Dr. Sallie Anna Pisera, a postdoctoral researcher on the project will be presenting “A Dwelling for Living Heritage and Memory: Presentation of an Aqal Soomaali and Related Craft Knowledge in Museum Setting” at the Somali Studies International Association Conference in Sweden.
Many Somali people have been and are being displaced from traditional lifeways by war, drought, famine, and changing socioeconomic conditions. For Somalis with nomadic pastoral heritage, one of the aspects of cultural memory at stake in the cacophony of these compounding displacements is knowledge relating to the traditional dwelling space, aqal. This paper focuses on an example of heritage maintenance occurring at the Somali Museum of Minnesota, which hosts an aqal brought from Somaliland and presented in a reenacted nomadic setting in their gallery. The Somali Museum’s presentation of the aqal is not only about the object itself, however. The Museum also hosts a kebed weaving group led by elder women which is a critical part of passing on the craft knowledge needed to construct aqal components. The aqal is furthermore not a static object, and the Museum brings the dwelling to life in diaspora by raising it ceremonially at important community events. Drawing from ethnographic research with the Somali Museum and community members, this paper discusses the Museum’s presentation of the aqal and associated craft knowledge. The paper additionally brings the Somali Museum’s aqal presentation into conversation with other examples of the use of reconstructed and reenacted traditional dwellings in museum settings in the US Midwest and in Sweden.
The presentation is in-person and available on Zoom. Please contact us for more details on how to join via Zoom.