Antarctic Legacy of South Africa

Abstract

South Africa, through SANAP, is the only African country with involvement in the Antarctic region, and the main aim of the project is to preserve material of South Africa’s involvement in Antarctica, at the Prince Edward Islands, at Gough Island and at sea in the Southern Ocean through photographic, written, oral and other records from 1948 until today. Ria Olivier, the principal investigator, is supported by a multi-disciplinary academic team from SU, Monash University in Australia, the Iziko museums of South Africa, and the University of Cape Town.

Stories, memories, photographs and other documents including personal collections of many of South Africa’s finest scientists and explorers in Antarctica and on the sub-Antarctic Islands are collected and stored at the archive repository on Dspace at Stellenbosch University. The envisaged final product will be an online open-accessed digitised information source and a reference to all scientific material published under the auspices or funded by SANAP and of related publications by South Africans who work outside of SANAP.

It is hoped that the database will give recognition to the role that South Africans have played in scientific, biological and meteorological research in the sub-Antarctic Ocean.