The Austrian anthropologist, ethnologist and researcher Adolf Pöch visits South Africa in the early 1900’s. His mission? Collecting human remains, bushman remains. This becomes an important factor in the market for human remains and as such, the trade in stolen bones and bodies. Pöch’s collection of bones leads him to become the first professor in Anthropology in Austria and his work ends up contributing to the “race science” of the day, providing “scientific” backing for the ideologies of the 20th century such as facism, nazism and apartheid.
SEASON ONE
BUILT FROM BONES
The re:collection podcast is a public history narrative podcast. Through interviews, scenic narratives and creative sound design, the podcast sets out to understand the origins of historical, colonial collections in museums and other scientific institutions focusing especially on Southern Africa.
Audio Documentary Podcast
COMING 2025
In a storage facility in a South African museum are the stolen remains of hundreds of people. Some of them are the ancestors of ‡Khomani San community elder Petrus Vaalboi. After decades of fighting, the Museum has promised to facilitate the return of the ancestors to Petrus’ community in the Kalahari. But the road ahead is difficult and a bloody past still casts long shadows.