Award winning, beautiful and important, the exhibitions and experiences engage the senses as much as the mind. Huge thought and care has gone into every detail at !Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre creating what some people aptly call the embassy to the San.

The museum is created by San community members, academics, consultants and designers from near and far. The process was co-ordinated by Dr Chris Low, Museum Director. Chris works with Magdalena Lukas the newly appointed curator; Magdalena is a San woman from the Kalahari and graduated from the Univercity of Sol Plaatjes in Kimberley in 2021.

Based on extensive San community consultation and co-curation, exhibitions range from First People origins, folklore, art and archaeology, to colonial encounters and current life. The centre piece is a specially designed building the Way of the San. Carefully placed in a ridge facing the Atlantic, it was designed by Geoff George of KLG Architects who are based in Rondebosch. It combines new technology, design and museum trends with old wisdom.

Chris’ work at !Khwa ttu involves joint projects with institutions around the world, including Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum, Yale Peabody Museum and Harvard University.

Just for Culture Connect, Dr Chris Low will give a tour/talk just before he returns back to Oxford University where he is a Research Associate. This is a first for us!

Our hosts are the General Manager, Michael Daiber, and Baby Rose Vilander, the Tourism Manager who has been involved from the start in 1999. Our morning focuses on the exhibitions, but we hope to be able to pop into the //Kabbo Acadamy, the training centre at !Khwa ttu.

The food and drinks in the restaurant have been carefully and locally sourced. The chef and waiting staff are brilliant, refreshing and authentic. Homemade bread, butter, cordials…locally sourced game, cheeses and alcohol, herbs from the garden and so on. As lunch is very much part of the Centre, it is included it our experience there (wheat free and vegan catered for).

This is Culture Connect’s third event here; the last one was 4 Oct 2018, just after the new museum opened. During Covid the Centre spent a lot of time and effort in developing their offer, especially the restaurant and experiences. There is no longer the cultural village. A new archive and exhibition space have just opened.

The story of the San, is all our story too.

• Grootwater Farm R27, Yzerfontein 7351 - An hour’s drive from Cape Town (you can see Table Mountain on a clear day!)
• Fri 21 Oct 2022 10am to 2:30pm
• Cost: R600 pay pre 10 Oct, then R750 each; this includes entrance, welcome home brewed foraged drink, tours/talks, three course lunch and briefing emailed prior
• You might like to stay on afterwards to do an another experience, such as tea tasting (the veld pharmacy), tracking (reading the signs), Encounters (when cultures collide); R180 per person; 45 mins. You could stay the night in their guest house or one of the lodges. There are mountain bike trails too
• RSVP: kate@cultureconnectsa.com