museums, including a distinct entrance solely for ISM, but also to consider how to incorporate the docks and wider waterfront area into the story of Liverpool. Since the waterfront shifted towards a site of leisure in the 1980s, many areas remained shaped by their industrial past and were hard to access and little used as a result. The Canning Graving Docks, where ships( including slave ships) had been refitted and repaired since the 1700s, are large spaces which were either empty or contained decaying ships inaccessible to the public. Thus, improving the public’ s ability to visit and engage directly with these spaces was a key aim of the overall project.
From the beginning of the current project, clear processes were established with representatives from various communities to co-produce the outcomes. These include representatives from different ethnic communities, but also historic and maritime associations within the city. For example, since the opening of ISM in 2007, the RESPECT group 5 was established to improve the representation of historic and present-day inequalities in the museum’ s spaces. RESPECT now provides strategic advice and support across NML’ s activities and is an important advisory group for the Waterfront Transformation Project. Elsewhere, local creative organisations such as Writing on the Wall and 20 Stories High brought their expertise on storytelling and engaging with under-represented communities through the arts into dialogue with museum and planning professionals. Other expert groups include maritime historians( both professional / academic and independent scholars) and historians of transatlantic slavery. For instance, NML staff have been working with the Liverpool Black History Research Group to explore the history of who lived and worked the historic docks. 6 This approach has been important in ensuring co-production of the new waterfront feels genuine rather than tokenistic and involves communities throughout the entire process. As noted above, this has been an extended process which has taken decades since the first attempts to do justice to Liverpool’ s past.
5 https:// www. liverpoolmuseums. org. uk / about / respect-group 6 https:// www. liverpoolmuseums. org. uk / news / of-people-and-place
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Observing Memories ISSUE 9