Aegis Trust & Kigali Genocide Memorial

The Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre is built atop a mass grave, housing the remains of 250,000 Rwandans who were killed over three months in 1994. Like all such memorials, it is intended as an antidote to genocide itself — teaching us and moving us to ensure we will never again be detached and complicit.

But, for the most part, we remain unchanged. Virtually every visitor to a genocide memorial or holocaust museum can attest to overwhelming feelings of sympathy, sadness and outrage. Schoolchildren and world leaders alike leave speechless. But most visitors can also attest that they did nothing substantively differently as a result. The profound feelings genocide memorials elicit are a powerful fuel. So, what can we do to convert them into meaningful and sustainable action?

UX for Good changed to some degree what we were doing, but to a much greater degree, it changed how we were thinking. It was a moment of change that has had an enduring impact.

John Petrie

Director, Aegis Trust

To help answer this question, we partnered with Aegis Trust, the Kigali Genocide Memorial and the Rwandan people to develop a model that focuses on turning institutions that memorialize genocide into institutions that end it. With their help, we interviewed survivors, perpetrators, government officials, volunteers, visitors, teachers and students in Kigali, Rwanda and London. We made use of an array of resources, from experts on museum design to our own personal observations at the memorial site. But we were most inspired by the young people who visited and worked at the Memorial. In workshops and curricula, portable posters and personal stories, the next generation of Rwandans are figuring out how to convert the story of one of history’s worst genocides into hopeful action in their own lives.

After days of interviews, the designers developed a new model for memorializing genocides, one that leaves tourists inspired to get involved. The new model, called the Inzovu Curve, lays out a new journey from awareness to catalyzed action. The model includes three elements: the key stages needed to reach activation (pain, reflection, hope and action), the emotional experience (which can vary in terms of intensity across the different stages and according to the personality of the individual involved) and two key moments (epiphany and will) which are essential to successfully shift humans from awareness to action.

This work has challenged our thinking and resulted in consensus that visitors leaving KGM must be empowered by their experience to go away and take action.

Yves Kamuronsi

Country Director, Aegis Trust, Rwanda Genocide Survivor

Aegis Trust’s leaders in Africa and Europe have endorsed the Inzovu Curve model as a way of inspiring action against genocide. But we believe it has implications for all museums and memorials, not just those that commemorate atrocities. Therefore, while we continued to partner with Aegis Trust and the Kigali Genocide Memorial to further integrate the model into the visitor experience, we have also continued to refine the model based on new insight. For the first time, the Memorial put systems and metrics in place to begin measuring the visitor experience, and we have already seen some practical application of the model and its supporting recommendations, including:

• Dedicated space for a new stage of the exhibit called the “Room of Hope”
• Main exhibit and panels updated with an “After the Genocide” section to support stories of reconciliation at the end of the Children’s Room
• New entrance/reception building to include a briefing area where films will be shown as people arrive
• Visitor data collection, analysis and reporting
• Creation of new programs and services that extend Aegis Trust’s mission, the Memorial and advance the visitor experience

Our designers were Laurel Hechanova (Findery), Matt Franks (Austin Center for Design), Davide Casali (Automattic), Lee-Sean Huang (Foossa), Stephanie Sansoucie (Kohl’s Corp.), Sue Ngo (Brooklyn Research), Roberta Tassi (frog), and Zak Orner, Patrick DiMichele, and Stacey Harbin (all of Manifest Digital).

The team produced and shared a detailed report for Aegis Trust and the Kigali Genocide Memorial including additional partners and stakeholders important to the work.