There are four different activities running throughout the day as listed below. Guests are welcome to book onto just one of the activities or onto all four.
A day of workshops inviting visitors to learn more about, honour and celebrate the rich cultural heritage and history of Palestine and Palestinian people.
Museums are custodians of memory and cultural heritage; they serve as spaces to protect and preserve memory against erasure. Museums are also places where sharing memory can help to build connection, understanding and empathy between people and cultures. At a time when many across the world have witnessed the ongoing destruction of Palestinian life, cultural heritage and memory, this event encourages collective pause and reflection, through opportunities to listen to histories from Palestinian people and to learn more about and celebrate Palestinian cultural heritage and traditions.
The day includes:
Dabke is a traditional Palestinian folk-dance style rooted in joy, community and resistance. This workshop invites all to learn about the history and cultural significance of Dabke and to have a go at learning some foundational Dabke moves and choreography. Fares Farraj is a dancer originally from Palestine, and a former member of the world-leading El-Funoun Palestinian Dabke troupe. This is a beginner level workshop aimed at everyone aged 5+
Join Tatreez Revival Founder Muna-El-Zeet for a hands-on embroidery workshop and create your own coaster or patch to take away! Hear about Muna’s family Tatreez history, as well as the history of Tatreez across Palestine, including the many different patterns, techniques and styles across the regions. This workshop is recommended for people aged 16+
Join the team on a tour across the museum developed to raise awareness to Palestinian heritage in the collection and to share items in the galleries that have inspired reflection about Palestine particularly over the last 20 months. The tour touches on stories of displacement, resilience, resistance, peace and human rights. Supporting the tour is artist Sondos Ghalayini, weaving in personal experience, history and song. The evening event will be supported by well-being practitioner Shamshad Khan. The tour is recommended for people aged 18+
The tour will be followed by a space to connect and reflect together over a communal meal with food from the North’s first traditional Palestinian restaurant Baity, bringing us together with a menu of food based on family recipes passed down for generations.
Magic lanterns were a 17th century intention that enabled images to be projected. Manchester Museum has hundreds of glass slides that were produced for use in magic lantern slide projectors, including over 300 slides of photographs taken in Palestine from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. University of Manchester PhD candidate Yasmin Foqahaa has curated a selection of these slides to share on the day, categorised into themes of People, Landscapes and Historical Sites.
More information can be found about the magic lantern and digitised slides can be found here and some examples of slides from the Palestine collection below.
Manchester Museum has quiet and prayer spaces open to all, which will be accessible throughout the day and evening event.
The evening event will be supported by well-being practitioner Shamshad-Khan, who will help hold the group throughout and will support and encourage guests to engage in practices of care in ways that feel authentic and meaningful to each person.
Images:
Above:
Image 1: Lamps from the Levant region – display in Collections Reimagined gallery. Photo credits: Manchester Museum
Image 2: Tatreez Revival x RivelinCo Workshop (4). Photo credit: Ai Narapol
Below:
Photo credit for these images is currently unknown. Image titles listed below are take from what is written on each slide.
Image 1: ‘Jerusalem – Mosque of Omar
Image 2: ‘Armenian Church’
Image 3: ‘Jerusalem from Mount of Olives’
Image 4: ‘Wailing Wall’