A CRITICAL APPROACH TO EDINBURGH’S DIFFICULT HERITAGE

The city of Edinburgh has been the setting for many topics of difficult heritage throughout history. This project sought to explore two of those topics, the city’s deaf history and slave trade history, through a critical lens in the form of heritage trails. These heritage trails were developed for and presented to clients- the deaf history trail for Deaf Action and the slavery trail for Leith Custom House. 

The history of marginalized communities is often hidden in a city’s history or interpreted in a way that conceals the more difficult aspects. The histories of Edinburgh’s deaf community and the city’s involvement in the slave trade is no exception to this. These trails use a critical approach to make these difficult heritage topics visible to a wider audience. The deaf heritage trail includes elements of co-design and production to explore the narrative of the city’s deaf history as expressed by the deaf community. The slavery trail dissects the current narratives of slavery in Edinburgh and explores heritage as a process or dialogue, highlighting elements of slavery still central to the city and inviting the visitor into the conversation of what should be done with monuments related to difficult heritage.