Inspired by yesterday’s event, this morning I jotted the following paragraphs down. It’s early days yet, and at the mo I’m just playing around with ideas, but I have a feeling this could evolve into something quite major. I must admit I’m fascinated…

Let us start by noting that the term ‘history’ is here used to mean not ‘the past’, but the discourse of history: the collection of documents and artefacts through which we can build up an idea of what happened before the present moment. History is therefore not absolute but open to interpretation, depending on how one views or sees the evidence at hand. It also follows that one can only know something happened or existed in the past if it is recorded; great things may have happened before now which we are oblivious to, simply because they were not recorded. Thus we have historiography: the philosophical dimension of history, or the analysis of history as a discourse.

What, then, of those who exist outside of that discourse, who cannot access the means through which one is usually recorded? Many people with disabilities, both learning and physical, cannot express themselves in the Symbolic as easily as others might. Unable to tell their stories, they for the most part exist outside of history, ignored by the mainstream. Often they are shut away in institutions. Their historiography is therefore quite problematic: we know they existed, but how can they reclaim their history?