Abstract:
Rock-art is a powerful and theoretically informed artefact that allows non-rock-art producing people an
understanding of the worldview of the rock-artists. But the flow of information in such rock-art researches –
‘us’ observing ‘them’ via `their’ artefacts is often asymmetrical and can be disempowering to the rock-artproducing
individuals and communities past and present. Fortunately, rock-art is also able to balance and
even reverse this asymmetry. For example, there are certain ‘contact’ period Bushman rock engravings and
rock paintings in southern Africa that were produced at and after the time of the colonisation of southern
Africa by non-Bushmen. Some of the power relations between indigenes and colonists are made explicit in
the form of rock-paintings and rock-engravings. Specifically, much of this rock-art shows how the Bushmen
imagined and imaged the colonists.
