Future Pasts

☀️New film! made through the @Future_Pasts & @EtoshaKunene Histories @ahrcpress projects. Watch “ǂNūkhoe Xûn / Damara Material Culture” led by the Hoanib Culture Group in north-west #Namibia vimeo.com/1035751265 @radicalanthro @BathSpaUni @PolEcoNet @ConservationNa1

☀️ A mega-🧵 with chapter links about #Etosha Pan to the #SkeletonCoast: #Conservation Histories, Policies & Practices in North-west #Namibia 🇳🇦 #OpenAccess, co-edited with Ute Dieckmann @UniCologne & Selma Lendelvo @unam_na @BathSpaUni @EtoshaKunene > openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647…

☀️ It's been a long journey, but I can now share our 3 Journeys film! "Lands That History Forgot – Three Journeys with Nami-Daman Elders in North-west #Namibia" @Future_Pasts @EtoshaKunene @BathSpaUni @PolEcoNet @NCRST_Namibia @ahrcpress > 🎬 vimeo.com/906331479

I'd like to take a moment to celebrate Ruben !Nagu Sanib, one of the elders in north-west #Namibia I've worked with over the last 10 years, and from whom I've learned so much. Ruben sadly died on 7 June and I hear that he (alongside my friend Jan |Awiseb) was given a beautiful send-off on 16 June in Sesfontein. Some of Ruben's knowledge and experiences are recorded in the film linked below. He grew up in what is now the #Palmwag Tourism Concession, an area he knew as Hurubes. In the film he talks about how people lived in this area in the past, the foods they ate, and the circumstances leading to their displacement. In the screenshot Ruben stands in front of ǁKhao-as mountain, where the Aub (ǂGaob) and !Uniab rivers meet. His ancestors came from this area. I feel very grateful to have known Ruben, and sad that I will not meet him again in person. It's been a complete privilege to spend time with him, and hear his stories. @unam_na @NCRST_Namibia @MinistryofEnvi2 @ConservationNa1 @SRTNamibia @BathSpaUni @Future_Pasts @EtoshaKunene @daughterofsahel @historianmkalb @BGissibl @PHellermann @radicalanthro @BSUEnvHums @BSUHeritage @PolEcoNet vimeo.com/947727077

More info here nami-daman-heritage-house.net/post/a-bee-son…

Article by @BathSpaUni about A Bee Song, a collaboration by @bancodegaia & @Future_Pasts 🐝🎶

🎶 🐝 A Bee Song by @bancodegaia and @Future_Pasts now has a video! @ahrcpress @BathSpaUni @PolEcoNet @ConservationNa1 @BSUEnvHums @BSUHeritage @cep_of > ➡️ youtu.be/I-HQAOANL20

🎶 🐝 Happy to share A Bee Song, a new single made through a musical collaboration between @bancodegaia and the @Future_Pasts research project in #Namibia 🐝 🎶 @ahrcpress @BathSpaUni @PolEcoNet @ConservationNa1 @BSUEnvHums @BSUHeritage @cep_of 🧵 > x.com/bancodegaia/st…

It's so wonderful to hear this from @GreatRiverSnake, who speaks Khoekhoegowab - the language A Bee Song is sung in; & who knows something of the contexts for |gais praise songs. Kai aios, dear ǁAres 🩷 🐝 @bancodegaia @Future_Pasts

This has been several years in the making! So pleased that A Bee Song - a recomposition of a 1954 archived recorded song praising bees - can now be listened to - thanks to @bancodegaia 🎶 🐝 Will be available on Bandcamp from next Friday. Details in 🧵below.

Now this 👇 science and facts matter!

@ConservationNa1 @AmyDickman4 @CWitvrouwen @IzakSmit It also coincided with high offtake levels several years into a drought period. I've spoken to many ppl in the north-west about these declines. Just about everyone links it with high offtake levels. Clearly multiple factors at play.

@Future_Pasts @AmyDickman4 @CWitvrouwen @IzakSmit If I hadn't pointed it out, the people reading that post won't know that the prey declines coincided with long-term drought. Which is exactly what we were saying before. It's a desert. In dry cycles, herbivores decline followed by predators. And conflict will go up.

Must read, once again proof that the reality on the ground is a bit different than the 'reality' being sold by the pro hunting scientists, pro hunting lobbyists and ignorant journalists @guardianeco Via Izak Smit @de_lhra

@ConservationNa1 @AmyDickman4 @CWitvrouwen @IzakSmit Why is that interesting? I just agreed with you about the drought years.

@Future_Pasts @AmyDickman4 @CWitvrouwen @IzakSmit Coinciding with the prey declines you posted from NACSO's data... Interesting that you didn't mention that in that post.

@ConservationNa1 @AmyDickman4 @CWitvrouwen @IzakSmit Yes, I'm aware there's been very poor rainfall in the n-w since around 2011.

@Future_Pasts @AmyDickman4 @CWitvrouwen @IzakSmit Which has nothing at all to do with rainfall over that same time period....

@AmyDickman4 @CWitvrouwen @IzakSmit You've perhaps not noticed that it's the progressive *decline* in prey over the last 10+ years that is an important factor here:

@CWitvrouwen @Future_Pasts @IzakSmit And I'm not sure what you think I am 'selling', it's hardly revolutionary to suggest that deserts tend to have low prey densities 🙄

@AmyDickman4 @CWitvrouwen It's the lack of prey that is the major issue here. Exacerbated HLC is an outcome of this situation.

@CWitvrouwen Wonderful to see the science, which confirms that human-lion conflict is the major threat here: odd as in a social media exchange, I remember Izak denying that it was the major issue.

Important work #Hornkranz

🎶 New @Future_Pasts blog documenting recent #music research & #repatriation work with the #BritishLibrary @soundarchive & the Nami-Daman Traditional Authority of n-w #Namibia @NCRST_Namibia @GreatRiverSnake @tschukutschuku @BathSpaUni @radicalanthro futurepasts.net/post/repatriat…

🎶 Short #BritishLibrary Sound and Vision Blog here, documenting the process of returning digitised recordings to Sesfontein 💛 @GreatRiverSnake @tschukutschuku @radicalanthro @daughterofsahel @BSUEnvHums @PolEcoNet ... blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-visi…