Sit Stories 2026

The following section presents visual documentation of the interdisciplinary History and Visual Arts collaboration as it unfolded through the Sit Stories 2026 programme at CPUT Wellington Campus and the Breytenbach Centre. The section follows the structure of the collaborative process itself, moving from curriculum and assessment practices toward public engagement, community participation and research.

The section will first present the interdisciplinary assignments, assessment briefs, and project instructions developed within the History and Art collaboration. This will be followed by selected examples of student artworks, installations, books, digital stories, poetry, and creative responses generated through the projects. Lastly, visual documentation and short descriptions of the broader Sit Stories 2026 programme will be included, featuring exhibitions of student work, poetry performances, panel discussions on (Ont)skool / (Un)school by guest speakers, heritage-based community engagement activities, the Amabali Wepali installation and unveiling, and related public cultural events such as the minstrel walk and performance by local musicians. Together, these materials demonstrate how the collaboration extended teaching and learning beyond formal classroom spaces into embodied, socially responsive, and community-engaged educational experiences.

BEd 1 History-Art Project (Collage)

First-year students participated in an interdisciplinary Social Sciences project in which they critically reflected on their own school experiences in the Social Sciences (History and Geography). Through individual reflection and group discussions, they explored memories of classroom practices, assessment, teaching methods, resources, and meaningful learning experiences. Students then visually represented these reflections through creative reproductions of notes, tests, textbook pages, drawings, and other educational artefacts from their school experiences. 

Link to the History part of the process

The Visual Arts component of the project focused on collage, symbolism, visual literacy, and embodied meaning-making through mixed-media processes. Drawing on artists such as Penny Siopis and using historical images, found materials, photographs, layering, tearing, overlapping, and symbolic visual composition, students created artworks that positioned themselves conceptually within broader historical and social contexts. Through collage, visual metaphor, and reflective artmaking, students explored how identity, memory, conflict, heritage, and belonging could be communicated visually rather than only through written historical narrative. 

Link to the Art part of the process

BEd 2 Old Books (History-Art Project)

Second-year students completed an interdisciplinary History and Art project titled My Family, My School, My Story, in which they investigated family schooling and educational histories through oral history interviews, family trees, photographs, memory work, and historical research. Students explored how personal and family narratives are shaped by broader social and historical contexts and translated this research into a visual art book made from old school textbooks. 

Link to the History component of the process

The art process focused on visual storytelling through drawing, collage, colour washes, printmaking, symbolic objects, layered mark-making, and text integration. Students combined self-portraits, body imagery, symbolic materials, family narratives, handwritten reflections, and found objects into mixed-media compositions that communicated themes of identity, memory, education, heritage, and belonging. The project emphasised process, meaning-making, experimentation, and embodied engagement rather than technical artistic skill, encouraging students to use visual language as a form of personal and historical inquiry. 

Link to the Art component of the process

Link to Student work: Old Book Artwork 1,  Old Book Artwork 2, Old Book Artwork 3, Old Book Artwork 4

Sit Stories Reflection 

The BEd 1 and 2 students attended one of the Sit Stories discussion sessions focused on themes of schooling, identity, class, community, and education, and then completed a structured reflective assignment. They critically reflected on the discussion, connected their insights to a first-year student artwork and a second-year student book project, and explored how themes, symbols, and personal experiences intersected across the conversations and creative works. The task encouraged students to engage emotionally and critically with issues of identity, memory, storytelling, and education through reflective writing and visual engagement. 

Link to Sit Stories reflection 

BED 3&4 The Amabali Wepali Project (If poles could speak)

Amabali Wepali (“If poles could speak”) is a collaborative public art and visual redress project developed at the CPUT Wellington Campus as part of the broader Sit Stories 2026 programme. The project brought together students across all three faculties on the CPUT Wellington Campus, lecturers, and artists to create large-scale painted story poles that explored themes of identity, memory, heritage, belonging, and student voice. Through interdisciplinary and embodied artmaking processes, students translated personal histories, cultural symbols, oral narratives, and lived experiences into visual forms displayed in the public campus environment. The project aimed to transform institutional space into a more inclusive and relational environment where student experiences and diverse cultural narratives could become visible, shared, and collectively acknowledged. 

Link to Amabali Wepali assignment

Social Media Promotion and Public Engagement 

For Sit Stories 2026, greater emphasis was placed on using social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Instagram, to promote the programme through regular distribution of digital flyers, visual invitations, student project updates, and promotional materials. Weekly flyers and social media posts were shared in the lead-up to the event to maintain visibility, stimulate interest, and encourage student and community engagement with the programme.

These digital engagements also played an important pedagogical role by communicating to students that the academic projects connected to Sit Stories held value beyond assessment alone. Through the public sharing of student work, process images, event information, and collaborative activities, the initiative increasingly positioned academic learning, community participation, heritage engagement, and public storytelling as interconnected rather than existing in separate institutional or disciplinary silos.

The Sit Stories 2026 flyers below follow the programme's sequence and thematic flow, showing how the exhibitions, discussions, performances, heritage activities, community engagements, and student projects came together to form the Sit Stories 2026 experience. 

Community Partnerships

Sit Stories 2026 was strengthened by the support and collaboration of several valued community partners, who contributed to the project's success, visibility, and community engagement. 

• The ATKV supported the initiative through its continued commitment to arts, culture, heritage, and education. The ATKV also provided financial support, contributing to the project's successful implementation and sustainability. 

• The Breytenbach Centre served as an important cultural and community partner by providing a creative space that connected the project to the broader Wellington community. 

• RadioKC contributed to public awareness and outreach through media coverage and promotional engagement, helping to extend the project’s reach beyond the university environment. RadioKC recorded both discussions and broadcast them across its media platforms, thereby extending the project's reach and public engagement. 

• The Drakenstein Municipality supported the initiative through its involvement in local cultural development and community collaboration, reinforcing the connection between higher education, heritage, and public participation.

(Un)School: Voices in Poetry

Public Conversations on (Un)School: Rethinking School: Power, Belonging and Formation and Different classrooms; Shared town

The Amabali Wepali (“If poles could speak”) 

Images: The Amabali Wepali (“If poles could speak”) process unfolded collaboratively, from the preparation, priming, and planting of the wooden poles to students’ initial planning drawings and collective painting processes facilitated by South African ceramic artists Andile and Alexis Dyalvane. Students from different residences and cultural backgrounds worked together to translate personal histories, memories, symbols, and narratives into large-scale public artworks through dialogue, shared mark-making, and embodied creative practice. The process culminated in the ceremonial unveiling and installation of the poles within the CPUT Wellington Campus residence, Andrew Murray Gardens, where the artists led a traditional opening accompanied by music performed on indigenous instruments. CPUT Wellington Campus praise singers from the student residences also participated in the unveiling ceremony, contributing to the collective atmosphere of celebration, storytelling, remembrance, and belonging that marked the installation's public opening.

Wellington Minstrels

Research

Journal article (In process)

Title:  “In a History classroom, what are the ‘white pages’ that help learners move from not understanding to understanding?” 

This study explores how collaborative visual storytelling can support student identity, belonging, and decolonial transformation in higher education. The Amabali Wepali (“If Poles Could Speak”) project at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Wellington Campus involves students co-creating visual story poles with artists from the Imiso Ceramics Foundation. Positioned near the restored Goodnow Hall, the poles symbolise student voice, cultural memory, and spatial redress.

Using a qualitative, arts-based methodology grounded in posthumanism, decolonial theory, and endogenous knowledge systems, the study investigates how participatory artmaking enables students to express lived experiences and reclaim institutional spaces. Data will be collected through observations, interviews, reflective responses, and visual documentation. The study contributes to research on decolonial pedagogy, arts-based learning, and inclusive student engagement within South African higher education.

Reference: Meiring, K., Oosthuizen, C. and Van As, A. 2026. If Poles Could Speak: Student Voice, Visual Storytelling, and Decolonial Pedagogy in a South African University. Unpublished research proposal, Cape Peninsula University of Technology. 

Link to the research proposal