About Us

WHAT IS THIS PUBLIC HISTORY PROJECT ABOUT?

The Aragala Bhoomiya (‘space of struggle’) became a protest village. What started on April 9, 2022 with a few ‘overnighters’ existed for 124 days as GotaGoGama (GGG), and ceased to be on August 10, 2022. While it existed on Galle Face Green, the mythification, romanticisation and the propagandization of the struggle by those with vested interest from many sides, was inevitable, as the Aragalaya itself was a political struggle. However, after it was removed, the erasure of its memory as the aragala boohimya in the public consciousness began. Systematically the memories of the aragalaya bhoomiya were dismantled as a site – with the Christmas carnival and larger-than-life Christmas tree in December 2022, or the Independence Day ceremony of 2023, or the removal of the 'Agitation SIte' board. As GotaGoGama as a physical space and a metaphorical idea began to disintegrate in public memory, we chose to document and record the site as a ‘lived space’ by documenting the evolution of the protest village through the oral histories and memory-maps of those who 'lived' on site.

This memorialisation and archival work is premised on our belief that truth can be layered, multi-faceted, infinitely subjective and always influenced by (and in turn, influencing) context. Many other factors, including geography, identity, real and perceived security, belief systems and ideologies, also make us remember incidents and experiences in unique ways that are different to how it might be written about by an 'outsider'.

Through this archival research and memorialisation project we wanted to:

Explore and document people's experiences of 'the struggle' within the site of GotaGoGama as remembered by its 'residents'

To democratize the ‘way’ we remember a historical moment through ‘perspectives’ of the various people, groups, ideas, motivations that were present on the site throughout its existence

Understand the relationship between the 'social construction' of space, geography and identity in how becoming part of something so ‘grand’ and ‘public’ can make people feed, including what brought people there and what kept them coming back.

WHY DID WE USE MEMORYSCAPES?

We organised this exercise as a ‘commemoration’ or memorialisation of the struggle, which to us was a meaningful act of agency – in how people created their own narratives of what they witnessed and what they did. It was also a meaningful act of reflection in remembering their experiences at two levels – not just what they witnessed or experienced, but how they felt about it then and feel about it now. We hoped that by tethering their memories and experiences to the creation of ‘memory-maps’, along with the oral history recordings, images and videos that they shared, this memory-scape of GGG will not just be a two-dimensional visualization of the site but add a dimension of emotion and reflection to that historical moment. We also found in reliving their memories, there was a visceral and emotional ‘high’ - akin to the spirit of GGG.

The Methodology

As the aragalayaya ended, we began to document people’s experiences and memories using visual and verbal methods of expression through four sessions over the course of 2022, beginning on August 18, 2022.

People who either lived on site for a long period of time (over 50 days at least), or those who regularly spent a similar amount of time returning to the site daily, representing as many tents within the GGG space

The ‘story-tellers’ began by drawing an outline of the site, some starting from a significant physical marker (such as the statue of former prime minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike or the Presidential Secretariat or the Galle Road). Some started from their primary ‘residence’ within GGG (one of the tents) and constructed the map as they built their narratives around it.

The maps almost always stayed within the confines of GGG and its immediate environs – bordered by the Presidential Secretariat, Shangri-La hotel and car park, the Galle Face roundabout and the seaside promenade.

The use of colour was entirely arbitrary as it does not denote any specificity. The date-ranges for each map were also arbitrarily selected by each ‘team’, according to dates that resonated with their presence or events, forming a loosely chronological historical narrative of the evolution of the space from the beginning to the end of the Aragalaya Bhoomiya at Gall Face.

The freedom and flexibility of this methodology was purposeful, as we did not want to ‘lead’ how and why they remembered their lived experience.

An amalgamated 2D map created from the 14 maps mapped by the participants was then presented back to them. They contested, corrected and challenged its content amongst each other and arrived at something that they belived represented their memories of GotaGoGama.

The map was shared with many others who wished to add their memories to it as a 'lived experience' which were also recorded.

However, it must be noted, that with participant groups changing throughout the process, these memory-scapes and oral histories are not exactly representative of the whole space (GGG), associated spaces and all the publics that participated in it or the struggle in its entirety. The spatial and temporal limitations and specificity determined by the participants and their choices and comprises of the stories they wished to share of the 124 days that GGG existed, limited by its boundaries, the identities and allegiances of those that lived in different tents.

While mapping out the site and their memories of their time together in a physical location as ‘GGG aragala kaarayo’, the emotions that resurfaced – euphoria, satisfaction, anxiety, pride, hope, ambition, disappointment, relevance, determination – were not simply tethered to ‘historical’ moments of impact but to the journey ahead as a new generation that has now tasted some success of what a (largely) peaceful and democratic protest movement might be able to achieve – a realization that in itself was and is powerful.

PRESENTATION OF THIS SITE AND DISCLAIMERS

This archival work is a collaboration between a ‘public history practitioner’ – Radhika Hettiarachchi and an ‘academic historian’ – Samal Hemachandra, one of the founders of the People's University. This site presents the hand-drawn maps and the associated transcripts of conversations in three languages (Sinhala, English and Tamil), some photos and videos shared by the participants to illustrate their memories, and a few audio clips of the conversations to provide the reader with a sense of the emotional expression of memory. They have been redacted for security and safety reasons as requested by those that participated. This archival research project is not funded and conducted voluntarily by all those involved for the sake of memorialising a historical moment for posterity. For research purposes, please contact one of the archivists for further information.