The whole idea is to reach out to the regular public that’s why the museum is going out to the people
and not in an exclusive museum space. The idea is to raise this kind of
awareness about this living heritage and to see how people relate to it.
Especially also looking at the youth for whom this has come down to as heritage,
says Dr Preeti Sampat an anthropologist and assistant professor at Ambedkar
University in Delhi who initiated the idea for the living histories mobile
museum in Goa.
The Living Histories of the Land of Goa, a mobile museum will be
on display at Lohia Maidan, Margao on May 21, 2018 from 4pm to 9pm, Old Bus
Stand, Ponda on May 22, 2018 from 4pm to 9pm, Opposite the Riverfront near the
Panjim market on May 23, 2018 from 11am to 8pm, Keri village, Ponda on May 24,
2018 from 5pm to 9pm and Verna market on May 25, 2018 from 5pm to 9pm.
The interactive mobile museum will include short films, live
performances and various mediums which were influential in the several protests
and agitations that have taken place over the years in Goa. “The short films
have been taken from different organisations like Video Volunteers and Rainbow
Volunteers besides interviews and testimonies carried out by our team members
with many social activists. The museum highlights the history of struggles
which have a strong environmental consciousness right from the 1974 Zuari Afro
movement to the PDA movement. There is a vibrant living history as the people
come together putting aside their differences to fight for their livelihood,
identity, culture and most importantly questioning for whom this development
will benefit,” she explains.
Dr Preeti has completed her doctoral dissertation at the City
University of New York on the special economic zones law in India and the
failure in implementation in Goa due to popular resistance. She received a
grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropology, USA, to take the
findings of her study back to the people which motivated her to bring the
museum to Goa.
The team behind the museum comprise of Heidi Faye Pereira, an
artist from Goa and currently studying in Ambedkar University Delhi, Sulochana
Pednekar, an activist and academic from Women’s Studies in Goa University,
David J Meaprath, a musician currently studying in Ambedkar University Delhi
and Aseem Achintya, a photographer and designer based in Delhi.Heidi and David
will be part of the performance. “As a youth, I didn’t know the direct effect
these matters would have on me and through the performance we want to show how
the fight to protect our natural resources. The ten minutes performance will
include the contradicting scenario that we need development but which is
morally executed keeping the locals in mind,” says Heidi from Margao.
The museum is largely divided on five themes, industry,
infrastructure, real estate, tourism and mining under which each of the
agitations are highlighted. “We started working on the research nearly a year
ago and Sulochana Pednekar who was already based in Goa was very helpful. The
Goa State Library has done a great job in archiving the newspapers which
reported these agitations and through the scanning process, we can showcase it
to a larger audience,”added a team member.
An
online museum, www.livinghistoriesgoa.com,is also being set up simultaneously.
