On 17 August 2013 Cape Town artist and activist Haroon Gunn-Salie executed a series of temporary artworks by changing the 'Zonnebloem' road signs in central Cape Town to read 'District Six'.
The date marked the centenary of the 1913 Natives Land Act in South Africa.
Seven years later, all street signs for Zonnebloem in Cape Town remain renamed 'District Six' through this intervention.
The filmed artwork 'Zonnebloem renamed' is described as "a brazen attempt by Gunn-Salie to change apartheid and colonial heritage that dominates peoples popular memory in Cape Town and South Africa, through artwork, social action and intervention".
It forms part of the line-up for IOL's Youth Day Mini Film Festival, which sees a specially curated selection of documentaries and features about youth activism and topical issues being made available on the IOL website for free for the 24 hours of June 16. We are calling on you to use the day to pause and watch your rise.
WATCH ZONNEBLOEM RENAMED BELOW
The short film forms part of the Gunn-Salie's ongoing collaboration with District Six residents titled WITNESS. "District Six was a closely-knit, vibrant and multicultural community until the forced removal by the apartheid decree during the 1970s from Cape Town’s city center, when the area was declared ‘whites only’ under the Group Areas Act in 1968. During this time, District Six was officially renamed by the apartheid government as Zonnebloem. The renaming further erased the history of the area and people from maps, memories and public spaces," says Gunn-Salie.
* IOL's Youth Day Mini Film Festival selection also includes Professor Siona O’Connell’s documentary The Wynberg 7: An Intolerable Amnesia about a group of high school students imprisoned in the 80s, Weaam Williams’award-winning film Hip Hop Revolution; UPRIZE by Sifiso Khanyile, about June 16, 1976, what came before and the impact of that day; Rehad Desai's look at the #FeesMustFall movement entitled Everything Must Fall and more.
Watch along with us this Youth Day and reflect on where we have come from and the battles ahead.