New film from oral history and heritage mapping research through the Future Pasts (www.futurepasts.net) and Etosha-Kunene Histories (www.etosha-kunene-histories.net) projects. The film documents past dwelling and livelihood practices in north-west Namibia, and relocates graves of known ancestors. It works with three elders now living in Sesfontein: * Franz ǁHoëb remembers living in areas that are now part of the Skeleton Coast National Park and harvesting !nara (Acanthosicyos horridus) in the Hoanib and !Uniab rivers; * Ruben Sanib previously lived in the land area of Hurubes in the northern part of the Palmwag Tourism Concession; * and Julia Tauros grew-up in the Puros area on the Hoarusib River. The first language of these three elders is Khoekhoegowab. The histories and present experiences of ǁUbun and Damara / ǂNūkhoe Indigenous residents of north-west Namibia tend to be somewhat overlooked for north-west Namibia. "Lands That History Forgot" seeks to redress this situation. Our title "Lands That History Forgot" evokes a book influential in this research about peoples' past mobilities and lifeworlds in west Namibia: namely, archaeologist John Kinahan's "Pastoral Nomads of The Central Namib Desert: The People History Forgot" (https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Pastoral_Nomads_of_the_Namib_Desert.html).

This montage has been made by Sian Sullivan through knitting together around 100 very high resolution 2008 aerial photographs purchased from the Directorate of Survey and Mapping in Windhoek Namibia. It is inspired by the visual beauty of the west Namibian landscape when viewed from above. The montage is currently (July-August 2017) being shown as a video installation in the exhibition 'Future Pasts: Landscape, Memory and Music in West Namibia' at Gallery 44AD in Bath, UK (https://www.futurepasts.net/gallery-44ad-bath-july-august-2017).

This short video combines an audio recording made in 2017 when playing a 1999 recording of a flute song from Sesfontein, north-west Namibia, made by ethnomusicologists Emmanuelle Olivier and Minette Mans to inhabitants of Sesfontein - Emma Ganuses and Welhemina Suro Ganuses - who remembered the music. This process demonstrates that although the flute music is no longer played, people remain today who remember the songs, the flautists, the contexts in which the music was played, and the meanings of the music and accompanying performances. Suro and her aunt Emma remember the songs, and started singing them as they heard them for the first time in around 20 years. The short audio track and accompanying images (by Sian Sullivan and Emmanuelle Olivier) is of the moment of first listening to Olivier’s 1999 recording, focusing in on the song Keli, which refers to the shawl that a girl would start to wear in the past as part of societal recognition that she has become a woman. The recording shared here includes Suro's and Emma's moment of recognition of Keli, and then their recall of the melody, words and clapped rhythm of the song.

In this short film - one of three made to celebrate the 90th year of a participant in Future Pasts research - Hildegaart |Gugowa |Nuas of Sesfontein / !Nani-|aus in north-west Namibia sings one of her favourite |gais or praise songs about the Hoanib River where she grew up. The song tells of how six women were collecting foods like sâu, bosû and ûias[1] and they became trapped on the other side of the river from their homes. They started singing to ask that they change into the birds that are called Kao, so that they can fly over the river back home. Kao birds (perhaps Egyptian geese?) are also seen to fly in sixes. This is a story that her grandparents told her. Film by Sian Sullivan. For more information see https://www.futurepasts.net/post/celebrating-hildegaart-nuas-of-sesfontein [1] Sâu, bosû and ûias are the names of important food plants - respectively the seeds of Stipagrostis species grasses and Monsonia plants of the geranium family which can be gathered from the nests of harvesters (see second section of the blog at https://www.futurepasts.net/post/2018/10/16/crossing-continents-with-future-pasts-a-tale-of-three-conferences), and edible corms that are abundant after rains.

In this short film - one of three made to celebrate the 90th year of a participant in Future Pasts research - Hildegaart |Gugowa |Nuas of Sesfontein / !Nani-|aus in north-west Namibia remembers how when she was little her parents would harvest the !nara fruit at !nara fields in the Hoanib River. '!Nara' is the local name for the melon plant Acanthosicyos horridus. This plant is endemic to the Namib desert and an important food for people who have been able to access coastal areas where the !nara grows. Film by Sian Sullivan. For more information see https://www.futurepasts.net/post/celebrating-hildegaart-nuas-of-sesfontein

This is a slightly edited version of a film made in 2016 by Mamokobo Film and Research, The Damara King's Festival Organising Committee and Future Pasts of The Damara King's Festival, an event that takes place annually in the settlement of Okombahe in the Erongo Region of west Namibia. In its 37th year when this film was made, the festival marks a significant moment on the Damara calendar when Damara/≠Nūkhoen people gather to sing and dance, eat, and receive counsel from their king, Justus |Uruhe ||Garoëb. The Damara King's Festival film was made with the support of the Damara King's Festival Organising Committee in Namibia. Since completing the film, it has been shortlisted for the AHRC Research in Film awards, category 'International Development: Mobilising Global Voices', reported in The Namibian newspaper namibian.com.na/171747/archive-read/Damara-film-in-top-10-at-British-film-awards. DVDs of the film have also been distributed to schools throughout Namibia for the 2017 School Clubs and Museums Exhibition (SCAMX) Competition (12-15 September 2017), following a request by the Museums Association of Namibia (MAN). SCAMX is intended to enhance innovation and transformative development, as well as heritage awareness, amongst Namibian young people. Sixteen schools throughout Namibia who applied to participate in the competition were reached through the distribution of films by Future Pasts. Our film presents highlights from the 2016 Damara King's Festival. Lineages from all over the country arrive dressed in the emblematic blue, green and white of the Damara nation. Women wear long Victorian dresses and shawls that mimic the attire of influential colonial missionaries whilst men are adorned in matching T-shirts and remnants of colonial and WWI military paraphernalia. Others remember their pre-colonial pasts by wearing costumes made of skins of the wild animals that supported their forebears. In 2016 the festival took place at the end of an intense three-year drought. Calling for rain formed a major focus of the festival which, in a potent moment of relief and gratitude, was blessed by the first showers of the season. Overall, the festival is an annual ritual of renewal enabling performers and audience alike to ‘think aloud’ about their identities, histories and imaginaries for the future. It is not staged for outside consumption. The Namibian film organisation Mamokobo, through the AHRC-funded research project Future Pasts (futurepasts.net, AH/K005871/2) and in collaboration with the Damara King’s Festival Organising Committee, is therefore privileged to have made the first filmed record of this event. The performative and participatory ethos of festivals gives voice to cultural identities, vividly conveying people’s sense of community, place and belonging. Having been profoundly displaced by German colonialism (1884-1915) and by seven decades of discriminatory South African rule, this film offers an intimate portrait of one community’s diverse celebration of itself. The complexity of expression distilled in our film refracts development trajectories that may simplify cultural identities and concerns.