Connecting with the past and looking to the future

A focus on the developing partnership between Kendal Museum and the Nandi community of Western Kenya.

Connecting with the past and looking to the future

As part of our Reimagining the World Wildlife Gallery (RWWG) project, Kendal Museum have been working closely with our community to explore, question, and reinterpret the collections that have stood in our museum for decades.

These pages are developed drawing on research by Dr Joe Rigby, University of Chester, into Colonel Edgar Garston Harrison’s ‘hunting trophy’ collection. They report on the developing partnership between Kendal Museum and the Nandi community of western Kenya, where many of Harrison’s donations to the museum originate.

Understanding the Harrison Collection

In 1939, Colonel Edgar Garston Harrison funded the construction of an annex at Kendal Museum to house his collection of ‘hunting trophies,’ the majority of which Harrison took from eastern Africa between 1895 and 1905 whilst serving as a soldier in the British colonial army.

While these objects have been a permanent fixture of our museum for several decades, their presence carries a complex history. We are dedicated to uncovering the full story behind these artefacts, acknowledging the colonial context in which they were taken, and listening to the communities directly affected by these actions.

Connecting with Nandi communities for reparative justice

For decades, Harrison has been celebrated as one of the major benefactors of the museum. However, we have now learnt more about how his collection is inseparable from the history of British colonialism in eastern Africa, including Harrison’s role in the ‘Nandi Field Force’ operation in October 1905. During this operation, the Nandi spiritual and political leader Koitaleel Samoei was killed by a soldier under Harrison’s command.

Today we are actively engaging with Nandi and Talai community members, acknowledging the historical injustices that continue to affect these communities today. This project is a first step in our journey to reconnect our natural and social history collections with the living histories of the people from whom they were taken.

”For the best part of a century Harrison’s ‘hunting trophies’ have been on display to the people of Kendal, but without mention of Harrison’s actions against the Nandi. After the operation led by Harrison the Nandi were pushed out of their homelands, and suffered great loss and pain. Now we are working together to retell the story of Harrison’s collection, and to further understanding of Kendal and Nandi’s connected histories.

Kipnyango SeroneyNandi journalist and writer