Southern African Rock Art Project

Rock art sites are a unique and lasting testament to the customs and beliefs of the indigenous societies that created them. Southern Africa has one of the world's great repositories of rock art. In the Southern African region, rock art is endangered due to development and increased tourism, which at some sites has resulted in irreversible damage and loss. The Southern African Rock Art Project (SARAP) sought to strengthen rock art preservation, conservation, accessibility, and management in this region.

• A two-week workshop in 2005 on rock art site management planning held at Mapungubwe National Park. Twenty-three participants attended from various parts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, drafting management plans for four rock art sites within the national park.
• A three-week accredited course in 2005 on rock art tourist guiding was hosted by the Clanwilliam Living Landscape Project and CapeNature in the Cederberg Wilderness Area in South Africa. Nineteen participants, many of whom worked at national parks and in heritage tourism, came from South Africa, as well as from neighboring Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania; several were representatives of the San community.
• A two-week workshop in 2006 was held in the Cederberg in collaboration with the Clanwilliam Living Landscape Project. Attended by fourteen participants from Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, this workshop developed management plans for rock art sites in the Cederberg with input from local representatives of the tourism industry and culminated with draft management plans for four rock art sites.
• A three-week rock art tourist guiding course was held at Mapungubwe National Park in 2006 for twenty participants from various national and private parks, universities, and tourist lodges in South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. Participants learned about the significance of rock art of the Limpopo area and the regional landscape, as well as about guiding and interpretation skills.
• A 2007 three-week workshop on rock art interpretation and presentation was attended by sixteen participants from South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, most of whom were personnel at national and regional parks. The first week was spent in Johannesburg, based at the Rock Art Research Institute's Origins Centre, and in Pretoria. The following two weeks were spent at Mapungubwe National Park, where participants drafted an interpretation plan and designed signage, pamphlets, a website homepage, educational material, and a display for rock art at the new interpretation center being built at the park.
• A two-and-a-half week workshop in 2008 on site management planning at Mapungubwe National Park included eleven participants, primarily from South Africa but also from Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Work included updating three site-specific management plans for sites that could be opened to the public for guided visits, detailed documentation of four sites that could also be opened to the public, and revision of the generic management plan for rock art sites in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA).
• A two-week workshop in 2009 in the Cederberg focused on issues related to rock art conservation interventions and was attended by nineteen participants from Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa. Practical field exercises focused primarily on interventions for graffiti mitigation and assessing the effectiveness of prior interventions.
• A three-week course on rock art tourist guiding was hosted again by the Clanwilliam Living Landscape Project in South Africa in 2011. The course was attended by seventeen participants from Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa and most participants received South African national certifications for tourist guiding of rock art sites in the Cederberg region.
• A two-week program in 2012 hosted by IPPHA for a group from southern African countries structured around site visits starting in Canberras, Australia, and continuing on to Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The visit enabled an exchange of expertise, knowledge, and the beginning of enduring contacts.
• A 2013 reciprocal exchange in South Africa for those participating in the Australian workshop with meetings at selected sites to further strengthen contacts, enhance conservation practice, and study indigenous management practices and sustainable use of sites.

Rock art sites are a unique and lasting testament to the customs and beliefs of indigenous societies that have created them. Southern Africa contains one of the world's great repositories of rock art. In the region, rock paintings and engravings together record—over a period of nearly thirty millennia—the interactions of humans with one another and with their environment, and provide a significant depiction of their spiritual and ritual practices. Some of the sites are considered creative masterpieces. There is an ethnographic record from the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly from the San people who created rock art in the region, which allows interpretation of some of the metaphors and symbols that are hundreds and even thousands of years old.

The Institute's past rock art efforts were valuable in structuring its involvement in rock art protection through the Southern African Rock Art Project.

Conservation Institute: Neville Agnew,David Myers, Ayda Haghighatgoo, Luann Manning, Trinidad Rico, Liz Werden, Beverly Weisblatt

Consultants: Janette Deacon, coordination, workshop content development, training; Claire Dean, rock art site conservation intervention training (2009); Jo-Anne Duggan, interpretation and presentation training (2007); Siyakha Mguni, tourist guide training (2011); John Parkington, tourist guide training (2005); Andrew Salamon (RARI), rock art recording (2005); Catherine Namono (RARI), rock art recording (2006); Pascall Taruvinga, workshop coordination, training (2005-2009); Paul Warmeant, tourist guide training (2005, 2006)

UNESCO World Heritage Fund for workshop participants’ travel and other expenses (2005, 2006)

South African National Parks (SANParks), South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), Clanwilliam Living Landscape Project, CapeNature, Rock Art Research Institute (RARI), Institute for Professional Practice in Heritage and the Arts at the Australian National University, SARAP member countries