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Feb 10, 2011
Media contact: Anne Russell
Cell: 604-798-3709
Office: 604-795-2826
anne.russell@ufv.ca
Hugh Brody to speak at UFV on African Bushmen’s land claim experience
Land claims are an issue of extreme importance to aboriginal peoples all over the world, and indigenous groups who are involved in land claims have much to learn from the experiences of others.
Anthropologist Hugh Brody, the holder of UFV’s Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies, has worked with aboriginal groups in several different areas. He will be sharing his experiences with the Khomani San of the Southern Kalahari, also known as Bushmen, at a lecture and film screening at UFV on Tuesday, Feb 15.
Brody will be showing his film The Khomani San of the Southern Kalahari at 4:30 pm at the Abbotsford campus lecture theatre (Room B101). Admission is free and the public is welcome.
An anthropologist, author, and filmmaker, Brody is the director of over 12 documentary films and author of nine books. He has been at the forefront of defending indigenous land rights for over 40 years.
In April, 1999 the Nelson Mandela government signed the first-ever land claim settlement with a Bushman community. Through this settlement the Khomani San, among the most oppressed and dispossessed people of South Africa, were given land, recognition, and a right to tell their story.
The 17-minute film is a small part of the presentation. Brody will also be speaking extensively on his experience with the Khomani San.
“The Khomani San have been engaged in a successful land claim - the first for Bushmen of southern Africa,” notes Brody. “This happened with strong awareness of the Canadian experience. The claim went through in 1999, supported by the new Mandela government. In a way, all such claims have much in common, but it is remarkable for one to be given
direct support by the government of the country where the claim is being made.”
Brody will discussing the land claim process, but also its aftermath.
“Since the claim went through, there have been many complications. People who unite around the struggle for justice can find it much more difficult to unite about making use of the benefits of a claim. The story that I will be telling goes from the vision of the claim, through
its success and then into its implications and consequences.”
Brody will also be part of the team teaching the Indigenous Maps, Films, Rights, and Land Claims certificate program, to be held at the UFV Chilliwack campus in May and June.
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