I have to admit that this is the subject I have hard the most difficult time in understanding and accepting. Since I haven't been an open minded person when it comes to other religions and cultures, non of it mattered to me, it was only my religion and culture that meant something.
So doing cultural heritage and all the legal aspects that go into it, either bored me to the point where I wanted to run into a wall or made me so angry I wanted to rip up any paper that had the words CULTURAL HERITAGE on them. We had a mayor group debate about how to handle finding a heritage site on your property etc and I was the only one that thought hiring a bulldozer and just driving over the site was the best idea. We fought and fought and I can't say that I have joined the dark side (my debating team) but I can say that I am more open minded about these things and I have a lot more respect for other cultures and religions.
We went on a tour on the farm and we found a site where people used to live and it was very interesting to imagine folklore type of people living there and children running around playing. I was less worried about the mundane things like finding pottery or metal, as we did. I was more concentrated on the fun stuff, I found a hole that could have been used perfectly as a toilet and I found a slip and slide on the side of the mountain where the kids could have kept themselves busy.
Now apart from finding a site, there are so many responsibilities that go along with it, you have to manage and preserve the site according to legal aspects etc etc etc (blah blah blah).
Here comes the hardest part about the whole escapade for me, if a family can prove that their ancestors lived on this land, you have to accommodate them since even though you bought the land, it's still in their name as by a national law concerning cultural and ancestral sites. So you have a choice of how you would like t accommodate them and they have to agree, you can grant them visits to the site or actually give them a piece of land that they can own and farm with. If you do not abide with this law, you will receive land claims and stand a really big chance of losing your property. So you understand why I've been having difficulty with this, right?
But finding a site isn't as bad as I am portraying it, if you have a Resort this is a stunning tourist attraction since you can show guests these sites when going on a game drive or game walk. It can also be an excellent chance to educate people on cultures and culture heritage.
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| The first piece of metal we discovered on the Tambuki koppie. |
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| A few random shards. |
