Interviewees were asked to choose a personal object or artifact that holds particular significance to them. Our purpose in the artifact exercise was to identify the stories of a pluralist cross-section of citizens, a group that has a voice that museums per se do not always represent. These examples prove the power of material evidence in storytelling, and offer a model of how the stories of community can be told through "things."
Mercedes Umana, from El Salvador

Occupation: Psychologist

Artifact: A pen, any pen.

"You can carry it with you and write all of your feelings, your accomplishments, your thoughts etc."

She has used one to write about "how women’s history should be written, their struggles, victories and sorrows. To express ideas of equality, no mater what colour, appearance, or culture. To express to government problems and solutions in order to better community.

mercedes van betty robert