It's safe to say that my experience changed my view of the world, and I was beyond grateful when Professor Juliette Leeb du Toit offered me a PhD position at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The term refers to the Boers who left the Cape Colony between 1830 and 1845 in search of independence from the British.
INTRODUCTION
Aim
My focus is the period 1980-2007 and how museum staff members experienced the Transformation. Comparing different exhibitions and collections over time reveals how museums relate to Transformation and change.
Names of events, groups, museums and objects
The term 'cultural groups' (The Witness) is used in the media, and also found in government sources (www.info.gov.za/aboutsa/artscult.html#architecture,www.info.gov.za/speeches htm ); but the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities Act 19 of 2002 uses the term 'communities'. For example, Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities Act 19 of 2002 indicates that I consulted the law as a primary source.
THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
- The field
- Time and the structuration theory
- Post-structuralism, space, place and new museology
- Previous research
Important in this context is the discussion of the other in the new museology and the relationship between. The Bulletin of the South African Museum Association (SAMAB) is one of the most important journals used in this work to reveal the trends of Transformation in South African museums.
A POLITICAL BACKDROP TO TRANSFORMATION OF SOUTH
Transformation in museums
The museum transformation is connected with other reconstructive directions of society, and they all have in common an attempt to liberate museums and the cultural political discourse of Eurocentrism. Corsane (2004: 7) believes that transformation broadens the understanding of heritage and the understanding that heritage resources must be managed in an integrated way.
Cultural, historical and political background to Transformation
White heritage takes many forms in South Africa and is connected to the language and landscape of people who live in the country. This is particularly evident in government speeches, for example when Duma (2007) describes colonialism as 'the inequalities created by the demons of apartheid and colonialism' and states that 'Our languages, culture, beliefs, customs and all other positive practices of our communities was brought to nothing'.
MULTIPLE EXPLANATIONS OF TRANSFORMATION
A European structure in Africa
The museum was subject to colonial legislation and decisions were made by museum administrators established at the same time (Pauw 1994: Appendix A, NMAR 1904). The museum was transferred in 1946 from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Education (MIVM.
Towards segregated museums
This proposal became central to the expansion of the Msunduzi Museum (VM) in the 1980s, when the exploration of Afrikaner heritage led to a greater professionalization of the museum. Museums were only partial repositories of white nationalist ideologies due to the fact that museums and the government had trouble defining white heritage.
Towards transformed museums
Oberholzer and Pauw (1994: Appendix) note that the act came into force in 1984 and that seven of the 18 national museums under the Department of National Education (under the Cultural Institutions Act 29 of 1969) became 'own affairs' and was transferred to the department of. The Natal Museum was also classified as 'own affairs' and displayed both Indian and African heritage.
Transformation – a struggle for power
The Director General of the Department of National Education put 'his stamp on it' and my informant described it as giving it the 'kiss of death' and making it read like a public service document. What Odendaal (1994) and Odendaal et al (1994) discussed was the function of museums in relation to the larger society. The structural changes in the museum sector influenced the Natal Museum to evaluate their work.
Making museums democratic
When asked what he was most proud of when he retired from the Msunduzi Museum (VM), Director Pols said it was changing the museum 'to reflect what it should reflect - that of the province and the country cultures' (Von Klemperer. Dominy (2000: 3) describes this process by saying 'the great elephant of culture finally gave birth to a mouse'. The Msunduzi Museum (VM) stated that they strove to attract new audiences through improving service delivery (VMAR 2002/2003) ).
What was Transformation?
Multiculturalism is one of the most important aspects of museum change, and according to my informant Gustav, it was when the Curatorium was multicultural that Transformation in the Natal Museum was started. Although the appointment of multicultural staff was expected and considered necessary, there was increasing dissatisfaction in the Natal Museum with BEE. For one of my informants, the multicultural work environment meant that 'The museum was no longer a strange space in the eyes of many African people in Pietermaritzburg' (letter from Mlondi.
CONTESTED PLACE AND CONTESTED MUSEUMS
Museums in the urban landscape
I argue that essential to Transformation is how "cultural groups" function differently in relation to the museum as a space located in the urban landscape. The colored are not mentioned in the early annual reports and little is known about their relationship to the museum. Africans were temporary "visitors" in the white city, and the Native (Urban Areas) Act of 1923 and its 1937 amendment placed African residential areas away from the city.64 This meant that museums operated in the white urban landscape. .
The Natal Museum – an anglophile monument?
- Transforming the Natal Museum
Yates writes that the taxonomic principle of science underlies the provision of culture in museums. The spatial organization of the museum was a materialization of racial politics by creating exclusive White areas. These children narrated and interpreted new meanings and transformed the concept of the museum.
The Msunduzi Museum Incorporating the Voortrekker Complex
- The Blood River Heritage Site
- The Oldest House and the Andries Pretorius House
- Zaylager and Amajuba
- Ncome Museum
- Spatial Transformation of the Msunduzi Museum
The museum as a place materialized as a manifestation of the Afrikaner's right to exist in South Africa past and present. In the 1980s this was part of the museum's renegotiation and attempt to expand the concept of African identity. Msunduzi Museum is currently trying to establish a new association of the Oldest House.
Name
- The Natal Museum
- Msunduzi Museum Incorporating the Voortrekker Complex
96 She agreed that the museum could change its name, but that the name of the Voortrekker complex should not change. If we compare this with the letter from Pols, it is clear that the museum has already decided what the name should be. He also said that in 2003 the board of directors of the museum was mostly made up of non-African members.
What was Transformation of place?
Despite this assurance, Dlamini managed to forget that the museum was now called the Msunduzi Museum Incorporating the Voortrekker Complex and called it the Msunduzi Museum, causing some displeasure among some staff. Because whites used political power to subjugate and control other groups, this subtext was used in the museum. The educational departments of both museums are reshaping students' perceptions of the museum and making it a place of its own.
COLLECTIONS CAPTURED IN TIME
Contested collections
This collection was about belonging and was a materialization of African values placed 'in' the specific time of collection and formed the framework for a tradition of collection. Donations were important to the museum and the police authorities played a major role in the Natal Museum's collection process. Much later, the director of the Natal Museum told The Natal Witness that 'the collections of the Natal Museum are so large that they have been scattered in old exhibitions or not shown at all' (Rennie.
Collections during apartheid
The law therefore positioned the museum as an instrument at the core of the Union's cultural activities. In this case, the status of the museum vis-à-vis the government cannot be doubted. This must be seen in relation to the fact that whites were considered members of the republic.
Towards transformed collections
In the 1970s, the Msunduzi Museum (VM) encouraged people to donate objects and therefore formed a group to try to improve its collection (VMAR 1972). In the museum, heritage was connected to the public and was therefore an extension of the self. There was a discrepancy between the development in the Natal Museum and the Niemand report (1975) which suggests that cultural history – White history – should form separate museums.
Collections in an emerging Transformation
Therefore the museum for the first time began to acquire objects from the Zulu culture to fill gaps in the collection (NMAR 1988/1989). The museum showed an exploration of what he considered to be Zulu culture and a renegotiation of identity. It was more important for the museum to collect material culture and fill gaps in the collection than to consider the intangible meanings associated with such activity.
Collections in a changing socio-political environment
However, in 1992 the Natal Museum launched Amandla – the struggle for rights and freedom,112 a collection of apartheid paraphernalia113 that began around 1989 when Natal Museum historian Graham Dominy visited the US to investigate how museums promoted reconciliation between former enemies, classes, race and society (Dominy & Khoza. The question is whether the material culture in the collection is relevant to society as a whole because it was Africans who collected it. Dominy told The Echo: 'The museum accepts that this is not yet the complete story , and are eager to get more material so that all parties and viewpoints can feel involved and that their stories are included' (Maqetuka 1993).
Collections in the time of democracy
The museum was interested in a holistic approach to the political parties and trade unions that all played important roles in the history of the region (Cembi 1992). I suggest that Pols's statement may illustrate a feeling that he lost control over the self-presentation117 – the Voortrekker collection – when the museum was transforming. The meaning given to the material culture and collection also forms the meaning of the museum.
Reclassifying collections
The collection was a way of keeping order between the self and the other and what was once a system of classification became a symbol of oppression. It was not the indigenous classification system emphasized by Transformation, but a Eurocentric knowledge system that assumed power over the material. This suggests that more knowledge of Western-made objects was gained in order to construct a classification system such as Chenhall's.
Collections in Transformation
Collection objectives for display purposes have resulted in a fruitful relationship, eg, with the local Indian Hindu community, and the museum's interest in the group has resulted in donations to the museum. The politics of the Natal Museum collection renegotiated socio-political structures, exploiting them within the framework of the museum. They also followed other government policies, eg, the transformation budget guidelines suggesting that the collections would lead to a more complete representation of the national wealth, including aspects of tangible and intangible heritage (Transformation Budget Guidelines and Framework transformation, undated).
What was Transformation in collections?
They depend on questions asked ‘in’ the time of classification, reposition objects and information and reveal details about society. Donated objects resulted in minor documentation and loss of information which, in regard to African material culture, has been criticised during Transformation as a misinterpretation of heritage. During Transformation community projects, amasiko and a greater awareness of the museums has resulted in donations from Indians and Africans.
SOCIAL SPATIALISATION MANIFESTED IN DISPLAY
- Early times
- Apartheid
- New directions
- Finding a new self and a new other
- Displaying a new nation
- Towards the present
- What was Transformation in displays?
Mkhize and Mapalala (2002) write that the exhibitions127 in the Msunduzi Museum (VM) were not inclusive and that Africans were stereotyped to realize a role as obstacles in the progress of the white population. The above writers refer to ways in which African history was presented in the museum. The first exhibition in the Natal Museum (1904) was a natural history exhibition with specimens from the Natal Society, which Ernest Warren129 turned into a more scientific exhibition, but the public did not approve and considered Warren narrow-minded (Stuckenberg 1988: 160) .
LOST IN TRANSFORMATION – A CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
A complex Transformation
Contested museums
- The Natal Museum
- The Msunduzi Museum Incorporating the Voortrekker Complex
- Contested names
Collections and time
