Winberg brings honour to the stories of !kun child exiles

A page from Marlene Winberg's beautifully designed thesis featuring drawings by !kun children from the Bleek and Lloyd archive

APC Masters Research Scholar Marlene Winberg raised the bar for her fellow scholars this month when she was awarded a distinction for her Masters work, Annotations of Loss and Abundance: An Examination of the !kun Children's Material in the Bleek and Lloyd Collection (1879-1881).

Winberg's beautifully designed thesis, with its innovative envelope inserts and subtly wrought interplay of images and text, is both a tangible labour of love and an example of pioneering image-driven historical research. 'This dissertation is presented in the form of a published book that, as befits a Masters Degree in Fine Art, is a work of art inspired by the !kun children's lives and the archive,' writes Dr Janette Deacon in her external examiner's report.

'The contents demonstrate the use of anthropological and historical techniques for research and analysis with new and valuable insight derived from the realization that the images and texts are interrelated and best read together. It gives a new level of authority to the !kun archive and stands as a tribute to Lucy Lloyd and the !kun children who were unwitting representations of hundreds of other children who suffered similar trauma.'

Receiving a distinction for her thesis is an affirmation of Winberg's lifelong passion for storytelling, which she has pursued across various forms including teaching, performance art, collecting and writing.