Trammakassea* 2024 World Ocean Day is a focused lecture series that will take place from Friday the 7^th June – Saturday 8^th June. The aim of the series is to catalyse action for our oceans and climate change, by bringing together a diverse group of storytellers, scientists and activists to discuss, debate and engage key themes.

 

Key themes that the discussions will cover:

 

·      Ocean Ecologies: From the Apex to the Microscopic

Ocean Ecologies explores the ecological connections between species from a scientific point of view. For this session we will have scientists discussing their work on charismatic and microscopic species, who together form part of a fragile intricate ecosystem.

 

·      Ocean Defenders: Conservation, Privilege, and Human Rights

Ocean defenders explores the complexities and tensions around conservation discourse, practice and human rights. This theme seeks to interrogate the ways that privilege operates under the guise of environmentalism and conservation to exclude/negate indigenous knowledge and community experience.

 

·      Ocean Stories: Meaning, Memories and Struggles

Ocean stories explores the socio-historic relationship of communities and their connection as well as disconnection to the ocean. This theme looks at remembering and methods of recall that have survived and provide methods of survival and ways to make sense of the past and the present.

 

The festival will take place at the Museum on the 7^th and 8^th June 2024. We hope the festival will be educational, interactive, and engaging, through talks, panel discussions, debates, films and storytelling.

 

*Trammakassie is a derivative of the Melayu word ‘ Teramah Kasih’. It travelled from the South East Asian archipelagos across the ocean to the shores of Cape Town in the1700s. Trammakassie, or thank you in English, reflects an experience of and connection to the ocean. It is a word that tells a story of slavery, of exile,and a reconstitution of home.

 

The Simon’s Town Museum is committed to creating interdisciplinary platforms on which diverse and difficult conversations can take place. Our mission is to create an inclusive and active Museum space. However, Museum spaces like library spaces are under threat of possible closures due to budget cuts. It is now more important than ever that the role that Museums and libraries play in our society our showcased. By participating in this series you not only show case your expertise in your field, but you stake a commitment that both the Museum and the cultural heritage it safeguards.