MAPPING A LOST NEIGHBOURHOOD: DISTRICT SIX

How do you tell the story of a place when so much of the physical evidence of that place has disappeared?

For the first of two films created for Global Digital Heritage Afrika, Iron Heart used the City of Cape Town’s remarkable collection of historical maps, aerial photographs, satellite imagery and GDHA’s digital mapping to tell the story of District Six through its changing landscape.

The film traces the development of the area from the late 1800s, through its growth into a densely populated and vibrant Cape Town neighbourhood, to the devastation that followed its declaration as a white area under apartheid’s Group Areas Act.

From 1967, residents were forcibly removed and homes, businesses and community spaces systematically demolished. Through imagery captured over different periods, we can see that destruction unfolding across the landscape.

The film then brings the story into the present through GDHA’s digital heritage work, preserving a record of District Six and helping future generations understand not only what was lost, but where it once stood.