Justine Wintjes, Curator at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, has just returned from a ‘digital storytelling’ workshop at the Nairobi National Museum (National Museums of Kenya). The workshop included Mwanaima Salim, Hellen Otete, Jonathan Kiprop, Lydia Nafula and June Munoru from NMK, joined by Sara Watson of the Field Museum in Chicago and Jonathan Lim of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas.
Workshop participants spent a week examining and digitizing materials housed in the museum and sharing stories. We aim to curate some of these stories online in the near future.
The workshop took place under under the 'Reframing the African past' project supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number AH/Y00597X/1].
Preparing the iconic Siwa for photogrammetry - one of only two known Siwas, side-blown horns used by Swahili leaders in the 17th and 18th centuries. This Siwa was made from two elephant tusks in 1688 and came from Pate Island. (The second one is on display at Lamu Museum.) Photo: Jonathan Lim.
A treasure trove in the storerooms: an impressive collection of beadwork represents communities across Kenya. Photo: Jonathan Lim.
Here we are photographing a Kamba kitete (beaded gourd container) from Kitui County to create a 3D model. Photo: Justine Wintjes.
The Nairobi National Museum falls within a larger inner-city yet wonderfully leafy campus that includes the Heritage Restaurant, Botanical Garden, Snake Park, a ‘Garden of Hope’ – a medicinal garden for cancer patients – and a portion of preserved indigenous forest titled, The Forest Returns. A visit is highly recommended!
