How do you keep an independent museum going for 30 years? The District Six Museum in Cape Town might have an answer: through an understanding of the community they know and love. And donations of course.

Listen to this article 10 min Listen to this article 10 min 'The community museum." That's how the District Six Museum is described by its director Chrischene Julius. The museum, located in the Cape Town CBD, is a living monument to the people of District Six, who were forcibly removed during apartheid.

It first opened its doors on 10 December 1994 at the old Central Methodist Church in Buitenkant Street in Cape Town. The museum has since become a space where memory lives: it holds various remembrances such as suitcases and books about the once multicultural and multiracial community that thrived in the inner city.

It also hosts several programmes with residents who were forcibly removed under the apartheid regime's brutal forced removals. On 11 February 1966, the apartheid regime declared District Six a "Whites Only" area under the Group Areas Act. This meant "non" whites were forcibly removed to the Cape Flats - the city's "coloured" areas in Mitchells Plain and Hanover Park. Some "African" residents were moved to Langa.

There has since been an effort to remember the vibrant community through art or recording District Six residents' lived experiences.

"The one thing that for me is truly the...