From 15th till 19th of October we were in Warsaw with 14 participants. They were project partners and also external people, with whom we want to work closely on the topic in the next year. We collected the perspectives from Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
We talked about decolonial approach in curatorial work with Paulina Olszewska. We discussed with Joanna Wawrzyniak how the topic is addressed in the academia and how scientists work side by side with activists. We went through historical timeline with Teodor Ajder and looked at resistance in Moldovan art. We learned with Witek Orski at the Museum of Ethnography in Warsaw how decolonial approach can be implemented to the archives of the museum and that this is a continuous long process with a lot of layers. We went on a self-guided tour about the spaces of resistance in Warsaw, most of which don’t exist any more. And in the evening we watched a movie «With love, Stela» and had a Q&A session with Stela Pascal herself. On the last day of our program we listened to Zarina Mukanova about the complications of decolonisation processes in Qazaqstan. After that we had an interactive workshop with maqaal collective, which focused on the work with archives as a decolonial method and a tool for collective remembrance.
In this post we want to give some insights from the last workshop with maqqal collective that we had.
Workshop Journal
At the beginning Gulnoza and Amina from maqaal presented themselves and the work of their collective. Then we had a short exchange on what we understand as an archive. Then we had an overview of the archiving history in Central Asia before, during and after Soviet era. We also watched a short documentary movie made by Hayot, another collective member of maqaal. Then we moved to the part of introducing the archival objects we brought with us. It took a while as the introduction of every object was very personal and important. At the end we engaged with the whole group in the discussion of what could be missing in the story of these objects, and what is present? We also shortly dived into the question of how real family stories sometimes differ from what the archive presents.
Aha Moments
A lot of archival materials from Central Asia were destroyed during Soviet Era as they were considered not important enough.
While we can say that most of the archives were destroyed by Bolsheviks, factually it may carry different meanings. Namely, rhetorically they referred to them as unimportant, while actually they might have wanted to simply destroy alternative visions for Central Asia. Finally, for the same reason, during the Soviet period the new archives were also created to support the new socialist reality, again, with the aim of erasing the polyphony of voices.
Stories of people and the story of Sara Eshonturaeva in particular as an example of people living their life in duality. She was forced to conceal her cultural and intellectual identity during the Soviet era.
Very often the way the archive is preserved doesn’t reveal the real family situation.
The family members are censors of the family history: they decide what is remembered and what has to be forgotten.
Additional Materials
You can check the reference materials that maqaal collective used for the offline workshop.
Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, Archives in Russia: A Directory and Bibliography Guide to Holdings in Moscow and St. Petersburg (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1991)
Francine Hirsch, Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005)
Iskandarova Shohsanam, The Formation of State Archives in Uzbekistan: A Historical Overview (In Proceedings of the 2nd Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies, 2024)
Alfrid Bustanov, Series of lectures on “Muslim Subjectivity”(Zaman museum, 2024)
Saidiya Hartman, Venus in Two Acts (Indiana University Press, 2008)
Zaynab Mukhammad-Dost, A Woman, an Actress, a Jadid? Reflecting on a Recent Exhibition in London (Voices on Central Asia, 2022)
Dalia Leinarte, Silence in biographical accounts and life stories: The ethical aspects of interpretation. In The Soviet Past in the Post-Socialist Present (pp. 12-18, 2015)
Lara Olszowska, The Uzbek theatre icon who resisted Soviet culture washing (The Telegraph, 2022)
Vicky Davis, Central Asia in World War Two (2023)
Marianne R. Kamp, Three lives of Saodat: communist, Uzbek, survivor. (The Oral History Review 28.2, 2001)
What’s next
We are happy to announce that there is going to be on online version of this workshop!
when: 5th of December at 5 pm (CET)
where: on ZOOM platform, the link will be sent after the registration
how long: 2 hours
with whom: maqaal collective
short description: We’ll discuss and speculate on the origins of archives, the family archives and the archive as an imperial instrument in the context of Central Asia. We will also work with archival materials hands on. What can a family photo, a mosque repository, a postcard, something unarchived say and/or silence? The session is intended to be built on the interactions between maqaal collective and participants rather than one-sided talk only.
registration: the number of participants is limited to 15 people, so, in order to take part, please, register via the link https://educat-veranstaltungen.org/55/
We will send you an email with the confirmation of participation before the 4th of December with the ZOOM link and additional infos.
Estimated Work Amount
There is no prior reading or preparation required.
The request from the facilitators: bring an archival material/object with you. It could be a picture, a photo album, etc.
Barriers
All bodies, backgrounds, and levels of experience are welcome.
Since the workshop will be online, we recommend to have a stable internet connection and maybe headphones, they will help to better concentrate.
Language
English spoken language.
Costs
The event is free of charge. If you feel like you want to support the project, feel free to donate, though 🙂 E.g. on Betterplace with a click on the following link: https://www.betterplace.org/de/projects/85789-educat-e-v-politische-bildung-in-ostdeutschland
Facilitators
maqaal collective
maqaal is a grassroots collective, based globally but with members from various parts of Uzbekistan. maqaal intends to (re)imagine and practice solidarity beyond nation-states and regions. Not necessarily drawing parallels or searching for similarities in our past/present/future, but being there for each other through empathy, kindness, lived wounds, pain, failures, despair and becoming again.
website: maqaalcollective.com
instagram @maqaal.collective
Initiators
Educat – Educational Collective
Educat e.V. is a collective of education workers from Dresden, Rostock and Berlin, who do diversity- conscious and critical education, work on remembrance and emancipatory and experimental educational formats. Together with a lot of partners and comrades Educat is facilitating Cultures of Remembrance since 2021.
Project partners
The project has been carried and inspired by a huge network of comrades, activists, artists and educators. For the recent episode of “Cultures of Remembrance” together with Educat Collective, there is Art Platforma, Human Constanta, Prismatica and Solidarity Collectives involved as main partners.
