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Internship
Experience
By:Paul
Tichman
The
first intern to be placed under the Project’s internship program
has been living and working in Durban since February 2001. Hallie
Stone, a graduate student at Indiana University, built upon contacts
she made at the Project’s training institute in East Lansing
in July 2000, to create a proposal for a partnership with the Local
History Museums, Durban. The Local History Museums undertook to
provide Hallie with office space and a computer as well as access
to the Local History Museums’ collections during her research
term. In keeping with the Project’s principles of exchange
and collaboration, she will make her research findings available
to the Local History Museums as well as to produce an exhibition
based on her research. The focus of Hallie’s study, “Social
Dance in Shebeens in Umlazi and KwaMashu”, ties in with
Kwa Muhle Museum’s focus on urban social history and therefore
such an exhibition would benefit the Local History Museums.
In the course of her research, Hallie has also visited several shebeens
in KwaMashu and Umlazi, where she held interviews with patrons and
shebeen owners. The Local History Museums have loaned her a cassette
recorder as required. In addition to audio recording, she has videotaped
interviews and dance with the shebeens visited.
On
18 May Hallie participated in a workshop on Oral Histories, History,
Heritage and Orality, presented jointly by the South African Museums
Association (SAMA) KwaZulu-Natal branch and the Local History Museums,
Durban, to celebrate International Museums Day. Hallie’s paper
was entitled “Shebeens & Cultural Practice in KwaMashu
and Umlazi.” Her presentation provided interesting information
not only on contemporary music and dance within shebeens in the
townships, but also on the social structure of the shebeen setting
and gender relations within that setting.
Hallie’s research has uncovered interesting information not
only on the shebeens but also on general cultural trends relating
to music and dance within KwaMashu and Umlazi. We look forward to
an exciting exhibition arising from her research.
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