22 September 2004 Press Release MuseuMAfrica Celebrates Rich Heritage of Fietas As part of the City of Johannesburg's Heritage Day programme, MuseuMAfricA will launch the "Making of a Fietas Quilt" exhibition. Opening on Friday, 24 September 2004 at 17:30, the centrepiece of the exhibition is a quilt made up small squares of fabric sewn together containing celebratory messages, memories and emotions of people from Fietas", a once thriving, vibrant urban community forcibly removed by the apartheid government in the 1970s. The quilt is a product of last year's Fietas Festival, an annual community arts and cultural event that takes place in the exact location of the old Pageview and Vrededorp community. First inaugurated in 2002, this festival is part of the more general process by communities who were displaced by the draconian laws of the past, to reclaim their heritage and celebrate the dynamic spirit and soul of the communities they once formed part of. This is what the Fietas quilt signifies most - each square, which makes up the quilt highlights just how important and indelible the memory of Fietas is to the people who once lived and thrived there. Despite the brutal removal of the Fietas population which began in the late 1960s and the gradual erosion of the community in subsequent years, its memory lives on. Fietas clearly was a "place of experience" and its past, celebrated in words and pictures on the squares making up the quilt, still continues to evoke a sense of belonging among the past residents. Apart from exhibiting the quilt, the exhibition also marks the start of a partnership between MuseuMAfricA and the Fietas Festival organisers, which, it is hoped, will have many positive spin-offs for both the museum and the Fietas residents. Since few objects can be found in museum collections that can give the history of Fietas a more tangible form, MuseuMAfricA will provide curatorial assistance to members of the Fietas community to collect, preserve, store and exhibit objects detailing the history of Fietas. Over the next few years, it is hoped that the collection will grow and that it will eventually be housed and exhibited in a community-run museum in Pageview. For more information please contact: Deon van Tonder Chief Curator: MuseuMAfricA Tel: +2711 833-5624 Fax: +2711 833-5636 e-mail: deonvt@joburg.org.za Yours sincerely Sue Reddy Manager: Marketing and Communications Arts, Culture and Heritage Services Telephone: (011) 373 7504 Facsimile: (011) 373 7512 Cell: 082 776 7309 Email: suered@joburg.org.za