The KZN Museum celebrated Biodiversity Day on the 22nd of May 2019.  The Theme was “Connecting to our biodiversity, our food, our health”. 7 schools participated by bring in just under 130 learners to the Museum to learn about the role of nature in ensuring human health and good nutrition.
The various specialist staff from our Natural Science Department provided presentations on various aspects of Biodiversity. Dr. Tsuura from the University of KwaZulu-Natal was the guest speaker at this event and his presentation demonstrated great insight on African Biodiversity.

The KZN Museum marked International Museum Day by setting up a stand at the Liberty Midlands Mall. The public were treated to many give-aways including free entry tickets to the Museum. This was a great opportunity to interact with the public and find our what they love about this Museum. Incidently it is also the Year of the Fly. The Mall was gracious to allow the Museum to also put up a display on flies, for the week. #yearofthefly #diptera #IMD2019 #kznmuseum

There will be a talk  "South African Rock Art: A brief introduction" by Jeremy Hollmann at the KZN Museum on on Saturday, June 15th at 10:30 am.  

About the talk: A great deal of attention has been paid to the rock art made by the hunter-gatherer ancestors of the San. We appreciate their finely made, life like depictions of animals and people. We also understand something of the worldview of which rock art was part. But there exist two other distinct image-making practices in South Africa. They differ from the hunter-gatherer art in terms of geographic distribution, location of painted images in the landscape, the methods of applying the pigment, and the cultural practices associated with the images. In the dry western parts of South Africa and Namibia are painted and engraved schematic (geometric) motifs. At the same time, in parts of Limpopo Province, there are sites at which bold, white, finger-painted images of people and artefacts in proximity to the location at which initiation performances were held. The presentation will be a virtual tour of South Africa as we visit some of these places. We will see examples of these 'traditions' and touch on their social significance.

In April, Ghilraen Laue (Human Sciences Department) and Samukelisiwe Ngubane (Education Department) visited St Martin’s Pre-primary in Durban to educate the learners about archaeology. The 144 pre-schoolers were given a lecture punctuated by fun activities where they learned the basics of archaeology and archaeological methods. This was followed by two interactive activities where the learners got to practice painting with natural pigments like the San and where they got to experience what it is like to take part in an archaeological excavation