Counter-Surveying in an attempt to “conscientise CPUT students to the socio-political-historical aspects of the site that their university was situated on” (Wallace & Motala, 2022, para. 13). This method helps recover the stories of people who used to live there and applies geomatics in “new ways that challenge the silencing and erasure of Black people” (Wallace & Motala, 2022, para. 13).
Click on the hotspots to learn more about "counter-surveying" as a walking-as-research 
methodology. Photos from the Global DH Symposium presentation (Wallace & Motala, 2022).

In addition, Motala has been taking groups on walking tours of District Six. The tours include analog maps and photos that visitors can use to compare the current environment to what it used to be. Motala and Wallace believe that such walking tours of District Six can be made better through the use of technology. Since 2022, they have been working on a walking tour app that incorporates augmented reality technologies to guide users on walks of District Six. Through this app, visitors will be led to the exact locations of demolished homes and establishments. They will be shown what used to exist there through digitized and born-digital still images, audio, and videos. Visitors can be simultaneously immersed in the present and the past. 

Conclusion

Interdisciplinary projects such as ‘Walking the Archive of District Six’ are important in advancing decolonial practices. In this case, they relate to social justice in engineering, archival science, and education. The project aims to recover the memories of the District Six community in Cape Town by using primary sources in tandem with emerging digital technologies and counter-surveying to shed light on former residents’ experiences before, during and after the removals. In drawing attention to the stories of District Six, the project brings forth issues of racism, forced displacement, neo-colonial planning practices and the continued contestations around social memory, history, and land ownership. Overall, this project works to challenge the silencing and erasure of black lives during and after the Apartheid regime. The work of Wallace and Motala could be applied to similar contexts of forced removal, reclaimed and debated memory and continued justice seeking.


Author Bio Notes*

Anna Villarica is a research assistant on the #dariahTeach project. She is a junior lecturer at Maastricht University currently teaching courses on design thinking, digital transformations, the philosophy of technology, research skills, and museology. She received her MA in Media Studies Digital Cultures from Maastricht University and her BA in Communications and New Media from the National University of Singapore. While she does not specialise in anything (yet), she loves all things digital and is always learning and creating.

Ella van Geuns is a recent graduate of the MA Media Studies: Digital Cultures Programme at Maastricht University. For her Master's thesis, she explored her interest in storytelling and sustainability by investigating 'the role of digital storytelling within sustainable Dutch fashion network, Culture.Fashion.' She is currently working as a corporate communications specialist at Howden Group Holdings in London. Originally from South Africa, Ella completed her BA in Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. She has always felt passionate about deepening communication within the media world, delving into socially relevant discussions, and sharing stories in a representational manner. These interests drew her to the role of research assistant for the #dariahTeach course, 'Social Justice in the Digital Humanities.

Designer Bio*:

Felix Bui is currently a junior lecturer at the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at Maastricht University. She teaches courses about the history and development of AI, the philosophy of technology, and research skills. She holds a master’s degree in Media Studies: Digital Cultures and a background in Marketing & Communication. Her research interest involves AI and creativity, mediatization and media representation of queer communities, data and media ethics with a focus on diversity and inclusivity.

*Bios and affiliations are accurate at the time of writing. 


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