Touring Exhibition “We will make our voices heard!”

August 2012, Marikana near Rustenburg/South Africa. A strike by mine workers at Lonmin comes to a head, killing workers and security guards. Eventually, police break up the strike by force, shooting 34 workers, some of them as they flee.

Shortly after the massacre, representatives of the Khulumani Support Group met on site with relatives of the workers who had been killed in Marikana. Khulumani managed to get family members to attend the Commission of Inquiry set up by President Zuma in Rustenburg and organised a workshop for some of the survivors to reflect and tell their stories.

In this creative therapeutic workshop, the women created self-portraits in which they expressed their feelings, fears, hopes and visions and thus contributed to coming to terms with what had happened and to addressing the question of justice.

Seven of these so-called body maps form the core of the exhibition, each of which is complemented by panels in which the women introduce themselves. On these panels, the women give us an insight into their respective homes through photos from their own perspective.

In this way, the viewers are invited to immerse themselves in the realities of the families’ lives and not to lose sight of the fact that the platinum mined in Marikana also arrives here at the end of its world journey through the stations of a globalised economy – for example in the form of BASF catalysts.

Local organisers can borrow the exhibition from KASA to present it to the public against payment of the transport costs. We charge the purchase price for the accompanying exhibition brochures.