SOS Bushmen

"Our words and photographs layer past and present experiences to celebrate the intangible beliefs that sustained this landscape for millennia." - Janette Deacon & Craig Foster

There are remote parts of this country that seem untouched since the time Bushmen walked and hunted and danced there. There are archives in Cape Town with thousands of pages of Bushman lore, transcribed painstakingly by language specialists of the 1800s. There's an ever-expanding audience of readers hungry for the wisdom represented by our First Peoples. My Heart Stands in the Hill represents the tragically intertwined journeys of some of these First Peoples and European settlers, the fascinating spiritual travels of /Xam "medicine men" and "rock artists", and the pilgrimage of a modern archaeologist and filmmaker who symbolically return the image of these early South Africans to the landscape that was their home.

Craig Foster and Janette Deacon locate significant places described by these people and find rock engravings that record ancient shamanistic experiences connected with rainmaking and other rituals. The viewer/reader is transported to the landscapes through powerful images of the engravings in their setting. Photographs of the /Xam people themselves are brought back to the landscape by projecting the portraits onto the land.

About the Authors:

Janette Deacon is a well-published archaeologist who specialises in the 19th century /Xam Bushmen.

Craig Foster is an award-winning filmmaker who has won international acclaim for his two Bushman films, The Great Dance and Cosmic Africa.