The Histories We Tell is a public history gathering exploring digitisation, cultural preservation, and community archiving through screenings, conversations, and lived experiences. This full-day event will spotlight the powerful ways communities are preserving heritage, telling their stories, and leveraging technology to protect memory. From grassroots archives to digitised assets, we ask:
What does it mean to future-proof culture in the digital age? And how can technology serve, rather than erase, deeply local narratives?
Program details:10.00AM: Session 1: A living archive: archiving together
Thinking within the framework of developing anti-disciplinary archival ethics rooted in community care, this panel will focus on how people-centered approaches to archiving provide pathways for us to explore what an archive could be when defined by the holders of the memories that reside within it. Here, we want to share more about our dream of historative approaches to history-ing. We interrogate how digitisation presents opportunities for source communities and communities of practice to reclaim the agency to tell their own stories often stolen and silenced within the Western Archive.
In this panel Mũthoni Mwangi will be speaking to Njuki Githethwa of Mashujaa Heritage – the custodians of the Mwakenya archival collection, Brian Muraya of Calotropis Radio which is a community of artists playing within (and to stretch) the radiophonic while documenting the process through the digital medium of online radio, and Myriam Dalal, PhD, a cultural practitioner, writer, and researcher from the University of Luxembourg.
11.00AM: Session 2: Screening: Usanii ni Ufundi + Panel on the place of skills in navigating the cultural heritage sector.
Premiering for the first time, Usanii ni Ufundi is a short documentary film spotlighting the incredible work of the Akamba Culture Center and Museum and the Malindi District Cultural Association , as framed within the context of Skills for Culture (S4C), an ADH capacity-building programme supported by the British Council Cultural Heritage For Inclusive Growth.
A speech by a representative from the British Council will follow the film. It will also include a brief discussion surrounding the emerging themes as seen with the film by a panel consisting of Julius Mutuku of ACCM, Stan Kiraga of MADCA, and Furaha Ruguru, a Freelance writer and music journalist, and moderated by ADH’s Mutanu Kyany’a.
2.00PM: Session 3: Of Memories and Reels: Public Showcase of a digitized, previously inaccessible story + Panel Discussion
Of Memories and Reels: A Study on the State of Kenya’s Audio Visual Archives forms the departure point of this conversation. The report showcased the current status of (analog)audio-visual collections and their management in Kenya’s archives by highlighting the sector’s major issues, trends, and dynamics. Inviting both international and local perspectives, the discussion seeks to unpack what access and building a supportive infrastructure looks like whilst working with audio-visual collections. Inviting storytelling as a methodology of understanding, articulating, and circumnavigating the challenges of archiving, the conversation also seeks to map out how a healthier and more sustainable audio-visual archival sector can be realized.
The panel will be moderated by the study’s lead researcher, ADH’s Mutanu Kyany’a, alongside guest speakers Prof. Andreas Fickers, Ngartia Bryan – StoryZetu.
3.15PM: Session 4: Global South Residency Program – Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History
Building connecting bridges across public history practices within the global south, Prof.Thomas Cauvin and Natália Gonçalves from the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History at the University of Luxembourg will speak about this digital residency and the opportunities it presents towards strengthening and building vital networks of public historians engaging in archiving and histories.
3.45PM: Session 5: Public Showcase: Digitizing Your Personal Archives
In this public showcase, we are excited to provide a creative pathway regarding the possibilities of making archives accessible in interactive ways. Working towards the collective aim of demystifying the practicalities of digitizing archives and making this process approachable, Gitahi Kariuki and Mutana Wanjira of Sounds of Freedom will be running interactive booths.
