Final Word
Interview with Jennifer Melville , National Trust for Scotland
We talk to Jennifer Melville MA MAGS PhD AMA, project leader at NationalTrust for Scotland’s Facing Our Past Project, about the conservation charity’s plans to address the legacies of slavery
National Trust for Scotland is currently carrying out a review of its buildings and monuments and plans to highlight the links to slavery to the millions of people who visit its sites each year, as part of the historical interpreration.
In this interview, Jennifer explains how the project will unfold and the various opportunities for public engagement.
What are your main hopes for Facing Our Past?
That we see our properties and estates as multi-layered windows into Scotland’s past, not a rose-tinted view but one that reveals all the complexities of Scotland that make it so unique. This history was not insular – quite the opposite – nor should we look at it from only a Scottish viewpoint.We want to open up our portfolio and invite new angles and viewpoints, thus making it all much more relevant and engaging.
How long do you anticipate that the review of the charity’s properties and monuments will take?
We envisage a two-year project although that said, we intend to embed to practice into all that we do and know – so that research is ongoing.
Are you able to tell us more about how the work with artists and creative practitioners might take shape?
We are focusing on some identified properties and have been working with property teams to identify the best locations and the best creative interventions and events and from these discussions will develop a programme to run from May 2021. This will be community-led, and engagement will be a vital part of the programme.
And how do you think it will compare to the NTS’s slavery project a decade ago?
It will be truly national and drawing on new research that was not available a decade ago, critically the UCL Slavery Compensation website [https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/ details/], new books and the forthcoming Highland Estates and Slavery report.We are also democratising the research – reaching out to encourage far more people to engage with our heritage and culture.