Guiding & Rock Art
LIVING LANDSCAPE
PROJECT
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Krakadouw Trust
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JOB
CREATION PROGRAMME
Training
Guiding
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TEACHING PROGRAMME
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EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
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CRAFT SHOP &
ROCK ART TRAIL
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Rock Art Trail
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Guide Training Programme
The Cederberg Mountains effectively form an outdoor gallery. Rock art is so abundant and detailed that the Living Landscape Project has developed a guide training programme. We believe preservation and appreciation is fostered by sound understanding. The Warmhoek Rock Art Trail formed the specific focus of our initial guide training programme but we have been called on to train guides in other areas of the Cederberg.
The archeology and ethnography allow for a deeper understanding of rock art and this can be imparted by trained guides.
Our guides are made aware of how fragile a part of our cultural heritage these paintings are and how the law operates to protect them. We explain the age and significance of the paintings and instigate discussion surrounding the techniques used, the sources of the paints and the identities of the painters. We encourage our guides to put forward their own opinions on these issues.
Reading the presence of the past
At the rock art sites, we address the broader topic of hunter-gatherer presence in the landscape and how we can use traces - such as the art - to "read" that presence even today. Beginning with an explanation of precolonial times in Clanwilliam, we explain the significance of Archaeology for the understanding of early people. We draw the learners' attention to the use of words derived from now extinct indigenous languages to name parts of the landscape. Guides are encouraged to use these names to visualise the experience of hunter-gatherers in the landscape. Where did they stay? What did they eat? What sorts of items did they leave behind in their living places that we can study?
A classic Cederberg procession of kaross clad figures in this well protected shelter on the Warmhoek Trail.
Trained guides with specialist
knowledge provide tourists and visitors with a richer experience when
visiting heritage sites.
Group scenes such as this painting from the Zimri Shelter give an insight
into hunter-gatherer social contexts and relationships.
Philippe Lagarde, mayor of the French town of Les Eyzies, on a visit to Procession Shelter.
Wild flowers bloom in the foreground with a ruined farmhouse in the far distance. Flowers, botany, geology and colonial occupation add layering to the landscape.