The public is encouraged to attend an enlightening talk that will touch on the historical legacy and ancestry of the earliest families that explored the Fish Hoek valley on Thursday 14 August.
The talk, dubbed “Women of the Valley”, will be hosted by the Fish Hoek Valley Museum volunteer Margaret Gundry, at the Fish Hoek Library.
“We’ve learned much about ‘Fish Hoek Man’ (an ancient human skull found in Peers Cave) – but what about the women who stood beside them? What roles did they play, and what has archaeology revealed about their lives? And, long after those ancient times, who were some significant valley women during the 1700s and 1800s? Who exactly was Mrs Bruins, and why is she remembered? Gundry, a passionate volunteer at the Fish Hoek Valley Museum, has explored the stories of these fascinating women and is eager to share her discoveries with us,” said museum spokesperson Sue Maude.
The Fish Hoek Valley Museum covers an area from Fish Hoek right across the valley to Kommetjie and north towards Noordhoek and south to the border of the Cape Point Reserve.
Gundry was born and bred in Fish Hoek.
She says she shared her passion for history with her late father.
Forty years ago, when Gundry’s father passed away, she inherited his research. He had a keen interest in history and had been tracing their family tree.
This inspired a lifelong interest in genealogy research for Gundry.
Genealogy is the study of family history, tracing lineage and ancestry through generations. It involves researching and compiling records to understand the relationships between individuals and families, often creating charts and narratives to illustrate these connections.
Gundry’s father’s collection of old Fish Hoek newspapers was donated to the museum after it opened in 1994.
Margaret became a museum volunteer in 2017. She has a keen interest in the growth of the valley and has been able to assist many people who visit the museum, curious to find out the history of their houses or businesses.
“The Talk will cover the valley, so not just fish Hoek, but extending to Peers Cave and across the valley to Kommetjie. The presentation is for the monthly meeting of the Fish Hoek Valley Historical Society and will be about Valley Women and is specifically timed to co-incide with Women’s Month,” said Gundry.
In her time at the museum, Margaret has researched some of Fish Hoek’s early families and where they lived.
“I have researched the Wakefords, the Balls, the Mossops, the Mullers, the De Villiers family, the Rice family, the Jones family. Even the Greenlands. And the Peers family. While many locals are familiar with the many formidable women of the 1900’s and 2000’s, few people realise that the valley has had its share of interesting women long before then – this talk will focus on the era before 1900,” she said.
“Fish Hoek Man was a skull found at Peers Cave (formerly Schildersgat) in the ridge above Sun Valley. It became world famous with archaeologists in the 1930s because of its age – it was then dated at 15 000 years old. However, radiocarbon dating conducted by Cape Town scientists (Stynder et al., 2009) on the actual human remains showed that Fish Hoek Man dates to just over 7 000 years ago, making it one of the oldest known skeletons in the region—but far younger than initially thought. With all this talk about Fish Hoek Man, what about the first women of the valley who stood at his side?” said Maude.
The earliest landowners in the Fish Hoek Valley were women and Gundry’s presentation will also focus on the lives of Christina Diemer and a few more notable women of the valley.
To attend the talk visitors will have to pay R30 while museum members will be charged R20 at the door. The talk starts at 18:00.
.Contact Maude at curator.fishhoekvalleymuseum@gmail.com.
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