Key Themes: Preservation is often framed as an inherently benevolent act, yet too frequently it reproduces power dynamics that marginalize the very communities it purports to protect. This project actively rejects archival practices that extract memory while denying present-day voice. Instead, it frames preservation as a process of reparation and re-centering. In Black communities like Daufuskie, documentation must go beyond capturing visual surfaces—it must reckon with erasure, displacement, and the politics of visibility. Preservation should not only remember the past but actively restore the conditions for autonomy, inviting descendants and current residents to define the future of their spaces.
Methodological Implications: By refusing a neutral stance, this methodology demands a shift in institutional frameworks: from archival accumulation to ethical co-governance. It advocates for preservation as a process that is accountable to the living—not just historians or funders. This approach positions documentation as the first phase in a broader reparative arc, one that channels resources and legitimacy toward communities whose histories have been devalued. Preservation becomes a political act: not only what is captured, but how it is used to support local control, cultural resurgence, and infrastructural investment.
Takeaway: Preservation is not about freezing time. It is about restoring power. In Black cultural spaces, documentation must do more than remember—it must protect, empower, and resource the future.