Shared memories are connected to historical events, places, services, or way of life that individuals living in community of place have experienced together. It serves as a common thread that binds the community members together, which they draw upon in identifying themselves as part of the community.
Preservation of these memories is key to unifying the community, particularly for communities undergoing rapid development and displacement due to gentrification, cultural commodification, or war.Engaging these memories to find the common threads and narratives, can not only help communities make meaning, but also enables youths to learn about their community, towards a stronger sense of community, optimism, and place attachment.
- Use varying and multiple media such as murals, books, performance workshops, theatre productions, photography exhibitions or social media platforms to preserve community’s experiences and memories, see Case Study 1.3a. Community art practitioners play an important intermediatory role in eliciting and curating residents’ memories, through the use of different creative formats.
- Preservation can be for different purposes. One may be formal, aiming to document the efforts and history of a community, and another may be more personal, documenting memories to be able to reflect on experiences and reminisce on the past way of life or changes in traditional trades.
Books by residents of Chinatown Ms Charmaine wrote about her experiences growing up as the daughter of a madame operating the last brothel in Chinatown.
Picturing Chinatown: photography-based, collaborative reflective storytelling project on everyday life in Singapore’s Chinatown.
Kreta Ayer community heritage gallery.
Varying media and methods of preserving memories as recorded in Chinatown. Chinatown is a historical district in Singapore that has been heavily gentrified due to rapid redevelopment, heritage commodification, rising property prices and erosion of cultural languages.
The result is the loss of traditional business, heritage spaces, community networks and memories that has eroded residents’ sense of belonging.
- Interview community members to map community networks and dynamics and elicit stories and memories connected to community places, people, services, and events, while acknowledging the experiences of minority groups.
- Unite and make sense of common memories and themes behind collected stories. These themes can be talked through with community members to decide how to present them. See Case Study 1.3b on how stories of community members living in the Chinatown, Singapore was narrated in-situ through the format of a promenade theatre production.
The telling stories connected to Chinatown in Chinatown crossings, allowed residents to reclaim the memories, relationships, and connections that were eroded through its rapid development. Community members were interviewed and engaged to tell their stories about Chinatown and how the changes impacted them. They described how the renaming of Kreta Ayer as ‘Chinatown’, as well as efforts by the Singapore Tourist Board to cater to the tourist gaze, erased the multi-ethnic nature of their community. These stories were narrated as the audience walks through Chinatown to anchor them to context and help them gain a deeper understanding of the community’s identity.
- Stimulate reflection on community history and experiences through intergenerational art activities. These activities can be exploratory in nature to encourage the exchange of perspectives and candid conversations, see Case Study 1.3d.
- Art pieces such as murals reflecting community history, culture, experiences, and values can be used as educational tools for children in schools, see Case Study 1.3c.
- Broadcast interviews or stories highlighting memories and experiences of the older generation, through television series or documentaries. Personal and archived photographs can be used to supplement these interviews to tell the stories, to spark deeper conversations with their parents or grandparents on their past experiences.
In an interactive art project called ‘Soul Searching’, young artists immerse in significant places in Chinatown with residents through a series of workshops and interactive installations and performances. In these activities, different generations explore each other’s understanding and attachment to a place close to their hearts and the memories associated with it.
In Singapore, murals by Mr Yip Yew Cheong were used as educational tools for school children to learn about Singapore’s history, and for older adults to recollect and reminisce about things of the past. These murals are painted all over Chinatown showcasing ceremonies, and daily living scenes that are no longer present in Chinatown. His murals are a powerful tool to consolidate collective memories and increase residents’ attachment to the place.
Preservation of shared memories can promote resilience in different ways. At the community level, these memories allow community members to reclaim their connections and sense of Place Attachment (CC6) that can be eroded through rapid development. The exchange of stories between community members – regarding their different struggles and successes in experiencing similar situations, becomes an avenue for residents to learn from each other, and build individual and collective hope and optimism together (IC2, CC2). Engaging and weaving these memories into a shared narrative can help communities make meaning, towards a stronger Sense of Community (CC4). At the individual level, avenues to reminisce and engage in shared memories at older ages, can trigger a sense of nostalgia, positive emotions, as well as promote social participation.
- Arts groups that seek to do community development can encourage higher levels of participation from community members. For example, not just sharing stories, but involving community members in the co-creation process to present the stories. Partner with local community organizations and social service agencies to train and sustain the motivation of community members to find solutions to community issues highlighted from the process.
- Consider age, disabilities, and other factors affecting the community members in designing and planning the activities for preserving memories. Art forms such as promenade theatre productions require more walking. This may be more challenging for persons with mobility issues.
- Promote online heritage-related platforms where community members can explore and contribute their memories and stories of community places, events, and objects. Such platforms could be used for reminiscence interventions for people with dementia. It could also connect with artists who are interested to produce them into wider art forms.
- Cracks in the community may surface, due to different perspectives on how to present community issues or unearthing of deeper conflicts and trauma. This also presents an opportunity for the community to heal through the storytelling process.
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