An uncertain remaking: Changing the Hout Bay Museum, 1979 -2013
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Date
2014
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University of the Western Cape
Abstract
This mini-thesis is premised on the notion that museums in the past operated from a platform of certainty. Objects had always been the heart and soul of museums and were seen to provide factual evidence, especially in establishing cultural hierarchies. In South African museums, objects were used to represent and signify the progress of those who supposedly had origins in Europe, while subaltern classes were depicted in ethnographic displays where they were locked in time. Since 1994, a new certainty for museums had been demanded. Museums have been called upon to become what is called �inclusive� in their collections, displays, exhibitions and general museum practices and processes. This created a certainty
from which they had to transform their institutions, thus making them relevant to the broader community. The Hout Bay Museum, in responding to these demands for transformation, encountered many challenges. In the re-thinking, re-imaging and re-making of the museum, they were continuously faced with the tension between certainty and uncertainty. In the many phases of re-making the museum, they resorted to add-ons; adding the stories of previously excluded people, first on a temporary basis and then through new permanent exhibitions, the latter, being part of a complete renovation of the museum. It was during this final phase of
transformation that human remains were discovered in the museum storeroom. This created a great deal of uncertainty as the museum did not know how to respond to the remains, especially during the debates and contestation on human remains, repatriation and reburial as a way of respecting and restoring the dignity of death
Description
Magister Artium - MA