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Wander the World: Fish Hoek Valley Museum · Wander the World with Pippa Hudson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we're staying quite close to home in our travels
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  Speaker 1: today we're only going as far as the South Peninsula.
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  Speaker 1: But I want to introduce you to a museum which
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  Speaker 1: I have to confess I didn't know existed until one
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  Speaker 1: of its enthusiastic volunteers reached out to me a few
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  Speaker 1: weeks ago to say, please let people know that we're here.
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking about the Fishook Valley Museum, which offers insights
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  Speaker 1: into the history of Fishook and surrounding areas, the development
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  Speaker 1: of the area, its people, and its natural attractions. And
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  Speaker 1: this museum has just launched a new virtual reality three
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  Speaker 1: D experience which we want to tell you about as well.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a huge pleasure to have with us in
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  Speaker 1: studio Sue Maud, who is the curator of the Fishok
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  Speaker 1: Valley Museum. Sue, thanks for coming all the way through
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  Speaker 1: to town to.
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  Speaker 2: Be with us today.
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  Speaker 3: Welcome, Thanks Papa.
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  Speaker 1: Let's start with the most important thing. Where do people
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  Speaker 1: find this museum.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we are in Fishhook in Central Circle, Fishook, which
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  Speaker 3: if you not from Fishook that won't mean much to you.
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  Speaker 3: But basically at the Civic Center where the vehicle licensing
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  Speaker 3: department is, which many people visit. We're just to the
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  Speaker 3: right of the Civic Center parking lot there.
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  Speaker 2: And it's located in so it looks like a suburban house.
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  Speaker 1: From the art.
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  Speaker 3: Yes it does, Yes, it does.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Now, how long has this museum actually been there.
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  Speaker 3: We've been open since nineteen ninety.
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  Speaker 2: Four gosh, so a long long time.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, And so let's talk a little bit about what
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  Speaker 1: it is and what sort of material you've created inside
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  Speaker 1: that museum first, I mean, what was the sort of
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  Speaker 1: founding idea. It's the history of Fishook, but more than.
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  Speaker 3: That, yes, it's actually the Fishook Valley. So our remit
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  Speaker 3: is the whole valley from Fishook to komikin Nuduk and
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  Speaker 3: even down as far as Scarborough. So one of the
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  Speaker 3: sort of most significant sites within that is of course
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  Speaker 3: Pier's Cave, which is one of it's the only site
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  Speaker 3: in Cape Town that has rock art and has evidence
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  Speaker 3: of presence there for over two hundred thousand years. So
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  Speaker 3: that's our kind of our pride and joy. The rest
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  Speaker 3: of our collection is preserving the story of the valley
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  Speaker 3: and all. We're a very small museum, independent, totally staffed
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  Speaker 3: by volunteers, and we we just house. We're a house
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  Speaker 3: of curiosity. So we've got we've got our whale Room,
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  Speaker 3: which which talks about whaling and the fishing in the
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  Speaker 3: bay because Fishook started as the fish utpost for the
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  Speaker 3: Dutch East India Company. Of course, whaling was was very
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  Speaker 3: big for about two hundred years, and Fishook Bay was
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  Speaker 3: littered with whale bones, a lot of which ended up
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  Speaker 3: in the museum. We've got a big star own tool
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  Speaker 3: collection from Piers Cave, and then we've got what I
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  Speaker 3: like to call our modern tools room. We've got all
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  Speaker 3: sorts of old kitchen gadgets. We've got an old bookkeeping
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  Speaker 3: machine from the eighteen hundred, so we've got the first
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  Speaker 3: desktop you could call it, which is a comptometer which
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  Speaker 3: was used in the fifties. We've got an old typewriter
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  Speaker 3: for kids to get their hands on, and telephones through
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  Speaker 3: the ages, so a little bit, and then of course
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  Speaker 3: the story of the growth of the valley.
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  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you've got the old telephones because it
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  Speaker 1: gives such absolute delight to modern kids. We've only ever
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  Speaker 1: own cell phones to see the old sort of ring
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  Speaker 1: dial phones that we all grew up using and for granted,
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  Speaker 1: they find them so curious.
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  Speaker 3: It's the most popular, one of the most popular exhibits
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  Speaker 3: with the kids.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not at all surprised to hear that's so now,
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  Speaker 2: I mean Peers Cave.
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  Speaker 1: Let's just circle back to that, because I don't know
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  Speaker 1: if everybody knows the particular significance.
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  Speaker 2: Mentioned the rock art. But I mean the description that.
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  Speaker 1: You've used on your website, is this being an archaeological
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  Speaker 1: treasure treasure.
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  Speaker 2: Trope tell us a little bit more.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, the name Piers Cave signifies the two explorers
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  Speaker 1: who discovered more than just rock paintings in that cave.
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  Speaker 1: What have we learned from what we says found there?
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  Speaker 3: So it was known as Skill dis Hut before the Peers,
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  Speaker 3: a father and son team who were early residents in
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  Speaker 3: Fishuok in the twenties, discovered this cave on the mountain
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  Speaker 3: that was strewn with seashells. Now, this is high up
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  Speaker 3: in the mountains, so that already suggests that these shells
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  Speaker 3: had been brought up there. So they learned some archaeological
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  Speaker 3: skills from the newly forming archaeology department at duct and
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  Speaker 3: then Bertie and Victor Piers excavated in the cave for
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  Speaker 3: ten to fifteen years off that they found. They dug
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  Speaker 3: to a depth of six meters, which is quite significant.
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  Speaker 3: It was strewn with stone age tools going back to
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  Speaker 3: the Early Stone Age, which tells you that people have
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  Speaker 3: been there or pre early man has been there since
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  Speaker 3: for over two hundred thousand years, and a whole lot
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  Speaker 3: of skeletons were found buried there, the oldest of which
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  Speaker 3: caused great excitement in archaeological circles in the late twenties.
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  Speaker 3: The skull was called fishook Man was thought to be
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  Speaker 3: fifteen thousand years old. Recent studies have carbon dating has
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  Speaker 3: kind of put it not quite as old, but probably
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  Speaker 3: six thousand years old. So we're still we're still looking
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  Speaker 3: at presence in the valley that goes way back.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Now you're using modern technology to boost I mean, it's
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  Speaker 1: this wonderful combination. So you've got a treasure trove of
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  Speaker 1: artifacts and collectibles and those very tangible old phones, typewriters,
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  Speaker 1: remnants of things found in caves, but you're also tapping
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  Speaker 1: into very modern technology to help tell the stories behind
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  Speaker 1: those objects. Won't you tell us about how the museum
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  Speaker 1: has used the improvement in virtual reality and three D storyteller.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, we've been very delighted to partner with Digital Heritage Africa,
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  Speaker 3: which is a group at UCT who have American funding
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  Speaker 3: and have the most incredible equipment, equipment, budget and equipment,
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  Speaker 3: and they have created for us first a digital walkthrough
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  Speaker 3: of the of the museum itself and then they've created
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  Speaker 3: a three D model of Peer's Cave and with that
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  Speaker 3: we have a little YouTube clip using that three D
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  Speaker 3: So the three D model itself is accessible on the
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  Speaker 3: site for anyone who wants to use it, and with
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  Speaker 3: that you can navigate yourself around the cave. What is
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  Speaker 3: most excited about is the rock art in the cave
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  Speaker 3: has faded a lot over time. The cave is not protected,
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  Speaker 3: it's still used. What the three D imaging has done
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  Speaker 3: is using sort of technology the photography of the walls
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  Speaker 3: of the cave they've done with color editing, the rock
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  Speaker 3: art pops out. So using your the three D model,
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  Speaker 3: you can really get a feel for the rock art
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  Speaker 3: on the walls.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, fantastic. So to say, I've only been to Pairs
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  Speaker 2: cave once.
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  Speaker 1: I hid there probably ten years ago, and as you say,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the art you have to really Peer
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  Speaker 1: and us can see a faint fit outline of something
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  Speaker 1: that was there, and to have the experience of seeing
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  Speaker 1: it pop out in color with this sort of overlay
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  Speaker 1: digitally is extraordinary and really helps you understand what you're
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  Speaker 1: looking at. Okay, let's sorry, just to to reiterate it
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  Speaker 1: for those who are just joining us. My guest in
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  Speaker 1: studio with us Sue Moord, the curator of the Fishook
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  Speaker 1: Valley Museum, which is located in Central Circle, Fishook and
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  Speaker 1: houses artifacts that tell the story of the Fishook Valley.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, as we referenced, okay, Neil saying the language,
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  Speaker 1: the peers didn't discover the cave. No, they didn't it,
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  Speaker 1: as Sue has referenced, it's going back to two hundred
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  Speaker 1: thousand years plus that we know Mankind's ancestors were using
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  Speaker 1: the cave. The cave was renamed in their honor thanks
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  Speaker 1: to the work they did exploring in that cave in
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  Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties. Apologies if that was not clear to
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  Speaker 1: anybody listening. Sue, let's get back to the story of
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  Speaker 1: Fishook that is told and of the valley within this
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  Speaker 1: this museum. The geographical story itself is fascinating. If you
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  Speaker 1: look at a sort of a bird's eye view of
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  Speaker 1: the Fishook Valley, you get a much better understanding of
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  Speaker 1: the fact that it was once entirely underwater, that this
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  Speaker 1: would have been the division between islands rather than the
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  Speaker 1: land mass.
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  Speaker 2: We know today. Is that something the museum explores as well.
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  Speaker 3: We do. We have a little bit with our Peers
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  Speaker 3: Cave exhibition, because you can picture back, going back a
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  Speaker 3: sort of eighteen thousand years, the sea levels were actually
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  Speaker 3: much lower than they were today. So going back even
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  Speaker 3: before that, the sea went through Fishok Valley as it
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  Speaker 3: did the cave flat, and as I took a group
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  Speaker 3: of youngsters up to the cave on Monday, and we
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  Speaker 3: are described to them because the walk up there is
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  Speaker 3: over huge sand dunes, and that is the evidence of
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  Speaker 3: the sea being there. About eighteen thousand years when people
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  Speaker 3: would have been using the cave. The opposite would be true.
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  Speaker 3: The sea levels were much further out than they are today,
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  Speaker 3: and in fact what is now False Bay would have
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  Speaker 3: been open grass fields. So you can actually you can
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  Speaker 3: picture being in the cave looking down. You have the
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  Speaker 3: most incredible view in every direction of grass fields that
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  Speaker 3: would have been covered with grazing animals. You can well
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  Speaker 3: understand why Pier's Cave was a chosen site.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely besides offering sub shelter, it offered a viewpoint, which
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  Speaker 1: brought with its security protection for the elements, et cetera.
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  Speaker 2: Fascinating.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, the kind of storytelling we're enjoying on air
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  Speaker 1: here is what you and fellow volunteers bring to the
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  Speaker 1: experience of a visit to the museum. Who are your volunteers,
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  Speaker 1: Who are are there local residents with a passion for history?
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  Speaker 2: How does it work? Yes, yes, we have.
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  Speaker 3: A modeled crew of Fishook locals, and yes, that is
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  Speaker 3: what unites us. I suppose is this interest in history
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  Speaker 3: and also the interest in sort of adding to history
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  Speaker 3: as it were. You know, we've got archives and we're
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  Speaker 3: continuing to sort of try to expand the story and
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  Speaker 3: tell the story and fill in the gaps and include
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  Speaker 3: as many stories within the valley as we can.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, once again, if you're just tuning in, we're talking
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  Speaker 1: about the Fishook Valley Museum. The address for those who
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  Speaker 1: are asking is at nine Central Circle in Fishook. Quite
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  Speaker 1: a few people asking about the entrance fee.
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  Speaker 3: So twenty rand donation, Yes, a.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty rand donation at the door to get access to
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  Speaker 1: all of this, And I mean it sounds like this
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  Speaker 1: would be a sort of an academically interesting space. Do
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  Speaker 1: you have researchers in the like coming to use the
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  Speaker 1: museum as part of their research for doctoral thy season
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  Speaker 1: the life.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, we do. We have journalists and researchers coming. We've
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  Speaker 3: also got you know, we've got every edition of the
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  Speaker 3: Fishook Echo going back to the fifties, so we've got
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  Speaker 3: a sort of a wealth of old newspapers. We've got
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  Speaker 3: a very large photo collection of the valley and all
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  Speaker 3: the way down to Musenberg. So yes, very much so
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  Speaker 3: we and we also have a lot of locals who
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  Speaker 3: come in to find out, you know, information about their
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  Speaker 3: house or you know, businesses in the area or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: So okay, yes, So, whether you're interested interested in the
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  Speaker 1: development of mankind, in archaeological history, in geographical history, or
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  Speaker 1: in the more recent history of the development of the
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  Speaker 1: settlements at Fishook through to cormick Y, Scarborough, et cetera,
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  Speaker 1: please do make a point of visiting the Fishok Valley Museum.
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  Speaker 1: Only twenty rand requested as a donation to enter, and
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  Speaker 1: as I mentioned again, it's at nine central Circle in Fishook.
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  Speaker 1: Let's close by telling listeners where they can find your website,
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  Speaker 1: please suit yes.
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  Speaker 3: It's Fishook Valley Museum dot co dot.
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  Speaker 1: Fishcook Valley Museum dot co dot Yes sooth been great
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  Speaker 1: to have you with us, Somored, the curator of the museum,
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  Speaker 1: and thanks for taking the time to come through and
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  Speaker 1: share the story with us.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, great pleasure.