Exhibition to celebrate history and discoveries
IZIKO Museums of South Africa celebrates the country’s polar heritage and the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty with the opening of an exhibition tomorrow.
This will coincide with international Antarctica Day and the opening of the annual Antarctic Season. The exhibition, entitled Sentinels
of the South, examines the history, discoveries and current role of South Africa’s Antarctic and Southern Ocean exploration.
It takes visitors through the history and challenges of early Antarctic exploration, and South Africa’s role in this. The rich and unique biodiversity found on these islands, and the role these islands play in helping us understand some of the global issues affecting everyday South Africans, are highlighted. The exhibition showcases South Africa’s multidisciplinary Antarctic scientific endeavours, our state-of-the-art research facilities, and our flagship research vessel, the SA Agulhas II.
“The team of the Iziko Museums of South Africa have been doing pioneering research delving into Antarctic ecosystems – we see it befitting to share this knowledge with our public, to inform visitors around the role of these ecosystems in understanding Earth and its future. We are thrilled to be launching an exhibition of this calibre, and look forward to welcoming visitors to this new, exciting and educational exhibition,” said Rooksana Omar, chief executive of Iziko Museums.
Antarctic ecosystems, including South Africa’s Prince Edward Islands, are exceptionally important in understanding our planet and its future. The isolation and the extreme weather conditions prevailing there means that they still contain some of the most untouched ecosystems on earth, making them exceptional natural “laboratories”. Yet, they have not remained unaffected by global changes such as climate change and the introduction of invasive species.
Because of their isolation and the long-term research conducted in these areas, global effects can be more easily monitored and identified, making them an ideal early warning system for scientists studying the impact of environmental changes.
Antarctic Legacy of South Africa (Alsa)
Since South Africa annexed the Prince Edward Islands in 1948, South African researchers have undertaken regular expeditions to the Antarctic Continent, the Prince Edward Islands and Gough Island, as well as elsewhere in the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic Legacy of SA is based at the department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, and is funded by the National Research Foundation as part of the South African National Antarctic Programme, to preserve this rich human history of the expeditions conducted over the past 70 years.
The Alsa website (www.antarcticlegacy.org) serves as a public portal to provide access to this information which contains more than 20 000 records.
The Antarctic Legacy of South Africa project, in collaboration with Iziko Museums, is preserving the polar heritage of South Africa by making it available in this new exhibit. During the opening of Sentinels of
the South at the Iziko, a new art publication by Jess Verheul, and published by Alsa, will be launched.
The book consists of 49 sketches, including three poems depicting scenes experienced by Verheul during her Antarctic expedition. |