Making the Pitt Rivers Museum

About Making the Pitt Rivers Museum

Lieutenant-General Pitt-Rivers did not make the museum in Oxford that bears his name, or the objects within it. The real makers of the museum are the people who lived (and live) outside its walls; who made and used the objects on display, and the people whose lives are captured in the photograph collections. Yet these makers have often been silenced within the Museum's displays, labels, catalogues and exhibitions, which have historically focused on collectors, cultures, and curators. Join the Making the Museum project team for a behind-the-scenes look at how we are trying to redress this balance in the information the museum holds about its collections. You’ll not only hear from researchers and museum professionals but also practitioners, artists, and other modern makers from communities around the world. As we collaborate, you’ll hear about it, giving a real-time insight into the inner workings of the museum.

Publisher

Oxford University

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

27 Jan 2025

Latest episode

4 Dec 2025

Latest episodes

5 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Dec 2025

   Making Benin Bronzes in the Museum

   Sixth-generation Benin bronze caster Phil Omodamwen discusses the importance of repatriation and his work with the Pitt Rivers Museum, including a new bronze plaque depicting the looting of the Oba's Palace in 1897, in an interview with Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Martin, Prof. Chris Morton, and Dr. Beth Hodgett.

2. 

   20 Oct 2025

   Making Replicas in the Museum

   Experimental archaeologist Dr. James Dilley discusses replica making, connecting with ancestors through creating, and making archaeology accessible through demonstrations in this interview.

3. 

   19 May 2025

   Making Sense of the San Collections

   Join us this episode to hear about about stealing fire from ostriches and shapewear made from ostrich egg shells! Kileni Fernando is the inaugural San Visiting Fellow at the Pitt Rivers Museum, co-sponsored by the Africa Oxford (AfOx) Initiative and developed in association with the !Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre. She is a !Xung-speaking San woman from Namibia, currently pursuing a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree with the Open University of Tanzania. Since 2017 Kileni has acted as a voice for the San as a development consultant for the !Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre on the West Coast of South Africa. She is a co-founding member of an indigenous San youth organisation called Ana-Djeh San Trust (AST). Kileni has completed several courses on marginalization & inequality, as well as a diploma in legal history. She has also volunteered as a community facilitator for the Women’s Leadership Centre (Windhoek, Namibia) on the project “Speaking for ourselves, Voices of the San Young Women”. In this episode, listen to some of the work she has been doing with the Making the Museum project to improve the categorisation of San materials within the museum database and change the understanding and presentation of San collections within the museum. Find out more about Kileni and her work at https://www.afox.ox.ac.uk/person/kileni-fernando. For more about the !Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre: https://www.khwattu.org/ For information about the AfOx Initiative and the AfOx fellowship programme: https://www.afox.ox.ac.uk/ Want to follow along when we’re talking about collections items? This episode features the following items from the Pitt Rivers collection (in order of appearance): Denise Gross collection rock art rubbings (not yet individually catalogued - link to the YouTube channel for videos of these items below) Ostrich eggshell water carrier (accession no. 2004.142.1110) Ostrich eggshell water carrier (accession no. 1970.11.1) Ostrich eggshell waist beads (accession no. 1886.1.492.1) Tortoise shell powder carrier (accession no. 1990.25.1) You can also see these conversations in video on the Making the Museum playlist on our YouTube channel: Making the Museum playlist - Pitt Rivers Museum YouTube channel This episode features music from the Kalahari San community, featuring a gut pluriarc and 3 men’s voices, kindly provided (with permission of the copyright holder) by Dr Chris Low of the !Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre, recorded by Megan Biesele and Nicholas England. Copyright Megan Biesele and Nicholas England. You will hear from (in order of appearance): Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Martin (she/her) – Research Project Officer, Making the Museum project Dr. Beth Hodgett (they/them) – Postdoctoral Researcher, Making the Museum project Kileni Fernando (she/her) –AfOx Fellow and !Khwa ttu Heritage Centre consultant Dr. Christopher Morton (he/him) – Principal Investigator, Making the Museum project

4. 

   17 Feb 2025

   Making Music with Sound Archives

   Hip hop, rap, and multimedia artists X and Rawz tell us about the music they produced using sounds from the museum archives. The project team talk about how understanding more about makers (rather than takers!) fits into the work of a modern museum. The first two creative fellows on the Making the Museum project – X and Rawz – talk to us about sound quality, music as a form of time travel, and being part of a continuum of sound/music makers as they tell us about their work with the museum’s sound archives. Learn about how the museum space impacted the creative responses they produced and hear their ideas for museums now and in the future. In a special extra segment for this first episode, we (the Making the Museum project team) discuss how creative fellowships and responses fit within the research work we do at the museum. We also discuss why researching makers is so important, setting the scene for other episodes in this series. Want to follow along when we’re talking about collections items? This episode features the following items from the Pitt Rivers collection (in order of appearance): Audio recording of water drumming by Bayaka women and youths (Republic of Congo, 1994) (Accession number 1997.21.2.134, Side B, Track 14) Balonyona playing geedal (Yandoumbé, Central African Republic, 1992) (Accession number 1997.21.2.52, Side A, Track 3) Moru sanza music by Timon Beri, recorded by Patti Langton (South Sudan, 1979) (Accession number 2013.1.11, Side A, Track 1) 'Clay Pot' Vessel | Collections online | Pitt Rivers Museum (Accession number 1886.1.489) Want to see more from X and Rawz’s time as fellows? Check out the video from their Gathering Place event – the culmination of their fellowships – on our YouTube channel: The Gathering Place: Africa (Late Night Event, May 2024) This episode features live versions of the following music/poetry recorded during The Gathering Place late-night event at the Pitt Rivers Museum, May 4th 2024 (in order of appearance): X- Dear Old Man Rawz- There’s Fire to Find X- Ubomi (‘Life’) Rawz- The First Rawz (vocals) and Miles Ncube (mbira)- Art Starts A Story Rawz- ‘Til Sunrise X- Ingqayi Nawe Hlabula ('Ingqayi You Also Sip from This Knowledge') X- Intsukaphi ('Where we are From') You will hear from (in order of appearance): Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Martin (she/her) – Research Project Officer, Making the Museum project Rawz (he/him) – Creative Fellow Xolile (X) Madinda (he/him) – Creative Fellow Dr. Beth Hodgett (they/them) – Postdoctoral Researcher, Making the Museum project Dr. Christopher Morton (he/him) – Principal Investigator, Making the Museum project Dr. Noel Lobley (he/him) – Visiting Researcher (Assistant Professor, University of Virginia) Also featuring Miles Ncube (he/him) – Mbira Player About the artists: Xolile (X) Madinda is a hip hop artist, arts activist, and founder and CEO of The Black Power Station in Makhanda, South Africa. X's practice is rooted in the re-imagining and re-archiving of African creative works to educate, liberate and empower the self and communities. Check out what X is doing with The Black Power Station here: The Black Power Station – Arts Liberation Space Rawz is a Multidisciplinary Artist from Oxford. His practice centres around words and music, and is rooted in social justice and the exploration and understanding of our interconnected worlds. Rawz regularly updates his portfolio here: https://linktr.ee/rawz_official Email: urbanmusicfoundation@hotmail.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/rawz_official Facebook: www.facebook.com/realrawz Twitter: www.twitter.com/realrawz Bandcamp: www.Rawz.bandcamp.com

5. 

   27 Jan 2025

   Trailer

   Get ready for a new behind-the-scenes podcast from the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford! Looking for a new listen for the New Year? Look no further! Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the Pitt Rivers Museum – one of Oxford’s hidden gems! We’ll be talking to researchers, community experts, crafters/makers, and in-house academics to bring you the very cutting edge of museum work. It’ll be low commitment, with a new episode released every month or two, but will keep you right up to date with the latest thinking, practice, and research in museums today. Subscribe now for a regular sneak-peak behind the cabinets and find out what really makes the Pitt Rivers Museum tick! Looking for a new listen for the New Year? Look no further! Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the Pitt Rivers Museum – one of Oxford’s hidden gems! We’ll be talking to researchers, community experts, crafters/makers, and in-house academics to bring you the very cutting edge of museum work. It’ll be low commitment, with a new episode released every month or two, but will keep you right up to date with the latest thinking, practice, and research in museums today. Subscribe now for a regular sneak-peak behind the cabinets and find out what really makes the Pitt Rivers Museum tick! Featured track: Rawz- ‘The First’- LIVE May 4th 2024

Reach and audience

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YouTube views

42,056

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Podcast Authority Score: 18 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

5

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

0

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Guest appearances

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