Category: Travel
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Lobola – negotiating an African wedding
Thank you to our South African reader who sent this in to share. In Africa, weddings are often marked by a “bride price” – a payment that signals the negotiations for the joining together of two families. Lobola is a cultural practice that differs across the continent, and in South Africa it is often part…
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Conversation and Cloth – Hokitika
The West Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand is full of history and tales. In the middle of the Southern Winter, as the world turns and seasons change, a star cluster rises in the sky. This is known in New Zealand as Matariki, a shortened version of “Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea” (the eyes of the…
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A tapa sampler
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Aotearoa’s national museum, has a unique taonga: a book of tapa samples. This book, rather grandly entitled “A Catalogue of the different specimens of cloth collected in the three voyages of Captain Cook, to the Southern hemisphere : with a particular account of the manner of the…
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How technology can help Cantonese opera
In the city of Hong Kong the centuries-old art of Cantonese opera is making use of technology to help students to learn the artform and sustain it. Professor Leung Bo Wah, Head of Cultural and Creative Art at the Education University of Hong Kong, has created a virtual reality programme, using the same 3D imaging…
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African fashion in Australia
At the end of this month, the National Gallery of Victoria is hosting an exhibition of African fashion, curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition will be supported, it is hoped, by photographs from Australian communities with links to the diaspora, particularly those from the independence and liberation period (mid-1950s to…
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Paradise Road
On the 27th April 1994, the first democratic elections in South Africa were held, ultimately leading to Nelson Mandela becoming President. It was a time of hope and positive change was in the air. There was jubilation and joy, and community, much celebrated around the world. Music had supported and helped to lead the way…
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Showing and Telling
Over the past year I have been running a series of events connected with the textile collection. The collection includes costume (the photograph left is a detail from an Adire robe from Nigeria, and the image below is a detail from Heather Barnett’s “Formanifera” curtains. These events have been held (mostly) in the local Regent…
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Of cranberries and kahikatea
Weekends on the West Coast are spent exploring the area and this week that exploration took in cranberry growing and kahikatea forests. Agriculture in Aotearoa New Zealand is the largest part of the economy with regards to trade, and is unique in having an unsubsidised agricultural sector as a result of reforms aimed at making…
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a Spotify list is curated to go along with the blog. Each piece on the list is relevant to the blog entries, with a mix of old and new music and sound from across the globe. Those with a Spotify subscription will be able to listen to the entire playlist without interruption, those…
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The Sony World Photography Awards
The winners of the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards have just been announced. To see the images head on over to the BBC website here. The Photographer of the Year is Juliette Pavy with Spiralkampagnen, a documentary series about the forced sterilisation of Inuit women in Greenland. Several thousand girls and women were fitted with…