Just Published: Dig Where You Stand Season 1 Trailer

Thanks for following us here at Dig Where You Stand. 

Yesterday, we published the Season 1 trailer, which you can hear on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and the web. Subscribe to the feed wherever you prefer to listen so you’ll know when Episode 1 is published next week.

What is Dig Where You Stand?

DWYS is first of all a history podcast with Peter Matthews (The Berliner) and Ben Schuman-Stoler (Kollo Media). There will be 3 episodes, released monthly. In between, we’ll publish other material in the podcast feed, here in the newsletter, on our website at digwhereyoustand.show, and on Instagram @digwhereyoustandshow. 

Season 1 of Dig Where You Stand is about the thousands of ancestral remains - that is, human body parts from Germany’s old colonies - held in Berlin museums and institutions. 

Why are they here? How did they get here? What’s going to happen to them?

Why DWYS?

Today, the families and descendants of the people whose bones are held in Berlin are demanding the return of these ancestral remains. They want to bury their family members and lay them to rest. 

In Episode 1, we follow the example of Tanzanian leader and resistance fighter Mangi Melli, who was executed on March 2, 1900. Melli’s head is missing, possibly somewhere in the vast museum depots of ancestral remains. His community, still impacted by the lasting effects of having been German colonial subjects, is actively searching for it.

And Mangi Melli is just one example. 

The discussion around who owns cultural artifacts from colonial times has been going on for years. The return of the Benin Bronzes. The Parthenon Marbles. New laws are being considered all over the world, and some have already passed, radically changing museums - and challenging how we understand history. 

But DWYS isn’t about cultural artifacts. These are human beings, some of whom were the victims of violent crime like murder, and summary execution. Their bodies, often their skulls, were removed and brought back to Germany. 

One of the first ideas in the show is the archive of humankind. What if there was a way to collect, save, and display all of humanity? That’s what the early anthropologists, ethnologists, and other humanistic scientists and researchers were thinking 150 years ago, when our story begins in former German East Africa. 

What’s next?

Episode 1 of DWYS will be released on April 29. 

We’ll be publishing other material in the next weeks as well, including book and film recommendations, interviews, and more context and background; we may also consolidate and discuss some of the current events and the ongoing efforts surrounding repatriation and restitution.

Peter wrote the cover story about this topic for the current issue of The Berliner. It’ll be on newsstands later this week.  

We appreciate your help in launching this new show. If this newsletter and the trailer pique your interest, please share it with others you think would be interested. 

What is Kollo Media?

Kollo Media is a new publishing entity based in Berlin. It works with other publishers to establish multimedia formats with audiences inspired by curiosity, conscientiousness, and quality. You can reach us at [email protected] or @kollomedia.