In the ‘World on Walcheren’ the residents of Walcheren were invited to contribute a personal object with a story, that had come from far away. The students interviewed participants and researched the objects, in collaboration with the Royal Zeeland Society of Sciences (RZSS) or Koninklijk Zeeuws Genootschap der Wetenschappen in Dutch, and the owners of the objects. The project has shown how Walcheren is, and has been, connected to the rest of the world.  Stories were shared of people who are less often heard, through their objects.

Background

The project developed out of a desire to bring real heritage to the students, and give a platform to members of the community who for various reasons do not usually get a chance for telling their stories. In university education students often work with art-historical or archaeological objects in museums, but this remains relatively abstract, and the meaning of objects to an individual owner, regardless of the object’s intrinsic value, remains out of reach. In this project  students got in direct contact with people from the community. It was a particularly important learning goal that students would be able to grasp the meaning of the objects, and so of the emotional importance of the participants’ heritage, and work this into the research they wrote.

Project description

All activities were geared towards fostering understanding between students and contributors on the one hand, and on the other, improving research skills and the ability to communicate the research in a way that the participants felt did justice to their stories. Once the project was completed, the participants expressed they were happy with the outcome. In the course’s learning outcomes, the goals was stated as follows:

• Show understanding of the role of archaeological heritage, both historically and in the present-day discourse on cultural identity, museums and heritage
•  Independently process and research these aspects of museums and heritage
•  Function effectively in small team-based projects (or individual ‘command’ decision exercises)
•  Demonstrate a grasp of archive and scholarly research on object narratives
•  Function effectively in community research projects

The last goal was further specified in two rubrics: one for the interview, that beside practical criteria also included points on politeness and appropriateness in communicating with participants. The second one was for the book which is the product of this project. Here too, the emphasis is on communicating the stories of the participant and their object in engaging, yet academically well-founded, terms, and in communicating with the participant at all times about the contents of the chapter.

Results

The book that has resulted from the collaboration of students, community participants, and RZSS is something everyone is very content about. University College Roosevelt (UCR) has hosted a student-community book launch where the first books were offered to the participants at a book launch in honor of their generous sharing of their stories, and can only be described as a joyous event. In terms of heritage that was unsung, and now can be found in the public domain for all who are interested, the project has been a great success. The participants are very positive about the experience too, and the students have expanded their horizons and achieved their first academic publication, before even having graduated. They also all passed the course in which the project was run.

Reflections

1. The first challenge was to find enough participants that had variety of backgrounds and who would especially benefit from the chance to tell their stories. Sadly, no participants came forward who had a Moroccan connection despite repeated attempts to contact this group. A volunteer who was Jewish had to withdraw for personal reasons. There was also little response from people with Indonesian connections. In the end, there are quite a few participants who are Dutch locals, but whose ancestors travelled. This was still acceptable, but it was a little disappointing that despite specific targeting efforts came forward from some groups. Hopefully this can be remedied in future with the follow-up project: where secondary schools will be taken as a basis, the cultural pool will hopefully be even broader.
2. The second challenge was the difference in worldview of students and participants. This seemed to lead to differences of opinion between the two, but in the end the students treated the participants with respect, as they have confirmed since.