Stories of the past, told today, for the people of tomorrow
The National Implementation Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals, an all-government global initiative was launched 26/4/18. As part of CoDesRes's SDG research, we are exploring how we might embed these goals in our everyday lives, to insure sustainable development is local and relevant. Aligned with Heritage Week's 2018 theme, Share a Story and Make a Connection, we are launching Storybank, to initiate a year-long project that gathers memories and stories of making and mending in the Iveragh Peninsula.
The Old Barracks Heritage Centre in Cahersiveen, the largest town on the Iveragh Peninsula will be the central point of a series of co-ordinated events for Heritage Week 18th – 26th August 2018. The stories will be exhibited with workshops and public events to encourage new maker / fixer practices and ideas including contemporary maker space activities, taking place throughout the week, culminating in a weekend co-ordinated tour to local venues within the Peninsula to experience ‘live-demos’ of a range of local skills.
Storybank is part of connecting with the need to move towards a more sustainable future and considering how the past could help us towards such a future. The project looks at the heritage of sustainable practices on the Iveragh Peninsula by gathering the innovation and the ‘make-do and mend’ ethos that is still within living memory.
The project will gather stories on these themes through specially designed ‘storybanks’ that recycle plastic bottles that carry a message or story. In addition, artists, Sean O’Laoghaire and Anita McKeown will tour the Peninsula using the community link bus to gather and document stories from Kells to Castlecove. In the tradition of itinerant storytellers, they will gather local knowledge and tell stories in exchange for bed and board on the project themes. Whether it's butter making or net fixing, let them know, as they attempt to bank the past to re-imagine the future.
Storybank at the Old Barracks will initiate a year-long consideration of how these skills can contribute to sustainable cities, resilient communities, education and the issues faced locally linked to Life Below Water and Life On Land. The project and educational resources will be digitally archived and consolidated in a number of archive boxes to be held in local libraries, heritage centres, as well as the county archive.
We will also be launching a new project that has importance for our local area, but hopefully will also contribute to looking at ways to remove some of the plastic in our oceans and that gets washed up on our beaches. All will be revealed soon.