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256 PáL GÉZA BALOGH — LUCA KASZÁS — REBEKA MÁRTA Kiss
Over the years, we have also increasingly found ourselves in a mediating role. As
the number of people moving into the municipality has increased, more and more
situations have arisen where it has fallen to us to help resolve conflicts arising from
cultural differences. This was not a conscious part of the mission of our evolving
institution from the outset, but was rather rooted in everyday situations, such as
explaining the local perspective to newcomers or the perspective of newcomers to
our indigenous friends. Here again, the anthropological approach was an important
guide, which is why we consciously avoided taking sides in the conflicts that arose,
but rather focused on mediation. As such situations multiplied, we realized that
this had to be a conscious mission.
In the previous section, we have already emphasized the merging of action
research and community development. The interconnection of personal stories
forms a community at a new level: through memory. It is this memory, and the
power of memory, that we want to harness in the rebuilding of the Old Cottage.
A very tangible and understandable example of this idea is the collection and
donation of objects to be exhibited. Initially, we put out calls to collect surplus
objects in and from Kóspallag for the exhibition of the new village museum and
we also tried to be vigilant when vacant old houses were emptied and things
considered as rubbish were put out to be cleared away, looking for typical objects
that would enrich the exhibition. But the initial calls were increasingly replaced
by reguests and donations from members of the community: "Do you need an
old chest of drawers?”, “And do you have one like this in the country house?”. The
number of requests and donated artifacts kept growing and almost caused a storage
problem; it shows that the people of Köspallag are increasingly taking ownership
of the Old House and want to contribute to the exhibition of the history of the
community and the village with their personal objects, each one with a story to
tell. Although the renovation work is making it difficult to store the objects, and
our team is still lacking someone who could take over the management of the
museological branch, the institution, which is still in its infancy, already has a
growing collection of museological objects.
Not only in the multitude of material donations, but also in the success of our
one-off, more direct community development events, the intertwining of the people
of Késpallag and the Old Cottage team is a testament to the success of the project.
One of these was the Storytelling Photos’ event in the winter of 2019, where we
interviewed the elderly about the photos taken 60 years ago by ethnographer Lajos
Takacs. The photos started the process of remembering, the elderly started telling
stories and explaining the pictures, and the young people were eager to ask them
about the topics that interested them. It was a breakthrough for the two groups:
the older members of the population became aware that the ‘young people in the
country cottage’ were genuinely interested in the past and present of Késpallag. It
is a good example of how sharing local knowledge is the perfect basis for a range
of events that can effectively serve to bring generations together.
The village meeting organized by the “old house team”, via a facilitator, was
equally successful and forward-looking. It strengthened communication and links
within the village. Its aim was to reflect together on the concept of the Old House,
based on the population's opinions, perceptions and needs. It also gave a chance
for those participants to voice their opinions who were unable to volunteer, due
to their circumstances, but for whom the programmes mean a lot.