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2004 National College Media Convention
Next Generation Radio Project
Nashville, Tennessee
November 2-6, 2004
Julia Romano's Script
 Hear Julia's piece
INTRO: Five years ago Vetkat Kruiper fought for land. Now he is fighting to preserve his people's way of life. Vetkat wants to build a museum in the Kalahari to house the collection of art he and other Bushmen artists have made as a historical account of their struggle -- and their victory. Recently Vetkat traveled to the U.S. to garner financial support for his project. Next Generation's Julia Romano spoke with the traditional artist during his recent visit to New York.
Vetkat is his nickname, and he even looks like a cat, his body small and sleek, his face shaped by a long angular chin, high sharp cheek bones and deep-set, intense eyes. Vetkat's hands are artist's hands, strong, quick, delicate, and as we speak they move, toying with a loose thread or the end of his shirt, as if impatiently waiting to be given purpose, a chance to create...
(IC: 29:19): "The first works were all dark, dark colors, just images... (OC:29:25)
...Vetkat's wife Belinda describes his art.
(IC:29:25)...and then the world started lightening up, you start seeing colors, you start seeing trees budding , not just dead trees anymore, you see harmony with the snakes and nature and the plants, little kids, he put names, he put writing on the art...(OC: 29:37)
...but before the harmony, there was the discord. In the 1970s, the white South African government forced the Bushmen to leave their ancestral grounds, and for years the Bushmen way of life was thought lost. But a decade ago, the Bushmen reemerged, and Vetkat's community began a tough and bitter battle with the South African government. They won their case and the right to return to their land. But political struggle and poverty continued to ravage the community. The Bushmen may have won their land back, but they lost their sense of self in the process.
(IC: 21:05) Bushmen are not about title deeds and land ownership, it's a Western concept... They had to get the land claim -- it didn't bring any joy... there's probably a thousand more problems since the land has been given to the Khomani San than ever before. Actually, wonder what it is? And then there is an answer. Spiritually it is not the way" (OC: 21:48)
Although not a Bushmen herself, Belinda soon realized that the true victory would come not only in reclaiming the land, but in reclaiming the Bushmen culture and preserving their way of life... and that meant preserving the traditional art.
(IC: 20:34)"...so there has to be two journeys, this parallel stuff needs to happen, the visible stuff, the politics, but the heart needs the same material and attention, because it's through the art and through the living people that we are going to find the answers for humanity and to so-called "save the Bushmen."(OC: 20:53)
Art saved Vetkat and Belinda. So even in the Kalahari, a place whose name means "the great thirst," flowers bloom.
(bring up trance dance)
Vetkat speaking (14:24 - 15:41) and Belinda translating (IC: 15:58): Yes, you go through thirsts and you go through hunger in that very hot dry country, but... you always return back to the land and to nature... and even if you don't have a book or a pen, you let out, you draw on the sand dunes... so in itself the Kalahari embodies the inspiration, the art that's within, and the more you let out, the better you feel, and that's when the flower opens up, so that you look at life differently even though you are hungry and you are going through hardships... (OC:16:43)
...Vetkat is one of the last traditional artists in South Africa's Kalahari. He sketches dancing figures in grains of sand, paints on trunks of trees and across rock faces. His canvas -- the desert landscape -- has helped heal him. Stretching across five countries in Southern Africa, the Kalahari Desert is known to many as "the healing land." And Belinda realized that just as the art healed Vetkat, it could heal something in the larger community. But first, they'd have to turn the Bushmen away from a history of dispossession toward a future of preservation.
(IC: 36:32) "There needs to be something visible for the Kalahari, for people from all over the world to know that the Bushmen did it, that they have their own museum now. (OC:36:41)
Belinda and Vetkat's goal is to pick up where the western political organizations fall short and build a living museum -- one that will grow as the people grow. They envision a museum constructed in the typical Kalahari style -- in shack form almost, with corrugated sheets and grass, and built by the Kalahari people themselves.
(IC:33:25) "I do not want to see it in the Smithsonian, I do not want to see it in the National Gallery in Cape Town, or in a Botswana Gallery, or in a Durban Gallery... it needs to be in the Kalahari as a living heritage, an honor to the first people, but for all people... (OC: 34:01)
The museum will exhibit a collection of artwork called the "sacred collection," a series of 23 pieces by Vetkat and other Kalahari artists which tell the story of the struggles of the last decade. The museum will do more than just display art, it will be a community gathering space. Vetkat and Belinda envision a space where Bushmen can gather around a fire, create art, exchange ideas. To fund their vision, Vetkat and Belinda don't want to undermine the project's mission of preservation...
(IC: 32:49)"We didn't want to sell all the original art we don't want to go the way that the aboriginals did and the North American Indians did, and in a hundred years from now have to fight and still hungry.some we had to sell, but we know where the art pieces are, it's friends and family who supported us and knew we had to pay rent and food.. "(OC: 33:10)
The Kalahari community is desperately poor. Building a museum may be expensive, but if the Bushmen keep creating art, it may prove rewarding in more than one way, Belinda says.
(IC: 38:07) "The lesson we've also learned up to now through the art world is that art has value, just like diamonds, just like land, so the more originals we can retain and start printing, we are on our way to a sustainable livelihood and most of it will go to the children to secure a future for them...(OC: 38:25)
In order to formalize the project, Belinda and Vetkat founded a non-governmental organization. The ARA Foundation has been given custodianship of the "sacred collection." But the foundation isn't like any other foundation. It's organized around the South African concept of ubuntu, which says that by belonging to a community, the individual becomes strengthened. And with stronger individuals, the community is in turn fortified. Belinda says that just as Vetkat became stronger through art, so too will the Bushman community.
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