Lwandle, erf 16300, Strand-min

Dear Friends please note that tomorrow (23.08.17) our power lines will be off from 08h30 until further notice, due to electrical work that will be done on the building. We apologise for the inconvenience caused

Please note that as of 1 June 2017 the museum will open Monday to Saturday. The opening times will be:

Mon-Fri 8am to 16h30

Saturday 9am to 12h30.

Thank you

SAVE OUR SOULS by Achilleas Souras is a response to the current global refugee crisis that the world is facing. It proposes the re-use of a by-product of this crisis which is the common life jacket to provide low-cost temporary shelters to help refugees: Protection in Water – Tectum (Shelter) on Land. In the past few months alone more than 450,000 discarded life jackets have accumulated on the Greek island of Lesbos, providing an abundance of building material for the project. For Achilleas, who is a 16 year old student, it all started with his toys, especially Lego. He soon outgrew the instruction sheets and would let his imagination run wild, building structures that would re-appropriate much of his parents house.

The more he built, the taller the structures would get, challenging himself to keep the structures standing despite the artificial gales of wind and earth-quakes he would generate. Fast forward to today and feeling troubled by witnessing the current global refugee crisis, Achilleas wanted to help in some way. Using his creative child -like wonder to respond to the situation he saw the life jackets as more than a throw away item. Instead he saw them as a building block much like Lego.

Please note that the museum will be open until the 24th of December 2015. We will then close for the Christmas week and re-open on the 4th of January 2016.

Happy Holidays

The museum is currently planning to host a Christmas party on the 16^th of December 2015 for three local orphanages within the community of Lwandle-Nomzamo. This has become one of our annual events; last year we donated food to two orphanages in Nomzamo and Asanda Village, we did a braai for the children and provided entertainment for them and this year we planning to do even better.

With the upcoming festive season, children in these orphanages need to feel the excitement around Christmas just as other children will be doing so during this period. As a community-based museum we have taken it upon ourselves to find ways to make this possible. Every child deserves to feel special even if it is just for one day.

With this letter we hope to touch your hearts and inspire you to make a difference this festive season. Any form of contribution towards this event would be greatly appreciated. The museum is currently in need of party packs, cake, cool drinks or juice, face-paint, puzzle/ colouring games, tent and chairs, non-perishable food items and any other party toys and goodies you might be able to provide. Volunteers to come and play with the children are also welcomed.

Donations can be dropped at the museum: Old Community Hall Vulindlela Street Lwandle

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

The Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum pays tribute and recalls the harsh apartheid system of migrant labour in which many thousands of black South Africans had to leave their families to find work close to the cities.

Help us protect and preserve the heritage of the labour migrant system in South Africa by becoming a Friend of Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum. Membership will be a year from time of joining up and thereafter you can renew your membership.

Once you join our society this membership entitles you to 363 days of free entrance to the Museum, free entrance to events, workshops and lectures, preferential rates for all outings as well as the opportunity to take part in the AGM and in decision making at the museum plus a regular Friends newsletter.

Membership fees are as follow:

Lwandle residents R20.00

Students and Seniors R50.00

Individual membership R100.00

Family membership R200.00 (2 adults + 2 children under 18 years)

To join up please email manager@lwandlemuseum.co.za for application form and send with payment to: manager@lwandlemuseum.co.za Payment can be made directly in to the museum’s account as indicated on the form. Or come to visit us at the museum and join us.

In Commemoration of International Mandela Day, the Lwandle Museum staff and board will be doing charity work at Zanokhanyo creche in Nomzamo. For their 67minutes, the team will maw the lawn, plant a vegetable garden for the children and also assist with cleaning the yard of the creche.

On the 1st of May 2015 the Lwandle Museum celebrated its 15th Anniverssary by commemorating Worker’s Day. different stakeholders were invited to come and remember those wo fought for MAY DAY and to teach the young the meaning and importance of Worker’s Day.

The Programme was directed by Sakhiwo Kapoko, a Radio Helderberg presenter. It was supported by the Board of trustees of the Lwandle Museum; Prof Leslie Witz representing the board as its chairperson. The chairman of COSATU in Lwandle Mr Edward Phibantu reminded those present about the treatment that Amgoduka used to have in the hostels and in tents that they were being accomodated in. Abongile Sotiya shared the meaning of Democracy to Young people today and how young people are working hard to leave a ;egacy behind that the next generation would be proud of.

The event drew the attention of local media who came to document the whole proceedings and the ward councilor Mr Maxheke was very pleased with how everything was done and presented to the youth.

Amongst the entertainers were Pumla Skunana Kamulu, a poet who recited her poem Migrant Labour, Khanyolwethu High School did a spectacular drama on migrant labour, Sinebhongo did a traditional dance piece while Rise and Shine Academy did the historic gumboot dance.

The Lwandle Museum would to thank those who have supported the museum from the very beginning until now, the neighbours of Hostel 33, the local community, its Board of Trustees, Staff Members and the local youth and Schools.

guests enjoying their meal

Rise and Shine Academy

drama on Migrant Labour

Khanyolwethu High School Drama

22 APRIL 2015

The Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum reminds residents and visitors of the horrific living conditions that the migrant labour system imposed. Our museum is painfully aware of how apartheid sought to sow divisions and hatred amongst our people. As a community museum we therefore unreservedly condemn the spate of indiscriminate violence against members of our communities.

The Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum believes that the entire African continent helped in liberating South Africa from apartheid. The brutality against fellow Africans continues to make it difficult for museum such as ours to fight the legacy that apartheid and segregation has left in our communities. This is a shame on us not only as a community museum that represents the migrant workers history of South Africa but is a shame on every South African.

We want to reiterate what we said in 2008 when these xenophobic attacks affected our community in Lwandle directly. We wish to declare our determination to work towards peace and tolerance in our communities. As a community museum we will continue to raise awareness and to teach our young people about the importance of showing compassion and humanity to our fellow Africans. We will continue to strive to build critical spaces for dialogue in the interests of defining post-apartheid communities. We owe it to our constituencies and their memories of apartheid to oppose all forms of displacement of communities and people through violent means. Let us teach the young that we are all Africans.

The Lwandle museum serves the interest of the local community and over the years we have assisted this community in several different ways; the museum has recently assisted in mobilizing donations for the recent evictions in Lwandle and also managed to buy new school uniform for students who were left stranded after the eviction.

We are currently planning to host a Christmas party for four local orphanages within the community of Lwandle-Nomzamo. This has become one of our annual events; last year we donated clothes to two orphanages in Nomzamo and Asanda Village and this year we planning to do something different by throwing a party instead.

With the upcoming festive season, children in these orphanages need to feel the excitement around Christmas just as other children will be doing so during this period. As a community-based museum we have taken it upon ourselves to find ways to make this possible. Every child deserves to feel special even if it is just for one day.

we are currently in need of party packs, cakes, cool drinks or juice, face-paint, puzzle/ colouring games, jumping castle and any other party toys and goodies you might be able to provide. Volunteers to come and play with the children are also welcomed. The party is planned for the 24th of December 2014 at the Museum.

You can bring your gifts at the Old Community Hall Vulindlela Street Lwandle by the 20th of December 2014 or call Masa for more info.

From 03 November 2014 to 31 March 2015 the Lwandle Museum will be open from 08h00 until 18h00 Monday to Friday. Come take advantage of these extended opening hours this summer, come and visit us, go on a tour with our local experts and hear about Lwandle and the history of the migrant labour system.

The Council for Museum Anthropology is very pleased to announce that Dr. Leslie Witz and Dr. Noëleen Murray are the recipients of the 2014 Michael M. Ames Award for Innovative Museum Anthroplogy.

Their long-term work with the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum and their book Hostels, Homes, Museum: Memorializing Migrant Labour Pasts in Lwandle, South Africa (2014) exemplify the kind of pioneering work the Award is intended to acknowledge. Their work speaks to many of the issues and concerns of contemporary museum anthropology. We commend them for their long-term engagement with and research on the museum and the Lwandle community.

The award will be presented on Friday 5 December 2014 at the Council for Museum Anthropology reception during the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association in Washington DC.

Copies of the book will be on sale at the launch.

Migrant Labour’s Troubled Past Unpacked in Hostels, Homes, Museum by Noëleen Murray and Leslie Witz

New from UCT Press, Hostels, Homes, Museum: Memorialising migrant labour pasts in Lwandle, South Africa, by Noëleen Murray and Leslie Witz:

This book, written by board members Noeleen Murray and Leslie Witz,  explores the museum’s makings, the creation of histories through the oral and the visual and the rehabilitation of structures for the museum, ending with the celebration – and discomfort – of the museum’s tenth birthday in 2010. Richly illustrated throughout, the book includes two full colour visual essays by photographers Paul Grendon and Thulani Nxumalo, taken while working with the museum on projects of restoration and collection.

CONTENTS
Preface – Come to Lwandle
Chapter One – Dislocation: Making a museum at the seaside
Chapter Two- Rehabilitation: Restoring a migrant labour hostel
Photographic Essay – Dormitory Accommodation by Paul Grendon
Chapter Three – Museumisation: Inventing an institution
Chapter Four – Revisioning: Images, photography and exhibition
Chapter Five – Retelling: From oral histories to textual pasts
Photographic Essay – On the Beach by Thulani Nxumalo
Postscript and conclusion – The End

About the authors

Noëleen Murray is an architect and academic in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of the Western Cape. Her research offers a reading of architecture and urban planning under and after apartheid. She was the principal editor of Desire Lines: Space, Memory and Identity in the Post-apartheid City (2007), published in the Routledge Architext Series.

Leslie Witz is a Professor in the History Department at the University of the Western Cape. His major research centres around how different histories are created and represented in the public domain through memorials, museums, festivals and tourism. His book Apartheid’s Festival: Contesting South Africa’s National Pasts was published by Indiana University Press in 2003.

Book details

Hostels, Homes, Museum: Memorialising migrant labour pasts in Lwandle, South Africa by Noëleen Murray and Leslie Witz
EAN: 9781775820772

The Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum would like to show its support to victims of eviction in Siyanyanzela; Lwandle, by inviting all organization in the Helderberg vicinity and beyond to donate non perishable items to the displaced families especially blankets to keep them warm during these cold rainy days. The museum understands that the residents are in need of more than blankets and food, at this point this is all it could offer in hope that a solution will soon be found regarding the issues of housing in Lwandle.

Please show your support. You can bring your donations to the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum; Old Community Hall Vulindlela Street Lwandle, these will be distributed to families affected by the eviction. The distribution will take place at the Nomzamo Community Hall. www.lwandle.com

iLwandle Migrant Labour Museum ingathanda ukubonakalisa uvelwano lwayo kumaxhoba ofudulo ase Siyanyanzela, eLwandle, ngokuthi imeme yonke imibutho namaziko oshishino kwingingqi yaseHelderberg neziphaluka ukuba ibonakalise inkxaso yayo ngokunikela ngokutya ingakumbi iingubo kwiintsapho ezichaphazelekileyo. Eli ziko liyayiqonda ukuba uluntu ludinga izinto ezibalulekileyo kunokutya, kodwa okwangoku linamandla okuzisa oku kuphela, likwanethemba lokuba isisombululo sizakufumaneka kwimiba yezindlu eLwandle.
Bonakalisa inkxaso yakho ngokuthi uzise inkxaso yakho eLwandle Migrant Labour Museum kule dilesi; Old Community Hall Vulindlela Street Lwandle, izinto eziqokelelweyo zizakunikwa iintsapho ezichaphazelekileyo zandule ukunikezwa uluntu kwiHolo yoluntu yase Nomzamo.

Today we are happy to announce that we have a new website. Come back often to check what we have to offer!