Palestinian Heritage 'to the moment': Archival Memory and the Representation of Heritage in Conflict

Abstract

This paper is envisaged as a 'thought piece' that provides a critical introduction to what emerged as the organising motif of the Archaeology in Conflict conference's particular exploration of Palestinian heritage and identity: that of thinking more broadly in terms of the archive — or, more critically still, in terms of archival memory. As such, this paper seeks to uncover the specific operational, conceptual and moral-ethical issues at stake in terms of the repositioning of such archival memory resources in the representation of heritage in conflict. It continues to explore how conflict, trauma, dislocation and violence are the destroyers not only of physical landscapes (homes and heritage) but also of human lives; they are responsible for the death of possible futures, and as such the very capacity to articulate, transmit and re-present such experiences and events. A means to address this traumatic impasse is, however, captured in the late Palestinian academic-activist Edward Said's vision of a 'right to a remembered presence'. This vision also captures another motif central to the theme of heritage and archaeology in conflict — the 'healing mode' of thought and aspiration, that is neither naive or uncritical, but bound up in a belief in the capacity of heritage and certain modes of memory-work to bring comfort, cure, care and healing to situations of conflict, containment, displacement and exile. As such, this paper explores the creation of archival memory resources in order to address this aspect of conflicted heritage and the imperatives of restoring wellbeing. The final contention of the paper is that a further operational model is located in Said's strategy vis-à-vis 'writing to the moment'; the concept and practice of apprehending heritage 'to the moment' therefore requires a certain duty and responsibility towards contextualisation in terms of the 'worldliness' of heritage domains.