Decolonising the Dinosaurs with the Namibian National Earth Sciences Museum, Helke Mocke

Robert O'Toole, director of the Digital Arts and Humanities Lab at Warwick University, recently did a short expedition around Namibia. In this interview he talks with Helke Mocke, Chief GeoscientistNational Earth Science Museum in Windhoek, about the museum and how it works within national, regional, and international networks to preserve, research, present, and (most importantly) understand the meaning of Namibia's fossil record.The small museum is nicely designed to tell the fascinating story of ancient life on earth, but also to be a place where people of all kinds can come together and make sense of it for themselves. But what we don't see, and what we learn about in this podcast, is the work that goes on behind the scenes to preserve and protect discoveries, to work with colonial museums to repatriate artefacts, and to create a museum that works with communities in the post-colonial reality of modern Namibia. It's interesting to note that after independence was won from South Africa (who had taken over from the Germans), a deliberate move was made away from museums being about preserving monuments, towards being about enriching culture and community. Real decolonisation in action.Enjoy!