Podcast

In this, our final episode of this series, I am going to look at how things will play out in the future. How we collectively imagine our futures was a big theme that rose to the surface during the weekend. Throughout, we looked at imagining otherwise through care and healing.

In this, our penultimate episode of the series, we’re looking at one of the reasons why this podcast came together. It’s about the stories we tell each other and ourselves. When Natasha was curating this series they said it would look at reflecting on the stories that David Livingstone Birthplace are telling, the stories artists of the African Scottish diaspora are telling, and how these can act as bridges between people, storytelling then became the overall theme. I am going to look at that in a bit more detail now…

In this, our second episode we explore the joining of disparate dots. And by disparate, that may mean displacement, disconnection from heritage and the stories of our lives but also, how to connect old lives to new, including moving from one continent to another for example.

This was a strong theme over the weekend programmed by Natasha and their creative community, but we also wanted to question what are these dots? Who and what do they represent? How might they join? Do they even join? And hopefully, some of these questions will be answered OR… give us more to think about.

This four-part podcast series, brought to you by The Skinny in partnership with We Are Here Scotland, explores the conversations, questions, creativity and reflections that emerged from Our Stories Between the Myths and Memories: a free weekend of storytelling by artists from the Scottish African diaspora at the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum, October 2022.

In this first episode, we explore how we remember and reflect on the past. What has this commission evoked for people? How have they navigated their past experiences and stories? And what questions do they have now?

In this episode S.I. Martin (Author and Historian), Natalie Milor (Curator) and Alasdair Campbell (Communities and Partnership Development Officer) discuss the newly re-opened DLB museum in the context of Black History Month.

The group discuss the redevelopment process and why this work is vital within the museum sector and the wider social and political context. They consider what more must be done to open up collections and archives to communities and the importance of championing overlooked narratives of Black History. They also explore topics including decolonisation, why 'woke' culture receives so much criticism and what should be next for DLB.

In this episode of Tunya Investigates, we talk to Fizza who is one of our MGS Upskilling and Celebrating Volunteers Programme volunteers.

Fizza has been doing some research into people who travelled with David and people who he met while travelling – many of whom had different religions and beliefs to his own. We ask her a little bit about her research and what she’s discovered along the way that has surprised her.

In this episode of Tunya Investigates, we’re talking to Douglas who is a volunteer tour guide and museum trustee with the David Livingstone Trust.

Douglas is also a former Christian missionary, a bit like David Livingstone! We talk to Douglas about the differences between missionary work in David’s time and missionary work today, as well as the importance of faith to Livingstone and to Douglas himself.

In this episode, Tunya speaks to Kate Simpson about the women in David's life including his wife Mary and his cook Halima.

They talk about some of the difficulties of researching women's history and what Kate is looking forward to about the new museum exhibition.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Tunya Investigates!

Today we're talking about David's childhood in Blantyre. What did he get up to every day? What were his interests? What were his family like? When did he start working at the mill? What kind of child would David be if he was growing up today?

For answers to all these questions, listen to this second episode of Tunya Investigates!

Welcome to Tunya Investigates! The new podcast mini-series brought to you by the David Livingstone Birthplace Project.

Join Tunya the Lion as he learns all about the Museum Collection and about David Livingstone himself. Today we are discussing a very special Hippo tooth from the museum's collection, how it got there and how we look after it. With special guest Learning Assistant Rosa Cato and host Tunya the Lion.

In this episode Petina Gappah (Author and International Lawyer) discusses with Kate Simpson (David Livingstone Trust Trustee, University of Glasgow Lecturer, Livingstone Online Project Scholar) her 2020 novel 'Out of Darkness, Shining Light'.

In this episode Dr Kate Simpson, Lecturer in Digital Media and Information Studies at the University of Glasgow, talks to Sophie Wylie, Museum Studies student at the University of Glasgow, about the Manganga (Man'janga) lip ring David Livingstone took in May 1859. Livingstone subsequently sent the lip ring back as a present to his daughter Agnes and notes in his letter how “sorry” the original owner had been to part with it. Kate discusses the significance of the lip ring and the problems inherent in its acquisition, as it was transformed from a piece of woman’s jewellery to a colonial artefact. The lip ring is on loan to the David Livingstone Birthplace museum collection.

In this week's episode, Collections Manager Kate Smith talks to Sophie Wylie, Museum Studies student at the University of Glasgow, about a photograph album in the David Livingstone Birthplace Collection. The album likely covers a mission station in Southern Africa in the early 20th century. One of the photographs in this album depicts local children playing a game. Kate recognises this game as a version of one she played as a child in North America - 'mancala'. Through discussions with trainees at the museum, the team discovered a connection they didn't expect.

In this episode Conservator Lesley Scott talks to Sophie Wylie about the cast of the left arm humerus bone of David Livingstone (1813-1873), displaying the damage done to his upper arm when he was mauled by a lion. The condition of the bone verified that the remains which were returned from Africa in 1873 were indeed those of the famous explorer. Three casts of the bone are part of David Livingstone Birthplace museum collection.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857) is David Livingstone’s major literary accomplishment. It serves as the primary public statement of both his personal objectives as a missionary and explorer and his theories about the future prospects of south-central Africa. Following publication, Missionary Travels became one of the most influential works on Africa of the mid-Victorian period.

It encouraged other expeditionary travellers, inspired numerous missionary ventures, and contributed significantly to the intensification of interest in the continent prior to the “Scramble for Africa” in the late-nineteenth century.