Friends of Iziko SA Museum - July 2014 Newsletter

FRIENDS OF IZIKO

the fossil record, and will appreciate them as once living animals that conquered the air when dinosaurs ruled our planet.

SOUTH AFRICAN

MUSEUM

Non-Profit Organisation 052-511-NPO Postal address: P O Box 61 Cape Town 8000 South Africa Physical address: 25 Queen Victoria Street Cape Town SA Phone: 021 481 3913 Fax: 021 481 3993 Cell: 072 225 6893 E-mail: samfriends@iziko.org.za Website http://www.iziko.org.za/; http://www.iziko.org.za/ static/page/friends-of-the-south-african-museum Facebook facebook.com/FriendsofIzikoSAMuseum Twitter @FriendsSAMuseum

NEWSLETTER – JULY 2014 Now that the shortest day of the year has passed we can not only look forward to longer days, but also to many interesting lectures and outings.

WHAT’S AHEAD FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THIS YEAR? The programme for the second half of 2014 has many excellent and interesting lectures and excursions in store thanks to the energetic and creative committee members, as well as the very welcome suggestions that we get from our members. We are grateful to our members for these suggestions.

The lecture programme takes place as usual on the last Tuesday of each month. All lectures will be in the TH Barry Lecture Theatre at 19:00, unless otherwise advertised. Entrance is free to members on presentation of a valid 2014 membership card.

Visitors are asked for a donation of R30 per lecture.

LECTURE PROGRAMME

Tuesday 26 August Speaker: John Rae, National Director, Mercy Ships Title: Mercy Ships… bringing hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor Mercy Ships… celebrating 35 years of transforming lives and serving nations: 575 port visits, 2.47 million direct beneficiaries.

On board a hospital ship over 400 volunteers from around the world bring hope and healing to thousands of people who would never have believed it possible. In parts of Africa tens of thousands of people, from children through to the elderly, die every day from curable or treatable causes. Each day our volunteers treat life-threatening tumours, cleft lips, orthopaedic deformities and a host of other physical disabilities and do palate repairs and cataract removals – completely free of charge.

In addition to operating the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, Mercy Ships also manages a South Africa based programme, Mercy Vision South Africa, in the Eastern Cape. Since 2010 Mercy Vision South Africa has been training South African eye care professionals with an annual goal of helping 3 300 blind people to regain their sight, vastly impacting on the lives of the visually impaired in the region.

Tuesday 30 September: TBA

Tuesday 29 July Speaker: Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan Title: Pterosaurs – Denizens of the air Millions of years before birds and bats, Pterosaurs, the flying reptiles took to the skies. Ranging in size from a sparrow to a F-16 fighter jet, these reptiles had a unique flying kit and unusual lifestyles. This illustrated talk will explore the life and times of Pterosaurs as gleaned from

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Tuesday 28 October Speaker: Professor JP van Niekerk Title: The Baptists and the bootleggers: why drugs should be decriminalised In the early 19th century in the USA two unlikely groups, the Baptists and the bootleggers, persuaded states to ban liquor on Sundays which eventually led to the era of Prohibition. The Baptists (representative of conservative religions) wanted liquor banned as it was sinful, while the bootleggers were delighted that restrictions cut out their competitors. We examine why people, given the same information, come to such opposing conclusions, examine the effects of the war on drug and consider evidence to improve the management of this major international problem.

OUTINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2014 Design and making (the story of food) Marjorie Naidoo, of the Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI) and an exhibition project manager, will lead a walkabout of this unusual and interesting exhibition which tells the story of the preservation and storage of food from antiquity to the present with a series of innovative modern installations, with some treasures from Iziko Social History Collections.

Fired – an exhibition of South African ceramics To celebrate South Africa’s rich and diverse legacy of ceramic making, Iziko’s Social History Collections Department opened this exhibition on South African ceramics in February 2012 at the Castle of Good Hope. It is housed in a 17th century space built as a grain store for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). This is an evocative space which resonates with the beauty of the ceramics it now houses.

The exhibition showcases more than 200 ceramic works from the holdings of the Social History Collections and includes examples of the earliest indigenous pottery made in South Africa, going back some 2 000 years, through to contemporary creations. Fired focuses on ceramics made by rural African potters, studio potters, production potteries and contemporary ceramic artists in South Africa.

The exhibition also gives material reflection to the bringing together of collections separated during the Apartheid era.

Collected over a period of more than a hundred years, the ceramics include items from archaeological excavations, fieldtrips, private donations, sponsorships and purchases from commercial galleries and auctions, or directly from artists.

Esther Esmyol, a curator in the Social History Collections Department, will take the Friends around this interesting exhibition following the Design and Making walkabout.

Date: Wednesday 16 July Time: 10:30–12:30 Venue: Castle of Good Hope Cost: Members: R65; Non-members: R75.

(Includes entrance fee to the Castle) Numbers are limited; your booking will be secured by your payment in full.

WALKABOUT AROUND THE CASTLE OF GOOD HOPE: Wednesday 6 August 10:30 Join Iziko educator at the Castle, Lungile Gadezweni, for a morning walkabout at the Castle of Good Hope and discover some different aspects of this historic building. The VOC and its establishment will be explained, the settlement at the Cape and interaction with locals. A highlight of the two sites will be a walk around the Fort and the Castle followed by a visit to the Provost Cells and torture chambers. At the Military Museum we will look at locals versus the new arrivals, South African Wars – Frontier Wars, Zulu Wars and Anglo-Boer Wars.

At the William Fehr Collection special focus will be on William Fehr himself, his artworks and its display at the Castle of Good Hope. The visit will end with the Key Ceremony at 12:00.

Cost: Members - R55; non-members R65 (includes entrance to the Castle)

OUTING TO WELLINGTON: TUESDAY 22 JULY We have arranged a very interesting day outing to Wellington where we will experience three quite different places.

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Participants will meet at J Sedgwick Distillery at 10:00 for a tour of South Africa’s only whiskey distillery where we will learn how this tipple is made. Even if you don’t drink whiskey, it will be interesting.

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After this we will head for Welbedacht, a wellknown wine farm in the area for lunch at their restaurant – No 6 – which is being specially opened for the Friends; they are normally closed on a Tuesday. Lunch is for your own account; there are numerous delicious dishes to choose from and there is a 20% discount on all food items so the cost should be reasonable.

After lunch we will visit an Alpaca farm – a ten minute drive from the restaurant. Here we will learn about these fascinating animals, which come in 22 different natural colours, and see how their wool is processed, from shearing to the final garment. As this farm is a cottage-based industry the shearing, spinning, weaving and production of various clothing items is all done in-house using labour from the surrounding community.

Cost: Members – R100 and Non-members – R130

THE BIG FIVE IN CENTRAL CAPE TOWN: SUNDAY 21 SEPTEMBER It’s been two centuries or more since any of the Big Five were spotted in central Cape Town – or has it?

A safari sets off on Sunday 21 September to show you the unlikely lairs of the wild beasts of old Africa, some of which survive to enthrall modern tourists. But there is much more: dragons and griffins, dogs and dolphins.

Public art and building facades are perches and refuges for an astonishing variety of creatures.

Join us on a gentle expedition of about two hours – no palanquins or howdahs will be provided. Have some fun and dress the part with your pith helmet and butterfly net.

Shoot if you must – but only with a camera. Just like the explorers of old, weather is no impediment.

Gather at the newly sited Cenotaph (corner Heeregracht/ Hertzog Boulevard) at 10:30 and Owen Kinahan will lead the meander to the Company’s Gardens for lunch just after noon.

Cost: Members – R50; Non-members – R65 Details of the following outings will be provided closer to the time • Kirstenbosch special lecture – What Evolution is with Des Lazar on Tuesday 21 October • Day trip to Donkergat • Weekend in the Kogelberg Nature Reserve Booking and payment in advance is essential on all outings in order to secure your place as numbers are limited.

ROBBEN ISLAND: A GEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE – 29/30 August NB: THIS OUTING WAS FULLY SUBSCRIBED WITHIN FIVE DAYS

REPORTBACKS FOSSIL HUNTING IN THE FRASERBURG AREA After 21 fossil trips over the past 20-odd years it’s difficult to pinpoint which one was the best, suffice to say that this year’s outing to Fraserburg would be a strong contender for this honour. Thanks to the superb skills of Maxine in administration, Roger’s willingness to share his knowledge with amateur palaeontologists and Georgina’s culinary skills in the field, as well as the great food and service provided by Die Kliphuis – this outing was a great success.

The group was privileged to have three children join in the hunt. They seemed to really enjoy themselves, and were good fossil finders. It’s refreshing to have youngsters in our midst; who knows, perhaps one of them will become a palaeontologist or a scientist as a result of this experience.

Young fossil hunters at work The adventure began Wednesday evening 30 April with an early evening lecture by Roger outlining the programme and giving us a run-down of past events which led finally to the point where we hoped to uncover fossils of therapsids which walked the earth 260 to 245 million years ago.

We drove to various farms we would work on each day. It must be said the Karoo farmers have to be the nicest, most hospitable people in South Africa, if not in the whole world, allowing us on their property to dig up evidence of the past. Or, to put it differently, they don’t have a problem if a bunch of city slickers want to traipse around in the veld looking for something with no intrinsic value they hadn’t actually lost.

After a quick briefing by Roger, we would scatter in different directions, eyes down and toilet paper in hand

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to mark any finds for him to check on later. A number of interesting finds were made, but the best – by Georgina – was a complete skeleton of a Gorgonopsian – during the pre-trip recce.

We enjoyed another informative palaeotology lecture prior to dinner one evening, and a video on another evening.

Our last field day was hectic – digging in the morning, moving to a different farm for lunch, then on to re-visit the scattered skeleton found on last year’s Friends’ trip; finally ending at Gansfontein to view the dinosaur track ways and to enjoy sundowners before heading back for dinner and star gazing. Malcolm Cerfontein gave us a brief look-see at the heavens, using his powerful telescope set up in the Kliphuis garden, where, amongst other interesting heavenly bodies, we saw the rings around Saturn clearly.

PLATTEKLIP TRAIL WITH MATT WEISSE Twenty-five Friends and visitors met at The Homestead – probably better known as the Saturday morning market – at the corner of Orange and Sidmouth Streets to go on this excursion with Matt Weisse, who has a wide range of historical knowledge, which made for a very informative excursion. We started off at the Slave Bell tower in the grounds of the Homestead for an historical account about its earlier days as a general farm supplying the local population and victualing passing ships, employing seventy slaves. The bell itself was moved from the tower, first to Koopmans De Wet House, and then to the Castle.

All good things come to an end; we left for home after breakfast on the last day.

Finding fossils is both fun and rewarding. However, just being in the Karoo, enjoying congenial company, and learning from a world class scientist is a truly unique experience and a real privilege. Perhaps not everyone’s taste, but for those who appreciate nature at its best, Fossils 2015 will be for you.

Munro Bloch

Above and below: Group at work We drove from the meeting point to the top of Deerpark Avenue. From there we walked a short way up the river, stopping at the remains of a dam, then on to the ruins of the oldest and highest house on Table Mountain, hidden by overgrowth and trees. From there, it was all downhill, walking along a boardwalk for a short distance to visit an old Kramat, and finally stopping at the Council washouses, where washer women plied their trade until the end of the 19th century. En route we were lucky enough to spot a pair of Marsh Harriers – less than five minutes’ drive from the city.

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From the washhouses our route took us to Gorge Road, which we walked up, passing another Kramat close to St Cyprian’s school. We followed the same route the washerwomen walked on their way to work a century ago.

By now it was noon, just in time to meet an official from the Council Water Department, who allowed us into the area at the bottom of the Homestead farm to visit the old housings built to accommodate the outlets for some of the springs originating on Table Mountain.

This short description of this most interesting morning does not do justice to this outing. Most of us on this excursion are born and bred here, but had either never visited these historic places, or had no idea they existed, let alone know the history. The perfect weather – clear blue skies and a comfortable 21 degrees, coupled with our very knowledgeable guide Matt Weisse and congenial company made this an experience to be remembered for a long time.

RICHARD RETIRES After many years of service on the Friends committee Richard Borden has retired. Many of you will remember his cheerful service behind the drinks table at lectures. The committee we will miss his willingness to contribute to and planning of the Friends programme of activities each year. His retirement leaves a vacuum which will now need to be filled and we look forward to your ideas and nominations to fill this position.

Munro Bloch

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS It is a pleasure to welcome new members to the Friends and we look forward to meeting you all at future Friends activities.

Merle Falken Marlis Gallagher Maisie Jazbek Clive and Linda Lucas Maxine Davies Friends of Iziko South African Museum

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