Monuments and plaques are generally created to celebrate events and people, so how do we memorialise difficult and contested histories?

Featuring a panel of artists, academics, tour guides and independent researchers and facilitated by Dr Rosie Spooner, this discussion takes as its starting point displays and shows of foreign people, such as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and the ‘West African Village’ built for the Scottish National Exhibition of 1911. These events promoted racist views of non-European peoples and cultures, which raises questions about whether they should be commemorated. This conversation relates to prescient debates about what is and what is not acknowledged and remembered in the built environment, particularly when it comes to addressing the history of slavery, colonialism, imperialism and empire.

Presented as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2020.