In 1966 the residents of District Six, a mixed area in the heart of the city, were forcibly moved to remote and barren areas on the Cape Flats. They were given little warning of their eviction and many left with little more than a single suitcase.

To help the District Six Museum mark this important anniversary, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) Cape Town used the symbol of the suitcase as a way of telling the stories of those whose lives were so brutally disrupted.

Working with the museum and with some of the remaining evictees, the agency found several vintage 1960s suitcases and filled them with items from the era including personal items, books, clothing, valuables, actual photographs and apartheid-era identity documents with racial designations like ‘Cape Coloured’ and ‘Bantu’.

These suitcases were placed on the international and domestic baggage carousels at Cape Town International Airport where they were exposed to a captive audience of 23 000 people per day.
  
Custom-made luggage tags, each telling an individual eviction story and offering a discount on entry to the museum, were tied onto incoming suitcases. O&M also took some of the original District Six evictees to the airport to share their stories with visitors one-on-one. 

O&M Cape Town executive creative director Tseliso Rangaka believes there is extraordinary emotional power in the idea of a suitcase that contains all your worldly possessions. 

“It’s a window into a life and the decisions that had to be made in a rush about what to pack and what to leave behind. We believe this was a really impactful way to tell such an important story,” he says.

Bonita Bennett, director of the District Six Musuem, says; “It is so often that historical events are just that - history. People forget to listen and learn from the past and by doing so they lose their understanding of a very trying time in our country. By sharing these very crucial stories and providing a platform for evictees to tell their stories we are opening a window to our past that has great meaning for how we can choose to live in the future.”

Luca Gallarelli, managing director at O&M CT, said this campaign was the latest in a long-standing relationship with the District Six Museum. 

"Our office in Woodstock borders District Six and we want to ensure that we are genuinely connected to, and engaged with, the space in which we work every day,” says Gallarelli.

A video of the campaign can be seen here.

For more information, visit www.districtsix.co.za. Alternatively, connect on Facebook or on Twitter.

*Image courtesy of District Six Museum