Published August 31, 2022
24 September marks
South Africa’s National Heritage Day. Initially the day was known as ‘Shaka’s
Day’, marking the death date of the legendary Zulu King who died in 1828. Every
year Zulu people from Kwa-Zulu Natal and beyond would gather at the Shaka
Memorial to honour him. Post 1996, this day was recognised as ‘Heritage Day’
and embraced the concept of a more unified nation with diverse cultural,
racial, and ethnic groups.
The Javett Art
Centre at the University of Pretoria (Javett-UP) opened its doors on 24
September 2019 to give access, provide platforms for multidisciplinary
dialogues, and discourses to various visitors in and around the City of
Tshwane. As Curator: Education Mediation, I have observed over the years how
Javett-UP has become a space that prides itself on critical approaches to
education around our exhibitions and artworks to engage different communities.
As such, each exhibition and artwork has become a starting point to
unpack various entry points of knowledge.
In the past three
years the Javett-UP, the Education Mediation Department has accomplished a
substantial number of programmes. We have reached over thousands of learners,
students and teachers and established multiple educational partners and
networks. In 2020, the National lockdown was put in place as a means to manage
the Covid-19 pandemic, Javett-UP continued to organise virtual public and
education programmes and collaborated widely with schools and institutions of
higher learning in South Africa and beyond. Our educational processes are
fundamental to our Curatorial projects. They encompass dialogical pedagogies
and intergenerational dialogues with language being the core stand that holds
these elements together.
During Women’s
Month 2022, we hosted the Mapula Embroideries Activation Programme which
included an artwork titled ‘Women of the Winterveld: Hands Become Voices for
our Planet’. It depicts Umlando and issues around climate change. On the
13th of August we invited the Mapula Embroideries artists (abomama), their
children (abantwana) and grandchildren (abazukulu) for an educational workshop.
We held a two-session process that included an intergenerational dialogue
conducted in IsiZulu, SeSotho, SeTswana, SePedi and SePetori languages, where
we unpacked the artwork followed by a tour of exhibitions currently showing at
the Javett-UP.
In these workshops
I was no longer Curator: Education Mediation, but rather the daughter of many
mothers, also, the mother of many children. The space allowed for izinganekwane
where, through storytelling, we organically learned about the process of
embroidery, and how abomama work collaboratively to achieve a beautiful and
colourful outcome. Part of this process entailed Angela, a seven-year-old, who spontaneously
recited a Women’s Day poem. The insistence that, during the serving of lunch,
abantwana should eat before abomama nullifyied the hierarchy that often happens
in intergenerational spaces.
As we facilitated a
tour of the Yakhali’Inkomo: The Bongi Dhlomo Collection currently at the
Javett-UP, abomama noticed a work labelled ‘Mapula Embroideries’ which they
identified as a work whose creation was facilitated by Doreen Mabuse, who
passed away in 2008. That particular moment allowed us to give ode to mam’Doreen
as an artist, grandparent, parent, friend, sibling, and daughter.
What does it mean
to write this on Heritage month from an educational perspective? I am
consistently reminded of Javett-UP’s Curatorial Vision which includes
positioning ourselves as a living school and an institution committed to
creating spaces of unexpected learning, collective learning and unlearning. It
further outlines our pedagogical initiatives as self-reflective rather than
illustrative. This is an example of the pedagogical moments and processes which
the curatorial aims to explore through our programmes.
This is just the
tip of the iceberg; we invite you to journey and grow with us as we reimagine
our futures.
Glossary
Inganekwane – An
indigenous folk tale which not only tells a story but is a learning tool,
probing questions and allowing for interaction and engagement.
Umlando – History.
abomama - mothers
abantwana –
children
abazukulu –
grandchildren
Mapula– Mother of
rain or rain queen
Puleng – In the
rain