Descendants of 1820 settlers who want to retrieve artefacts in the care of provincial museums may be in for a disappointment. This is according to the Eastern Cape’s Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSRAC). The department provided a detailed reply to questions from Talk of the Town about artefacts from the 19th century British immigrants in the museums it oversees.
Read: Museums and the Eastern Cape’s cultural artefacts
TOTT’s questions to DSRAC were spurred by 1820 settler descendant Malcolm Cock, who was concerned about artefacts donated to the Albany Museum in Makhanda, and the East London Museum. In an open letter, which he requested Talk of the Town to publish (we include it below), he said he believed these artefacts were not being cared for and appealed to 1820 British settler descendants to support him in an endeavour to have them transferred to the Bathurst Agricultural Museum.
Talk of the Town spoke to several sources to try and understand the impetus for and implications of the call. They included a former Albany Museum board member; a senior manager at an Eastern Cape museum; a respected historian; the curator of the Bathurst Agricultural Museum and the curator of another private museum in the Eastern Cape. TOTT was also referred to a member of the 1820 Settlers Association, who was unavailable to respond due to illness.
The issues are complex and emotive. This report is limited to two main questions: who has rights over the artefacts; and who has the capacity to manage them.
First, would settler descendants be able to retrieve their family artefacts from the museums, and how? If the items were donated, the answer is no.
“Ownership of the heritage assets (artefacts, specimens, documents etc) resides with Board of Trustees unless otherwise stated in the donation agreement,” DSRAC responded to TOTT. “Thus, when artefacts are donated to a provincial museum, the ownership thereof typically transfers to the museum, provided that the donation is made with the intention of permanent transfer and without any condition of return.”
Second, does the Bathurst Agricultural Museum (BAM) have space and organisational capacity to house and correctly curate the 1820 artefacts?
BAM curator and newly elected chairperson Ryno Hattingh said he believes they have the capacity to house a collection of 1820 settler artefacts from across the province.
“But it will help if we know how many items it is,” Hattingh said. “If it’s 10 items or 1000.”
Hattingh, who is said one way or another, the museum would make a plan – “like we did with the Kowie Museum when it moved here.
“I am interested in preserving history and we would rather preserve it here,” Hattingh said. “Ninety percent of our visitors feel that the government isn’t doing enough to preserve heritage.”
The Kowie Museum collection includes aspects of the region’s Xhosa history. Would BAM only be looking to expand its collection of relics telling the stories of British settlers; or would they also seek to share the histories of the area’s original inhabitants?
Hattingh responded at length; however, the part of his response we choose to report on here is that it is “a lot easier” to collect items from 1820 settler descendants – an argument seemingly borne out by Malcolm Cock’s call. Asked whether the BAM leadership would be open to a process to discuss active inclusivity, Hattingh said, “Yes, most definitely. We as a museum are supposed to cater for everyone.”
Asked what philosophy underpins the curatorship of the BAM, Hattingh said, “How can I know where I’m going if I don’t know where I’ve come from? Without my history, where am I?”
- Editor’s note: Talk of the Town notes that the Bathurst Agricultural Museum and the Kowie Museum (now housed in BAM) receive no government support. They are run and maintained by (for the most part) unpaid volunteers and rely on donations and active community fundraising for their continued existence. This article is intended to frame emotive and often politically charged questions of heritage in a way that encourages debate and solution-seeking among members of the community.
CLick HERE to read DSRAC’s detailed response to Talk of the Town’s detailed questions.
You can read Malcolm Cock’s letter HERE
https://bit.ly/TOTTSettlerArtefacts
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, February 13, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
