Cape Town museum tells story of life in Palestine
Gaza Remains the Story exhibit is on at the Homecoming Centre
The exhibition Gaza Remains the Story opened at the Homecoming Centre in Cape Town on Saturday. Photos: Matthew Hirsch
“Amid the deafening noise of constant bombardment that overshadows daily life, heritage, artistic expression, and creativity in Palestine, Gaza Remains the Story seeks to uncover what lies beyond the façade of war and conquest,” reads the description for an exhibition at the Homecoming Centre in Cape Town that opened on Saturday.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the District Six Museum, the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, and the Cultural Solidarity Collective.
Among the over 100 people attending the opening was Mai El-Shaer, a 22-year-old visual artist who was in her final year of studies before the war in Gaza derailed her life. She fled to Egypt last year with her two sisters and mother. Now, she intends to study art at the University of Cape Town.
“You live there all your life and suddenly you don’t have anything,” she told GroundUp.
“It’s important for us as Palestinians that we are shown … The idea that people hear, see you and feel you … you are not alone,” she said.
Asked about US President Donald Trump’s comments about “owning Gaza”, she said, “It’s not your land [Trump’s] to decide what will happen. There are people there. It’s not your country and it always will be our place.”
Amer Shomali, Palestinian Museum director, addressed the crowd via livestream.
“We are not facing only the Israeli government but also the US and many other European governments. They keep telling us there is no chance we will win because we are alone. Such an exhibition tells them that we are not alone.”
He said the exhibition is “a way to send messages to the world that we are not going to leave anyone behind”.
Mandy Sanger, head of education at the District Six Museum, which focuses on the devastating forced removals in the district during apartheid, said, “Our museum is really about the present and how we keep the past alive. We see our work as creating bridges of empathy.”
“We see how history is repeating itself,” she said.
Zoë Fraser of the Cultural Solidarity Collective said they had responded to an international call by the Palestinian Museum in the West Bank.
A number of workshops, screenings and cultural events are planned. It will form part of the District Six Museum’s public education programme.
Gaza Remains the Story describes Palestinian life against the a background of war and occupation.
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