Presenting Rock Art and Perceiving Identity in South Africa and Beyond

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This paper addresses the presentation of rock art to the public, and perceptions of indigenous identity, by focusing on two rural South African rock art visitor centers. Both visitor centers were designed in the early 2000s to provide tangible benefits to people in rural areas and also to present rock art in a challenging and exciting new way – one that would dovetail with the central tenets of the “new South Africa”. Fifteen years on, this paper considers the extent to which the visitor centers have succeeded.