Decolonisation, Critical Methodologies and Why Stories Matter

Abstract

day stories into the public record, thereby allowing for the reconstruction of historical memory, voicing silenced stories, and recognising experiences of excluded communities. Stevens, Duncan and Sonn (this volume) note that personal memories form the primary raw data within the Apartheid Archive Project and that narratives are the key means for conveying stories about racism during the apartheid era (see Mankoskwi & Rappaport, 1995 for a further explication of the distinction between stories and narratives). In this chapter, we discuss storytelling in the context of this project as a central site for the production of counter-narratives as well as for exposing ways in which racialised oppression was normalised. Storytelling about racism that produces counter-narratives is an important tool for disrupting dynamics of oppression and surfacing the everyday ways in which racialised oppression was achieved and continues to structure contemporary social relations.