22/08/2013
Below is a rough draft of a document seeking support for the concept
outlined in skeletal form in the draft. The group involved includes
IRASA, various free-thinking and 1st Nation associating professionals
and artists from the region, the remnants of my iBuyambo Music-Art
Exhibition & Workshop Cultural Centre (which was destroyed in a
suspicious fire last year in the city centre). "iBuyambo" (myself and
associates) comes with the experience of developing The Base (88
Shortmarket St) - CT's 1st truly open genre free art/dance/social
space in the 80's, and Angels-Detour-Bronx entertainment complex which
spawned the "gay" de Waterkant Village, a recognised comfort zone for
gay friendly people of all backgrounds. WE are just putting it out
there for discussion, and inclusive input. We are in possession and
have maintained and functioned the Oude Moulin Community Hall for over
15 years now, but the D.A.'s Dept of Public Works have decided to try
and remove us now.
_____
Regarding our Heritage application and intention to establish and
develop a comprehensive “CARE” (Culture Arts Recreation Education)
Centre , a 1st Nation associating facility at Oude Moulin Eco-Village
and Two Rivers Wetland, to express our cultural voice and in a free,
versatile, and quality resourced environment, with space for growth,
to share in with South Africans and visitors of all cultures.
This is not a request, simply an expression of our hard won right
after the fall of Apartheid and the recognition that land theft and
cultural enslavement and genocide through armed conquest is immoral,
unjust, and illegal by todays (convenient) new standards (since they
already took the land and didn't ‘give it back’ before making the new
property rights laws). The various communities referred to as 1st
Nation have virtually no cultural representation outside of
‘prehistory’ and ‘primitive’ references and museum set-piece
embarrassments. No language representation in our sacred 11 official
SA languages. No socio-economic-political-cultural-educational forum
to maintain ancient current and connect with contemporary associated
culture and develop and grow this. And no official heritage trust area
in Cape Town for the Cape Khoi in their homeland and ancestral burial
ground along the Two Rivers.
We are already in possession (over 15 years now) of, and have been
maintaining the main community hall and other buildings and
surrounding space and parking, horse and vegetable farm, swimming pool
and braai area with stage, and of course, a security controlled
entrance, surrounding security wall and ring road, with plenty of open
tree-lined, grassy space. We are not inclined to land conquest or
party political corruption. Our culture is one of shared
non-possessive, collaborative and creative compassion, and honest,
courageous curiosity and shared learning, with ego’s more balanced
with the needs of nature and sustainability of our common resources.
We would prefer not to take the conflict route to our goal with
marches, mass occupations and stand-offs, with all the waste of time
and resource, and people with aggressive and dishonest agendas taking
advantage. Rather in collaboration with a supportive cultural grant
under the safety and long term security of a 1st Nation Heritage
Trust. To have a place that connects Cape Town, to express, celebrate
and enjoy, question, and grow our culture from. To be maintained,
functioned and developed and participated in by all citizens guided by
a non-profit “artists co-op” and appointed committee of involved and
committed activist artists and professionals.
The Cape Khoi, who’s living space this was for 1000’s of years until
their land was stolen by the Dutch settlers armed with guns, have very
little, if anything to show from the ‘struggle’ and Mandela’s Legacy,
the resulting (1913 Native Land Act based) accord between and
benefitting only Anglo-American interests and (a few) Nguni (“black”)
and (most) European (“white”) based cultures and people regarded as
‘Coloured’ (mixed race with some dark skin in the mix – not to be
confused with ‘1st Nation culture’).
The area known as Oude Moulin Eco-Village connected to the Two Rivers
Wetland conservation area is an historically sensitive area, much
revered by the Cape Khoi, especially the Liesbeek River - known as the
Fresh River by Jan van Riebeek, who initially forced the local Khoi
under Autshumato’s (Harry – the interpreter) leadership to the
North-East side of, and then further away when he started ‘selling’
land (against the wishes of the V.O.C.) to the new ‘free burgers’,
causing the 1st real Khoi uprising under Doman’s leadership.
The area has a long history of usage (and still currently with various
local Cape Khoi and Khosa leaders still hosting their traditional
events there) by the incarcerated/exiled leaders of the original
inhabitants of this land. They used to hunt there together
The aboriginal cultures, however have never held ownership to be a
paramount issue, if collaborative and connective community cultural
growth options in an holistic form are the offer on the table. The way
1st Nation culture is expressed today is not through party politics
and business tender opportunities for a few. Not through “elected”
chiefs being given a govt. ‘traditional leader stipends’ to distract
themselves from their cultural responsibilities.
It is nice to see the use made of the area known as Kirstenbosch, near
the source of the Liesbeek (the adjacent lush suburbs firmly in the
hands of the super-wealthy), for the purpose of live music jazz and
rock concerts on Sunday evenings, in the middle of lush suburbia. Of
course this is mainly for those with private vehicles and large enough
wallets (not public transport convenient), and if a popular artist
with mainly a lower income group township support base wanted to
perform there, it wouldn’t be considered, but still, it is positive
usage with varied, cross-over and connective music culture as its
basis.
Oude Moulin is right in the centre of Cape Town actually, practically
connecting the M3 (Blue Route and N2 , and the M5 with the N1 and both
Voortrekker and Klipfontein Road arterials, very close to UCT, and
right on the Pinelands station, near Maitland, Salt River, and Mowbray
stations/ranks. Perfectly placed to connect the city including all
those that are unable to attend quality events at places like
Kirstenbosch, or the great new City Hall sessions, Gardens
Park/Waterfront free concerts or Club Med Camps Bay/Clifton large
screen and sun-downer party events, and of course the expense of (and
not always cheap transport friendly) venues around the city and
wealthier suburbs, like Artscape and Baxter theatres. And the huge
cost and liability of securing and setting up productions at these
venues is insurmountable to many, especially before the income from
the shows is available.
Oude Moulin connects the city’s so-called “black, white and coloured”
areas and is surrounded by large areas not residential in nature, the
balance of Valkenberg mental facility of which it formed a part of
including (max security for insane criminals) large horse fields and
the Two Rivers Wetland area , 3 large connecting highways, golf
courses, industrial and railway line, beside Garden Village township
that supports this proposal and would clearly benefit from it. It has
established buildings just needing renovation. All this is a perfect
(and the only) match for the requirements of our 1st Nation CARE
Centre.
It has not been earmarked for anything consistent by successive
council regimes for 20 years now, and the space will never be allowed
to be used for expensive housing development, apart from the unique
situation of poverty ridden Garden Village town-ship next door. There
is already a long established and activist community that lives there
and have maintained the buildings to a degree, and we already have 20
years of ‘possession’ in some cases, who have prevented inappropriate
development so far, and with whom various unsuccessful consultation or
railroading attempts have been made every 5 years or so, who also
support this initiative, and who helped establish the wetland area and
the eco-village with appropriate non-profit NGO’s like the Robins
Trust and Waldorf primary schooling facility, and creative
designer/self-production small ‘business’ that fits in to the future
intended usage.
It also perfectly suits the varied needs of the kinds of mixed
cultural events that include all-ages and genres of artistic
exhibitions and performance productions, educational language music,
history and cultural growth workshops and formal academic research and
discussion forum to achieve some consensus on what it means to be a
1st Nation associating person today, and how we can have an influence
over the collective future in ‘our own homeland’ that we are happy to
share with a growing CT ‘community’
The facility itself would include.(this list is long and
comprehensive, and a document unto itself), including facilities for
general administration, marketing, maintenance, catering, performance,
exhibition, art product creation and marketing, academic workshops
(music, language, history, socio-political-economic research forum),
some limited context-appropriate accommodation, and family/youth
recreational friendly facilities.inclding skateboard an With efficient
use of quality equipment and versatile maintenance and technical staff
we will keep costs low, while providing top quality international
production friendly and general service standards, reliably and
consistently to all who make the focused effort to create something
new and of interest and value, to encourage awareness where necessary,
to share with others seeking to learn, appreciate and celebrate other
peoples culture and creativity.
It would benefit especially artists that do not have the resources to
present their work on a quality platform and collaborate and workshop
with other artists, professionals and academics from all cultures and
genres of art. So these artist and academics don’t need to conform to
presently popular material to “succeed” and compromise their artistic
integrity to get bums on seats, no matter if the material is
controversial, discomforting and possibly initially unpopular. With a
broad range of different “markets” based in different communities that
overlap in some areas, a unique regular market of life participating,
open minded, curious and intelligently appreciative of new original
artistic expression and work develops, and so the potential market for
unknown artists is larger and more consistent, along with appropriate
media focus on the many events, exhibitions,
academic/music/language/etc workshops, lectures and symposiums and
generally regular, broad community-inclusive market-day weekends full
of events. 18hours/day 365days/year.
6 hours sleep is probably a bit too much as a standard for broader
CT’s cultural needs. Certainly different depts. of The Centre will
have different dynamics and time frame needs re performance,
exhibitions, and workshop times, and central common administration and
repair/maintenance staff (another obvious huge cost efficient reality
of this concept) etc, and general catering needs and potentially
overlapping event that can co-exist and feed off each other, or one
can flow into the next event with, some audience remaining to enjoy
the next event with the ‘new’ arriving audience.
There would certainly be an all hours on site shuttle and a 4am liquor
licence requirement, with the possibility of a central simple
accommodation for culture seeking tourists, small rooms, hostel, and
caravan/camping, for travelling performers to be cheaply housed, as
well as central admin, general marketing, product display and info
facility for locals and tourists and a large catering kitchen in the
community and central performance hall.
While we would expect assistance and motivational support, and of
course some long overdue grants and positive assistance from, the City
Council Arts and Culture Dept., the DA ME for Sport and Culture (under
who’s dept. Khoi ‘issues’ falls) , and of course National Arts and
Culture, and Traditional Leaders sources of funding, and we would hope
and expect for some local and international donor funding initially to
set-up, once we have ‘official’ security of tenure, it soon would be
reasonably self-sustaining, and development fund friendly, with some
popular artists ensuring full attendance and thus allowing the less
popular to be seen by the industry players on a recognised quality
platform.
While some artists they might not make as much immediate income ‘on
the night’ (the pricing being community market friendly), they are
ensured of the right exposure, and won’t generally have to worry about
the cost of anything but extra marketing and their
performance/exhibition, as the venue and production and catering
facility will be perfect and set up for all genres, indoor/outdoor
friendly and other “cross-over” mixed usage needs, with top quality
universally friendly for add-on tech equipment, for the special needs
of some artists and events. The factored cost is less than 30% of the
production costs of setting up individual events, and with much better
quality of sound, lights, décor ambience, set-up friendliness allowing
a mood of relaxed confidence and enjoyment and encouraging more social
interaction (blurring the lines) between performers and
‘spectators’,who we would like to see being more participant in the
creative process.
If this interest you and are in a position to help it reach fruition,
feel free to contact Glen Arendse @ UWC Admission Dept, Tony Cedras &
Tania Kleinhans @ IRASA, or myself via inbox or
[email protected], or Dizu Plaatjie of iBuyambo @ UCT College of Music.
