You may have noticed something different at the top center of the page. As of today, we’ve officially changed the name of our initiative. What was once known as Memory of War and Peace is now Heritage of War and Peace.
This wasn’t a decision we made lightly. In July, our team came together to reflect on how we describe our work. Was memory the right word? Or is heritage a better fit? Both terms felt meaningful, but in different ways.
Memory is active. It’s something we do, both individually and collectively. It’s shaped by intention, emotion, and politics. Memory can be commemorative, but it can also be contested. It is often instrumentalized, used to serve particular narratives or agendas. Memory is powerful, but also fragile.
Heritage is something we inherit. It encompasses the tangible and intangible. It is broader, but no less important. Heritage is what survives, what is passed down, what endures but also what needs to be protected. It is not only what we remember, but how we carry those memories forward.
In truth, neither word is perfect. Both are true, and yet fall just short. Our initiative exists in the space between remembering and preserving, between questioning the past and shaping the future. We interrogate dominant narratives, but we also work to safeguard what might otherwise be lost.
Ultimately, we chose heritage not because it is better, but because it offers more room. It allows us to exist in the complexity of this discourse. It invites dialogue. It acknowledges that what we inherit is not fixed, but shaped by how we engage with it. Heritage is not just what we receive, but what we choose to carry, reinterpret, and transmit.
In that sense, heritage is what we make of our memories.