Awkward heritage : the case of the ex-dockyard workers : a study on the limits of oral history and collective memory

Abstract

Recent research on heritage and the archaeology of the recent past has called for an ethnographic approach which focuses on the meaning of the past and its traces in the present. This has opened an interesting new space for discussion and debate concerning memory and identity in archaeological, historical, and heritage contexts. My dissertation seeks to contribute to this area by investigating how official authorities and institutions transform living memory into history, and hence legitimising legacy in the Maltese context of the Dockyard. Central to this dissertation is the thesis that memory is an ‘active process of sense-making through time’ (Olick and Levy, 1997). This position, I argue, contrasts with the principles employed in the methods of historical documentation by heritage institutions wherein memory is seen as a static phenomenon that may be collected and preserved as an archaeological artefact. Building upon the works of previous anthropologists, this work seeks to comparatively explore and critique a variety of forms of memory practice and see what insights may emerge from each, as well as which limitations may be present. The end goal of this process is to illustrate how these practices are not merely a neutral activity of collection, preservation and exhibition, but rather a creative force that gives rise to new meanings, understandings and interpretations. Using insights drawn from my interviews, I survey existing literature and use the historical record in order to locate the blind spots of memory and to provide an analysis of the Dockyard and the place of its memory within Malta today.