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Milele Museum

Year

Available on:

2021 - present

Beta version available on Virtual Reality (Oculus 2)

Web experience currently under construction!

Africa's first virtual museum dedicated to African knowledge and practices.

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Entrace space of Nigeria - Milele Museum ©

For decades, stories of African cultures and history have been narrated by Western scholars and institutions. 

It is time to change this narrative.

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Entrace space of Rwanda - Milele Museum ©

Milele Museum works with African artists, researchers and communities to shape a variety of  stories. 

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Interaction Murera artifact - Milele Museum ©

Different countries and cultures are represented with 3D artifacts, animation and interactive games in the metaverse of Milele all in local languages.

We are shining a light on the importance of restitution and provenance research through the implementation of 3D scans of African artifacts that were looted and are now in Western museums. African artists who are representative of the respective culture are invited to research and design the environments for these artifacts.




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Kenya: Ndoome Shield in Milele Museum by Team II interactive.

Currently in Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Köln.


The shield was used in the Kikuuyu tradition ceremony where boys transitioned into men. They wore this on their shoulders during the ceremonial dance.

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Rwanda: Murera in Milele Museum by Canda.

Currently in  the Ethnological Museum of Berlin

Series of different sorts of  Murera artifacts are in the archives of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. They are small. damaged and missing items such as pipes, aprons and shields. In the archive, these statues are are described as toys. Research is still being done about these interesting artifacts. Murera in Rwanda is known as a province in the Northern Region with a long history. It was once ruled by Nyabinghi, an important spiritual figure in the pre-colonial history of Rwanda. 

Nigeria: Uhunmwu elao ọghe Iy’ọba, head of the queen mother in Milele Museum  by Looty.

Currently in British Museum.

The Benin Bronzes hold powerful meanings. Not only do they tell stories of the empire Benin Kingdom (now Southern Nigeria), they have spiritual and ritual means. Now, the thousands of Benin Bronzes are scattered throughout the Western World and Nigeria has been asking for over decades to return their precious artworks. Restitution is happening slowly in recent years.

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Umuvuno game in spaces of Rwanda and Kenya.

Traditional medicine used to be the predominant medical system available to millions of people in Africa in both rural and urban regions before the introduction of cosmopolitan medicine that we all know now. However, the coming of the Europeans during colonialism signaled a turning point in the development of this long-standing custom and culture: indigenous knowledge was not allowed to be practiced anymore.

Africa is home to one of the most powerful natural plants that heal different types of diseases. Milele Museum can not  ignore the traditional medical practices that have benefited our people for ages. Co-founder Canda and producers Team II Interactive have developed the game  "Umuvuno" where the character meets the challenge to collect medicinal plants in order to heal a sick village.

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Tupu Guardian of Milele - Milele Museum ©

Milele’s vision is to become a social platform that offers access to experiment the ways we can find our identities that have been shadowed through taboo’s from colonial times and imperialism from the West. We want to challenge the academic ways of teaching that we have been using in our education that is arguably designated to fit the perspective of the western communities. We want to create ways to understand, negotiate with our conflicts and embrace our history. We are using the artistic imagination, technology elements and African ancestry philosophy knowledge through researchers to build a cosmogenic will power that guides our approaches to culture in our respectful differences or similarities. 

The impact of this virtual museum, that is owned by Africans and built for Africans is to challenge the environment cultural institutions currently work in and reshape it for the next generation so that tradition will still be alive.
 

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What's next?

The following activities are planned for 2024. We are facing a delay because of lack of fundings. Help us by donating today. All the funds raised will be allocated to Milele Museum activities. Contact info@milele.space for donating options.

01 Developing Web experience

fer these spaces.

African people deserve to have an online safe space where they do not have to always see the violence's of racism. We deserve a space where we can comfortably distance ourselves from traumatic events, however the big known online platforms are not doing enough to offer these spaces. 

 

This is one of the reasons why we have built Milele Museum: an interactive online space where you get transformed into an Afro-Futuristic environment. A space where you can get spiritually in touch with your roots and the practices of your ancestors. We are an online platform where the rich culture of Africans is celebrated through interactive gaming exercises that can be accessible on your web device, phone or Virtual Reality headsets

 

The beta version is currently available on demand for Oculus 2 Virtual Reality Headset. To make Milele Museum more accessible, we are currently developing the next version for web. This way, only a device with internet is needed to experience Milele.

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02 Ubutabire: Mobile workshops and exhibition in Rwanda.

There is an ongoing problem happening for Africans across the world. History about the rich knowledge and practices Africa holds are rarely being taught in primary and high school across the world. This harms the longevity of the beautiful culture Africa has to offer. If we do not conserve it now in a way that is easily accessible, culture might be lost for our future generations. Schools and institutions do not teach Africans about their beautiful history, so who will? 

 

Milele Museum is built for education. Besides it being a virtual platform, our team highly believes in the value of getting in touch with your culture and roots. At this very moment we are about to take off on a journey in our first target country: Rwanda, where Milele was founded. We have developed a series of interactive workshops with different cultural practitioners, local healers and artists in different disciplines about the rich pre-colonial traditions Rwanda has. Throughout the entire country, we are touring through different partner primary, high and university schools to offer these interactive workshop classes. Each workshop ends with an exhibition that the school can showcase how long they would like to. With this approach, we are challenging the current curriculum in institutions and museums by going to the people and letting them interact with culture.


JourneY

May - November 2023 TheMuseumsLab2023

Founding Director Meliibees is part of 2023's edition of TheMuseumsLab. A fellowship program  for African and European museum professionals to  work on important topics in the current art industry and foster collaborations between eachother through workshops.

Phase 1 : online lectures & discussions

Phase 2:  Tours and workshops in Berlin and a 2-week residency. Meliibees did her residency in Deichtorhallen, Hamburg.

Phase 3: Tours, lectures and workshops in Nairobi, Kenya

During this program, the participants challenged the current environments of Western and African art institutions by critical thinking and discussions. It was also a place for opportunities to foster collaborations with different regions.

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16 - 31 October 2023 Studio Verde x Milele Museum

Founding director Canda is part of Studio Verde's new program: Co-Existence Netii Apa story-tellers.

Co-Existence is run in partnership with Nashulai in collaboration with Oldarpoi Lodge

To ensure the fast-disappearing Maasai oral traditions are protected and archived, Nashulai is developing the Stories Café. Named Netii Apa, meaning Once Long Ago, this will be where the stories of the Maasai ways of life will be shared, and bear witness to a harmonious relationship with the land.

Netii Apa Story-tellers project enables artists to collaborate with each other and the community in order to creatively correlate the stories that are being gathered at Nashulai: narratives that celebrate ancestral knowledge and 21st-century innovation.

Canda will get familiar with traditions of the majestic Maasai culture. His findings will be shared through Milele Museum's platform.

24 August 2023 African Digital Heritage x Milele Museum

Milele Museum was ADH'S first guest on their Culture Catch-Up : A mix of fun history chats and reflections on African pasts, presents and futures. It’s a cosy space for conversation, discovery, and learning for everyone!

Watch the Instagram Live on Youtube or read the reflections in this blog.
 

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07 June 2023: Milele Museum Beta launch on Virtual Reality

In partnership with Goethe Institut Kigali & Nairobi. Milele Museum Beta could be experienced in both locations through provided Oculus 2 Virtual Reality Headset!

We decided to beta launch with the public to hear about the experiences and reactions. During the launch, the Milele Museum team hosted an hybrid Artist Talk and Q&A where lots of ideas from different points of views were shared.

1 & 2 December 2022 Goethe Institut Kigali x Milele Museum

As a source of identity, heritage is a valuable factor for empowering local communities and enabling vulnerable groups to participate fully in social and cultural life. Accessing it, however, is not always easy. Especially in postcolonial times, tangible and intangible heritage might be lost, forgotten, or stored in museums on other continents.

 

Goethe Instiut Kigali organized the workshop and panel discussion Accessing Heritage - Digital Interventions through Art and Archives in Rwanda.

 

Go through Milele Museum's presentation here

- UCLA Ph.D. Candidate Talia Lieber.

 

- The founders of Milele Museum Melissa Kurkut and Canda (Kuuru Art Space)

 

- Artists Alex Niragira and Bingo Regis presented their works in progress in research and artistic practice.

 

Together with Assumpta Mugiraneza (Iriba Center for Multimedia Heritage), the participants and audience then discuss the accessibility of archives, the creation of a virtual museum for relocated artifacts, pre-colonial hairstyles, and cultural heritage that is still to be found within Rwanda.

 

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15 & 16 October 2022: Pre-Launch Weekend

To celebrate the first interaction with our audience, we hosted an online pre-launch weekend. We first shared the first 3D designs 3 artifacts that will be part of the Milele collection. 

To start a dialogue, we hosted an Instagram Live with all our artists. 

May 2021: Founding Milele Museum

Milele Museum was founded in May 2021 in Rwanda with the aim to reshape futuristic ways to conservation and to provide responses to the restitution proclamation journey. Founders Canda and Meliibees met at Kuuru Art Space Kigali where they found alignments in their practices.

Canda (Rwandan multidisciplinary artist, current living in Houston, TX USA)

"The year 2020 in Rwanda was for just like many of you a cataclysmic time. I would like to describe it as a year like a  chiaroscuro in a painting.  It gave me more balance in finding my brights during dark times. Lockdown was happening in the entire world, like a dystopia. But we had to adapt and find navigation. This was the initial time that the world was venturing into the online metaverse, another deep dimension in the imagination cosmos. This inspired Kuuru Art Space to come up with the idea of doing a virtual exhibition in response to the lockdown effect on the artists. This inspired me more to initiate the idea of using the virtual place in response to the major issue of restitution of the stolen African artifacts. The idea was developed together with my colleague Melissa. We came with this idea and had a lot to offer in contemporary conservation, in writing the African stories in our own ways as Africans, like educating ourselves as a community on our ways of life and most importantly in bringing a collaborative togetherness chain that helps ourselves as a community."

Meliibees (Rwandan-Kurdish artist and curator, currently studying MA Arts Leadership at University of Houston)

" I started my artistic career with analog photography and as I wanted to develop my career, I got in touch with various museums and galleries in the Netherlands and Belgium, where I grew up. I came across many issues within the art industry such as lack of diversity, I wanted to change that and that’s why I started my curator.  As I was visiting these museums and galleries, I also visited museums that hold African artifacts, which I always found uncomfortable because of the way it was displayed and described, no emotion. I then met Canda during my time in Rwanda who had this amazing idea of doing a virtual museum for stolen artifacts and that was the starting point for us."


Contributors

Team II Interactive - Producers

Looty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you ready for this journey? 

We want to have as many creatives and experts on this project as possible. This is a Pan-African project and we would like the entire continent to be represented in Milele Museum. Please email us on info@milele.space if you would like to know more and possibly join. We are currently looking for African digital artists, programmers, coders, and researchers.

Would you like to make a donation?

We are currently accepting any amount of donations. We are now doing this with no funding, but to make this project big as possible, we will need your help. For donations or any other funding opportunities, please reach out to us: info@milele.space

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