FRIENDS
OF IZIKO
SOUTH AFRICAN
MUSEUM
Non-Profit Organisation 052-511-NPO
Postal address: P O Box 61 Cape Town 8000 South Africa
Physical address: 25 Queen Victoria Street Cape Town SA
Phone: 021 481 3913 Fax: 021 481 3993
Cell: 072 225 6893 E-mail: [email protected]
Website http://www.iziko.org.za/; http://www.iziko.org.za/
static/page/friends-of-the-south-african-museum
NEWSLETTER – FEBRUARY 2016
The holiday season has passed and the Friends
programme for 2016 is about to commence. Members
are in for a treat with interesting lectures and some
exciting new outings are being planned. Suggestions
from members for lectures and outings are most
welcome, please do keep us informed.
2016 MEMBERSHIP
Your 2015 membership expired on 31 December. If
you have not already done so, please remember to
renew your membership. It is helpful to complete
and return the membership renewal form to assist in
record keeping. Some deposits have been made
without a reference being given which means we
have been unable to identify who made the payment.
If you have paid and not yet received your 2016
sticker, please email proof of payment to
arrange for your renewal to be processed.
See the Iziko website to download the membership
form: http://www.iziko.org.za/static/page/friends-ofthe-south-african-museum
LECTURE PROGRAMME 2016
Lectures are held in the TH Barry Lecture Theatre at
18:00, unless otherwise advertised. Entrance is free to
members on presentation of a valid 2016 membership
card. Visitors are asked for a donation of R30 per lecture.
Tuesday 23 February 2016
Speaker: Norman Larsen
Title: Spiders and the myths about spider bites
Arachnid authority, Norman Larsen, will discuss the life
history of spiders and the myth of spider bites. His talk
will give interesting insight into spiders as well as
providing information regarding spider bites. The lecture
will be followed by a night field walk in Newlands Forest
on Saturday 12 March at 20:00 for a spider-spotting safari.
Norman is the author and photographer of the Museum’s
bioweb page on spiders, scorpions and solifuges and
has published several articles as well as revised two field
guides to assist in the identification of spiders in Southern
Africa.
Tuesday 29 March
Speaker: Dr Samantha Masters – Department of Ancient
Studies, University of Stellenbosch
Title: Pottery (and poetry) from the ancient Greek
symposium
Iziko Museums of South Africa own several delicately
painted pieces of fine Attic pottery. Such items would, in
antiquity, have mainly been used in the context of the
famous ancient Greek symposium (‘drinking party’) for
the storage, preparation, pouring and drinking of wine.
This lecture will present 5 key pieces from the collection
and investigate the stories that they can tell us. We will
explore their manufacture and uses in antiquity, as well
as their more recent stories of museum acquisition and
display.
Tuesday 26 April
Speaker: Associate Professor Mike Picker – Department
of Zoology, University of Cape Town
Title: Namibian fairy circles – still mysterious?
The Namibian fairy circles are such dramatic landscape
features that one would assume that their origin and
nature would by now, be resolved.
NEW MEMBERS
Welcome to the following new members:
Wendy Gaisford
Hugh and Urszula Perry
Albert-Henri van Zyl
Peter Winterbottom
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Instead, the debate about their causes and why they
live for decades has intensified. The two main
competing theories are the plant self-organisation
model, and the Sand termite model. The evidence for
both models is presented, together with future work
that is being conducted to support the Sand termite
model. The talk will include comparisons with other
dramatic patterns in landscapes that have biological
origins.
Tuesday 31 May
Speaker: Dr Jill Weintroub
Title: Colonial Adventurer or Loyal Follower?
Re-visiting the life and scholarship of Dorothea Bleek
How has history treated Dorothea Bleek? Was she a
scholar in her own right, or did she merely follow in
the footsteps of her famous father, and her aunt and
mentor Lucy Lloyd? In much of current
scholarship on the Bleek-Lloyd research project
Dorothea’s oeuvre rarely warrants close attention.
But a close reading of her field notebooks, personal
correspondence and published and unpublished
work reveals a complex character whose
scholarship and research is complicated by
idiosyncratic personal and intellectual agendas. The
written record of Dorothea’s fieldwork shows her
engaging with the landscape and the people in a
myriad of complex and contradictory ways.
This presentation looks at Dorothea’s biography, her
childhood in Mowbray, her schooling and tertiary
education in Europe, and her fieldwork in southern
Africa, and evaluates her research and scholarship in
light of these.
Tuesday 28 June
Speaker: TBA
Tuesday 26 July
Speaker: Professor Mike Burton
Title: The life and death of the dodo
The dodo is known to most people as a bird that was
designed to go extinct. But what is the truth about
this remarkable bird? Where did it originate? How
did it get to Mauritius? What kind of bird was it?
What did it look like? How did it breed and feed?
Also, why is the Dodo so well known to us whereas
many other birds that have gone extinct have
disappeared from our memory? Most importantly,
why did the Dodo (and many other large island
birds) die out, and what lessons does its extinction
teach us? These and many other questions will be
answered and discussed in this fascinating illustrated
talk.
Professor Mike Bruton is an Honorary Research
Associate of the South African Institute for Aquatic
Biodiversity and a Life Time Achievement Award
winner with the National Science & Technology
Forum. He now runs a museum design company
(Mike Bruton Imagineering) in Cape Town and
recently published his autobiography, ‘When I was
a Fish. Tales of an Ichthyologist’ (Jacana Media). He
has a passionate interest in fishes, birds, lizards,
fossils, evolution, extinction, islands, bicycles,
edutainment, Alice in Wonderland and unexplained
phenomena, and likes to share his passion with o
thers.
Above: Dodo and skeleton of dodo in London Natural
History Museum
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OUTINGS 2016
Booking and advance payment to secure your
booking is essential for all outings.
Thursday 3 March 10:30 including lunch
A guided tour of the Hotel Verde, the award winning
eco-friendly hotel which will be followed by lunch.
Saturday 12 March 20:00 – 22:00
Norman Larsen leads a night field walk in Newlands
Forest for a spider-spotting safari. The outing will
take place on an easy path, so is suitable for those
who are reasonably fit.
Please bring torches/headlight, FRESH BATTERIES
are essential.
Meeting time 19:45 to start at 20:00 at the helicopter
pad in Newlands forest, park in the parking area.
Fee:
Members: R50
Non-members: R60
To secure your booking,
please respond by email
including proof of payment.
Charlotte Honiball
Friends of Iziko South African Museum
Bank details below.
ABSA Heerengracht
Account no: 404 033 1827
Branch code: 632 005
Name of account: Friends of the South African Museum
Reference: SPIDERS + your name
E-mail proof of payment to: [email protected]
Please do not deposit cash or a cheque into this
account because the Friends will be debited with the
bank charges incurred. An EFT is the only way the
avoid such charges.
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