Facing Our Past: Addressing the Legacies of Slavery and Empire at National Trust for Scotland Properties

The National Trust for Scotland (the Trust) has for many years uncovered complex narratives of the people behind their properties. Recent research has offered new ways to understand how the houses, collections, gardens, and landscapes came into existence or were enhanced. There is also a new thirst to understand the properties’ relationships with communities and with wider society. Many of the properties belonging to the Trust have an association with chattel slavery; these histories are as much a part of the heritage the Trust is responsible for—and have a duty to explain.

In this talk Dr. Jennifer Melville, who is currently leading the Trust’s project entitled “Facing Our Past,” will give an overview of how the project has set about addressing the Trust’s links to historic enslavement. She will highlight individual narratives and outline how the Trust is currently organizing a series of creative interventions, community engagement activities, and staff training to address all histories, however complex and challenging. These initiatives are integral to the visitor experience, whether actual or virtual. Looking forward, she will also explain how the Trust will look at Empire and colonialism and more broadly, at both the impact expatriate Scots had on the countries they populated and how, in turn, the cultures of far-flung places transformed the heritage and cultural assets of Scotland. Finally, Jennifer will analyze the particular sensitivities of a membership organization in reaching these goals and show how her experiences can inform and improve the way this is carried out by similar organizations.

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