MDUKATSHANI 50 Years of Beading 1969 -2019 Cover images: Top left: Mdukatshani beads modelled for World on a String, A Companion for Bead Lovers by Diana Friedburg and Joel Lipton Top right: Verushka – our first celebrity customer. Bottom left: Ngenzeni Mvelase – a veteran Mdukatshani beader. Bottom right: Beaded bowl and balls made for World on a String A Companion for Bead Lovers by Diana Friedburg and Joel Lipton Mdukatshani – Fifty Years of Beading The Common Denominator Government lorries – GG trucks. Forced removals affected the lives of crafters at Maria Ratchitz Mission, Limehill, Weenen, Msinga, Waayhoek, Mbulwana and Nhlawe. Contents Maria Ratschitz Catholic Mission .............................................................................................................................................. 2 A Message from our Trustees ................................................................................................................................................... 3 The Beginning ............................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Springvale ................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Mdukatshani ............................................................................................................................................................................... 8 The Children ............................................................................................................................................................................. 12 A Haute Couture Collection In Paris ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Celebrities ................................................................................................................................................................................. 15 The First Ten Years At Mdukatshani ....................................................................................................................................... 16 Our Creative Director ............................................................................................................................................................... 18 Waayhoek And Mbulwana ....................................................................................................................................................... 20 The Beaded Copper Eggs ......................................................................................................................................................... 22 Nhlawe ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 24 The River Crossings ................................................................................................................................................................. 26 A Home For The Beads ............................................................................................................................................................ 28 Graduation Day ......................................................................................................................................................................... 30 The Stops ................................................................................................................................................................................... 32 The Twin Towers ...................................................................................................................................................................... 33 World On A String .................................................................................................................................................................... 34 Our Guys ................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 Home Ground .......................................................................................................................................................................... 36 Changing Fashions ................................................................................................................................................................... 38 Our Helpers ............................................................................................................................................................................... 40 Our Suppliers ............................................................................................................................................................................ 42 Our Funders .............................................................................................................................................................................. 43 Roll Call ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 44 What We Make .......................................................................................................................................................................... 48 The Mdukatshani Projects: Who We Are ............................................................................................................................... 51 The End – or Another Beginning? .......................................................................................................................................... 53 Obituaries .................................................................................................................................................................................. 54 An Extended Family ................................................................................................................................................................. 56 Some Of Our Customers .......................................................................................................................................................... 57 Mdukatshani Craft and Welfare Trust Trustees: Deborah Ewing, GG Alcock, Trevor Dugmore, Kusakusa Mbokazi, Mkhosi Mchunu, Khonzokwake Mvelase Postal address: Mdukatshani Craft and Welfare Trust, P O Box 795, Hilton, 3245 Physical address: Mdukatshani, Loraine Farm, Weenen, 3325 Website: www.mdukatshani.com Email: [email protected] Phone: 082 856 9861 Mdukatshani Craft and Welfare Trust No. IT757/2010/PMB Mdukatshani – Fifty Years of Beading 1 Maria Ratschitz Catholic Mission The First Crafts The Mdukatshani Bead Project was never planned. It happened almost accidentally, a small part of an ecumenical organisation called Church Agricultural Projects (CAP) which was then based on Maria Ratschitz Catholic Mission near Wasbank, KwaZulu-Natal. CAP was founded in 1965 to develop derelict church land to produce food and training for rural African communities, but this changed when the apartheid government announced plans for large-scale forced removals in the district, starting with the African residents on the mission. Only those in full time employment were exempt, so CAP set up a basketwork project using osiers grown on the mission. The project was a week old when the Dundee Bantu Commissioner arrived in October 1967 to do a head count, reluctantly adding the obviously inexperienced weavers to the list of those allowed to stay. The crafts soon expanded to include pottery, wool weaving, and sewing projects which were designed to provide an income not only for mission residents, but for neighbouring communities who were forcibly removed to the Limehill resettlement area in January 1968. (For a more detailed history of Mdukatshani see Page 51). Volunteer Carolyn Moult with the Matiwane sewing group Nancy Kumalo, our basketwork instructor Kherorana Dube, one of the potters Nancy Khumalo Generosa Hlatshwayo Generosa Hlatshwayo with handwoven cushions and bags Kherorana Dube 2 Mdukatshani – Fifty Years of Beading A MESSAGE FROM OUR TRUSTEES The celebration of 50 years of beading at Msinga is a story of limitless imagining, of stringing drops of light together through what is bleak and broken, to make it magnificent. Just as each bead on a thread is uniquely beautiful, it becomes part of a pattern that creates meaning and function. Just as each item of beadwork is a single piece of art, it links people together through ideas and skills, through passion and determination. In telling this story of the crafters of the Mdukatshawni Rural Development Project (formerly Church Agricultural Projects – CAP), Creina Alcock holds up the beads and the cotton, the copper and the gold so that they reflect not only the sun but also the light and shade of the lives they carry. In the early years, the project had 300 beaders and Mdukatshani beadwork became renowned from New York to Paris to London. Within these pages, a sculptor, a sangoma (traditional healer) and a supermodel are among many sharing the stage. The project has Deborah Ewing, Chair of Mdukatshani connected people across continents