VIRTUAL London Heritages Conference

Abstract

Sacred Land explores the spiritual and cultural significance of riparian landscapes in relation to of South Africa’s First People—the Khoi and San. For millennia, Indigenous people revered riparian landscapes as sacred, entwined with their collective cultural identity, spiritual realms and ecological stewardship. Yet, colonial and post-colonial urbanisation severed these relationships, replacing them with systems of exploitation and neglect. While South African heritage laws protect colonial-era urban streetcapes and structures older than 60 years, blue-green ecologies—which shaped and sustained Indigenous lives for tens of thousands of years—remain unprotected or face limited and fragmented protection as ‘nature reserves’. Today, Cape Town’s riparian landscapes are increasingly degraded by insensitive developments, pollution, and the dual climate-driven threats of drought and flooding. Beyond conservation, Sacred Land defines the restoration and protection of Cape Town’s blue-green landscapes as an inherent act of spatial decolonisation. By weaving Indigenous ecological wisdom into water-sensitive, climate-resilient spatial design, the landscape may be centred, protected, revered and restored to its pre-colonial form. This act of collective ‘ecological heritage conservation’ counters Colonial- and Apartheid spatial hegemony and the mechanistic worldviews of Western space-making. It centres the landscape in urban place-making and architectural design. Drawing on landscape ecology, decolonial theory, and Indigenous knowledge, this study integrates participatory methods, narrative inquiry, counter-mapping, and case studies. The research expands the theoretical discourse around spatial decolonisation in South Africa, questions the nature of heritage and cultural conservation from a Southern perspective, and proposes an Indigenous approach to water-sensitive ecological urban design by redefining ecology and natural landscapes as collective decolonial heritage.