Reconciling landscapes: looking for common ground through water and agriculture in Stanford, Western Cape

Abstract

Landscape is dynamic, constantly being altered by natural and artificial forces resulting in a rich network of tangible and intangible layers. This research is an exploration into the layers of the Overberg landscape with a focus on the small agricultural village of Stanford. Stanford is a socio-economically divided community with an affluent northern part and poorer southern part. This is a result of the Group Areas Act of 1952, when all people of colour were forcibly removed from the village and relocated to an area known as the ‘Skema’, south of the Mill Stream. To this day, the Mill Stream acts as a physical barrier between the two communities and no real attempt at reconciliation or integration has been made. The Klein River forms the Northern edge of the village and a natural spring, ‘die Oog’, supplies the village with free irrigation water through a leiwater system. This system was never extended and as a result, the Skema residents were unable to continue the long-standing tradition of subsistence and back-yard farming in the area. This project, in the form of an Agrarian Exchange and the extension of the leiwater system, aims to re-introduce the domestic agricultural narrative into Stanford’s landscape. The Exchange, situated in the Mill Stream buffer strip, will facilitate the cultivation, processing and selling of vegetables from community gardens as well as subsistence excess. The goal of this project to act as reconciliation and integration catalyst for the communities of Stanford