: Gwirfoddoli

Mae lleoliadau gwaith i fyfyrwyr yn Amgueddfa Cymru yn gallu bod yn gystadleuol, yn enwedig rhai ym maes archeoleg. Roeddwn wrth fy modd yn cael lle ar leoliad i helpu’r Amgueddfa asesu a chatalogio gweddillion dynol.

Gan ymuno â grŵp bach o unigolion ar leoliad, rhai ohonynt yn fyfyrwyr o gwrs Gwyddor Archeolegol Caerdydd, buom yn gweithio ochr yn ochr â’r Curadur i asesu sgerbydau o fynwent ganoloesol gynnar yn Llandochau, ger Caerdydd. Datgelodd y cloddiadau ar ddechrau’r 1990au dros fil o sgerbydau, a rheini wedi bod yn archif Amgueddfa Cymru yn disgwyl archwiliad llawn.

Dysgon ni sut mae'n rhaid storio a thrin y sgerbydau yn unol â safonau moesegol ar gyfer delio â gweddillion dynol. Caiff pob sgerbwd ei hasesu'n unigol ar gyfer cyflawnrwydd, ac weithiau mae'n bosib adnabod y rhyw a gweld tystiolaeth o oedran neu afiechydon. Cofnodwyd y wybodaeth i’w gynnwys yng nghatalog yr Amgueddfa, a bydd yn ddefnyddiol iawn yn y dyfodol wrth ymchwilio gweddillion dynol safle Llandochau, a bydd yn cyfrannu at astudiaeth archeoleg ganoloesol yn fwy cyffredinol.

Mae archwilio gweddillion dynol yn ysgogi adfyfyrio ar fywydau pobl ganoloesol ac, er efallai nad yw at ddant pawb, mae’n dod â ni’n nes at y gorffennol mewn ffordd arbennig. Roedd y lleoliad gwaith yn brofiad dysgu rhagorol. Roedd y Curadur, Adelle yn amyneddgar iawn gyda’r holl gwestiynau a godwyd ac yn hael wrth rannu ei gwybodaeth a’i sgiliau. Mae’n ffordd wych i Amgueddfa Cymru ymgysylltu â’r cyhoedd, ac rwy’n ddiolchgar am y cyfle i weld y tu ôl i’r llenni a chyfrannu at waith yr amgueddfa. Rwy'n gobeithio y bydd Amgueddfa Cymru yn parhau i gynnig cyfleoedd o'r fath i'r rhai a hoffai cymryd rhan mewn lleoliadau gwaith i fyfyrwyr.

Am fwy o wybodaeth am leoliadau gwaith i fyfyrwyr, ewch i dudalennau ‘Cymryd Rhan’ y wefan. Mae modd cofrestru i rhestr bostio i glywed am unrhyw leoliadau pan fyddant yn cael eu hysbysebu. 

Mae The Secret Garden yn broject garddwriaeth a hanes a ariennir gan Grant Gwirfoddoli Cymru CGGC. Rydym yn gweithio gydag oedolion ag Anableddau Dysgu a gwirfoddolwyr cymunedol i ddatblygu a gofalu am ardd fwthyn yn Sain Ffagan Amgueddfa Werin Cymru. Rydym hefyd yn cefnogi cyfranogwyr y project i ymchwilio i hanes yr ardd, bwthyn Ysgubor Fawr ar y safle a’i chyn-drigolion gan ddefnyddio archifau Sain Ffagan ac Archifau Morgannwg. 

Mae dwy thema i broject yr Ardd Gudd. Mae'n broject garddio ac ymchwil hanesyddol. Rydym yn cynnig y cyfle i gymryd rhan mewn sesiynau garddio ymarferol yn ein gardd yn Sain Ffagan i ddysgu am a threialu technegau garddio o’r gorffennol, megis plannu at ddibenion meddyginiaethol neu lanhau. Bydd cyfranogwyr hefyd yn ymchwilio i’r ardd, y bwthyn a’i drigolion mewn partneriaeth ag Amgueddfa Werin Cymru Sain Ffagan ac Archifau Morgannwg. 

Mae cyfranogwyr sy’n mynychu’r project yn gallu dysgu amrywiaeth o sgiliau gan gynnwys gwaith tîm, cyfathrebu, cydlynu a llawer mwy i helpu i’w cynorthwyo a’u cefnogi yn eu datblygiad personol. Mae amgylchedd gwaith diogel yn sicrhau bod cyfranogwyr yn gallu dysgu ar eu cyflymder eu hunain, pe bai hynny'n dysgu am arddwriaeth neu hanes! Mae'r project yn gallu siwtio eu hanghenion a chael effaith gadarnhaol ar eu hiechyd a'u lles.

Mae ein gweithgareddau yn rhad ac am ddim, ac rydym yn annog unrhyw un i ymuno. Gall cyfranogwyr gymryd rhan naill ai yn yr elfen arddio neu hanes neu'r ddau os dymunant! 

Ewch at wefan Innovate Trust i weld fwy am broject The Secret Garden, ac am sut i gymryd rhan - The Secret Garden | Innovate Trust (innovate-trust.org.uk). 

Beth yw'r cyfleoedd gwirfoddoli yn Amgueddfa Lechi Cymru?

Rydyn ni wedi bod yn canolbwyntio ar wirfoddoli yn yr Amgueddfa Lechi ers i mi gychwyn fy swydd fel Cydlynydd Gwirfoddoli ym mis Mai 2022. Felly pa fathau o gyfleoedd sy'na i wirfoddoli yma?

Lleoliad Gwaith Gofaint 
Braf oedd cael croesawu Dai draw i’r Amgueddfa ar Leoliad Gwaith Myfyrwyr ym mis Rhagfyr 2022. Roedd Dai ar gwrs coleg Weldio a Ffabrigo ac oedd rhaid iddo gwblhau 20 diwrnod o brofiad gwaith fel rhan o'r cwrs. Cafodd Dai gweithio gyda Liam, ein Gofaint ni, yn yr efail hanesyddol yng ngweithdai’r Gilfach Ddu, lle dysgodd i greu agorwr potel, pocer tân a phâr o efeiliau. Roedd hi’n wych gweld ei hyder a’i sgiliau yn datblygu dros y misoedd bu yma ar leoliad!

Lleoliadau Datblygu Sgiliau  
Cychwynnom Leoliadau Datblygu Sgiliau flwyddyn ddiwethaf yn Llanberis, rhywbeth sydd eisoes yn bodoli yn Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd. Un diwrnod yr wythnos o gysgodi’r tîm blaen tŷ ydyn nhw, sy'n cynnig profiad amhrisiadwy i bobl sydd â rhwystrau i waith. Treialwyd y lleoliadau dros Aeaf 2022, ac eleni mae gennym Aaron ar ganol ei leoliad gyda ni. Dywed ei fod yn edrych ymlaen at ddysgu am hanes yr Amgueddfa a chael cyfle i fod yn rhan o dîm. Mae croeso i unrhyw un gysylltu neu holi am fwy o wybodaeth.

Gwirfoddoli Matiau Rhacs 
Os mai crefftio ‘di’ch hoff beth chi, efallai mai helpu ni greu matiau rhacs fyddai’ch rheswm chi dros wirfoddoli. Mae yno griw o oddeutu 3 gwirfoddolwr yn eistedd yn Nhŷ’r Peiriannydd yn wythnosol, yn gweithio ar greu matiau rhacs i’n tai hanesyddol ni! Ers iddynt gychwyn ym mis Mai, maent wedi cael llawer o sgyrsiau difyr gyda’n hymwelwyr ni. Mae llawer o’n hymwelwyr yn adrodd cofion cynnes o wneud matiau rhacs gyda'u neiniau a theidiau blynyddoedd yn ôl. ‘Da ni hefyd wedi bod yn dysgu am enwau difyr o rannau gwahanol o’r Deyrnas Unedig am fatiau rhacs - ‘proddy rugs’, ‘peg rugs’ a llawer mwy!

Beth allwn ni edrych ymlaen ato? 
Mae yno dipyn o bethau ar y gweill gyda gwirfoddoli yn Llanberis… yn yr wythnosau nesaf cadwch olwg am hysbysebion ar gyfer rôl wirfoddoli Llysgennad ar gyfer yr Amgueddfa a rôl wirfoddoli Glanhau Peiriannau. ‘Da ni hefyd am hysbysebu Lleoliad Gwaith Myfyrwyr Treftadaeth ym mis Medi ar gyfer myfyrwyr sy’n chwilio am brofiad cyffredinol o’r byd treftadaeth. 

Everyone has that favorite Christmas from their childhood, I bet you can picture yours now. Mine was when I was about eight years old. I woke up to find a small rectangular present underneath my pillow, not then realizing the butterfly effect this present would have on my life. Most kids that age would be wishing for Lego or superhero figures, and I did love Lego at that age, yet this present was none other than BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs series. I was hooked like a bee is to pollen, getting more and more lost in the land before time, the animals of today paling in comparison to the monsters that used to stalk our planet, wondering if one day I’d be able to discover and name my own.

Unfortunately, this dream was put on hold as I dealt with my terrible teenage years.  Impressing my peers became the centre of my life and being the dinosaur/science kid was not going to cut it. Once I had left school for college and grown up, considerably, I went back to my original passion, studying Biology at A level and then moving to a biology undergraduate degree at Cardiff University. 

Though I have studied biology for many years, I still had no actual experience in doing real scientific work. So, when the opportunity to partake in a professional training year (PTY) arose, I reached out with both arms. I applied for a placement at Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales in Cardiff, and after a few weeks I embarked on a project with the Natural Sciences staff in the museum. This is where my journey into the scientific world begins, working on animals that perished over 450 million years ago.

The day I started my project in the museum felt a bit like a first swimming lesson, nervous but excited at the same time. Luckily for me I was put under the tutelage of the wonderful Lucy McCobb, a paleontology curator who had a vast knowledge and understanding of the time and fossils I would be working on. My first few weeks of the project were spent organizing nearly a thousand fossils by species, so that they could be transferred into drawers for easier access. The collection of fossils I had been assigned to work on was called the Sholeshook Limestone collection. These fossils were collected in South-west Wales by an amateur collector called Patrick McDermott, who graciously donated them to the museum so they could be further studied. 

My project over the year would be to curate the collection, organizing and documenting it, as well as to help identify a possible new species. The animals I would be focusing on from this collection are a group of archaic, marine arthropods known as trilobites. These creatures are some of the earliest known fossils, first appearing around 520 million years ago in the Cambrian period and lasting almost 300 million years, before going extinct with 90% of all other life in the end Permian mass extinction. 

But why trilobites? Most people overlook the arthropods of today in favour of more impressive animals. Trilobites, however, have proved vitally important to scientists in the study of evolution. Firstly, trilobite fossils are one of, if not the most, abundant fossils of their age. This is due to trilobites being amazingly successful as a class, having a hardened exoskeleton which they moulted off regularly and many species living in shallow coastal environments, both features that increase chances of fossilization massively. In fact, they have been so useful that entire evolutionary studies have been conducted on them, such as Peter Sheldon's important study of over 15000 trilobites from mid Wales in the 1980s, which resulted in an eye-opening paper shedding light on evolutionary trends based on trilobites. Excited by my prior reading, and especially the prospect of helping discover a novel species, I was eager to begin my project. 

Once all the fossils were sorted, my first task was to select the best specimens from each species to photograph. Photographing the specimens is very important as this will eventually allow them to be uploaded online and in turn, become accessible to many more people, including scientists and the public alike. 

Once this was all completed, it was time for my favourite part of my project so far, helping discover a new species! This has always been a lifelong dream of mine, although when younger I did hope I’d discover the biggest dinosaur ever, and I couldn’t wait to get started. I gathered all the fossils of the suspected new species; each specimen, over 250 in total, needed to be worked on in a number of ways. First, they had to be sorted according to which part of the body it represented.  Luckily trilobite exoskeletons tend to break into consistent parts (head, thoracic segments, tail) so this part was not too difficult. Second came the most time-consuming part, examining their features in detail under the microscope, making observations and taking multiple measurements of each specimen - like the initial sorting, this process took a few weeks but was vital, as these measurements are used to distinguish our species from others in the genus.

Once all the raw data were collected, along with Lucy, we compared our species with every other known species in the genus. This was not as easy as it first seemed.  The well-known species were rather quick to distinguish based on their different features, however, some species are not even given full species names, as only one poorly preserved fossil has been found. Comparing these fragmentary fossils to our species was taxing, especially when the papers some of these species were figured in are from the 1800’s or written in Russian! 

I am hopeful that this paper will be finished and submitted to a scientific journal before I begin my third year of my university degree. I believe this will be a huge help to make me more desirable to future employers. As well as curating and writing this paper, the museum has also given me other opportunities to help develop my scientific skills. This September, in fact, I will be presenting a poster on the project at the Paleontological Association annual conference, which I am beyond excited to do. 

Another area the museum has helped me develop is science communication. I was given the opportunity to produce trilobite spotter sheets to help the Welsh public in their fossil hunting. This involved me finding local and well-preserved fossils in the museum’s collections to photograph, laying these images out on the sheets, and working with Lucy to draft text about them. I was then able to present these sheets at a public outreach event, After Dark: Science on Show, where Lucy and I ran a stand, promoting the museum’s spotter sheets and inviting people to play a board game, which showed them how difficult it is for fossils to form. 

Having the opportunity to work in the museum has further solidified my passion for natural science, as well as giving me the tools to progress in the field post degree. I feel I have finally taken my first steps into the scientific world, rather than simply learning about other peoples’ discoveries. Being able to say that I have published scientific work before even graduating from university and knowing I can work with fellow peers in my workplace who have said they have appreciated me being here (they could be lying), has given me great self-confidence. I cannot stress how important doing a year in industry has been for me and would recommend it to any other student. The insight and experience it will give you will in my opinion completely influence your future decision making. I implore any student with the opportunity to take a training year to ask yourself, do you actually know what it will be like or have any experience working in your field? If the answer is no, then a training year should be a MUST!

Finally, I would like to thank Lucy, Caroline and Jana, as well as all the staff in Natural Sciences that have helped me this year. I feel prepared to take my next steps into science and that’s all because of the help everyone has given me. 

In 2020 Amgueddfa Cymru and Cruse Bereavement Support Cymru came together to support people across the country through their grief and create a lasting memorial full of memories to those lost during the time of Covid-19. It involved creating a square patch containing a memory of a loved one, in which ever way people chose, in whatever words or images they liked. Each patch created demonstrated a visual display of lasting memories of someone they loved who had died, created in unprecedented times.  50+ patches were sent to the Museum and have been carefully sewn together to form a Patchwork of Memories.

For the last two year we have all lived very different lives, with change to our normal the only constant. Losing a loved one is always hard but usually we have the comfort of others and collective mourning at funerals to help us say goodbye and share our memories.  However, a death in the last two years has meant many of us being cut off from our support networks and our rituals or remembrance being altered.  

Rhiannon Thomas, previous Learning Manager at St Fagans said about this project “Helping people with grief is something that I am personally passionate about. Having worked with Cruse Bereavement Support previously to support families I felt the Museum was able to help families dealing with loss in a different way.  Amgueddfa Cymru and Cruse Bereavement Support Wales came together to create a project based around creativity and memory, the aim being to make a lasting memorial to those who have died during the pandemic.” 

Creating something is not a new response to grief, there are several Embroidery samplers in Amgueddfa Cymru’s collections made in memory of loved ones or marking their passing.   This sampler by M.E. Powell was created in 1906 in memory of her mother.   Creativity during difficult times of our lives can help all of us to express deep held emotions that we do not always have the ability to put into words. 

Bereavement Support Days

Alongside the Patchwork of Memories initiative, the Cruse / Museum Partnership also provide a safe inspirational space for the increasing numbers of children and young people awaiting bereavement support and help meet the diverse needs of bereaved children, young people and families who benefit from coming together to rationalise, explore and understand that they are not alone in their grief. 

A series of quarterly Bereavement Support Days are held in partnership with St Fagans, for children, young people and their families experiencing grief and loss. There is specialist support from Cruse staff and volunteers along with art and craft activities provided by Head for Arts and immersive Virtual Reality experiences provided by PlayFrame, which are light-hearted, allowing people attending the chance to make and create things that can be taken home with them and or captured and stored into a virtual memory box. The activities available are designed to stimulate rather that prompt.

Here is the film created by PlayFrame on Ekeko, the virtual memory space they have been creating alongside this project, installing objects, memories and stories donated by participants into a virtual memory box for people to enter and explore:

https://youtu.be/KoQE00ff-rc 

And a link the virtual reality memory space itself: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/6371190072951353/

Alison Thomas, Cruse CYP Wales Lead said “Cruse Bereavement Support Wales provides in person support to children and young people within a variety of settings, so we see first-hand how difficult it can be for grieving children and young people. Their collective support on these days allows families the time and space to verbalise and begin to understand their loss and associated emotions. The focus of the Bereavement Support days is around children and young people, however, the benefits resonate through the whole family including the adults in attendance, some of whom require bereavement support on the day, most of whom stay for the duration and share a cuppa and chat with other bereaved parents and guardians. Following the session, the whole family can have a look around the Museum and spend time together in a safe and nurturing setting.”

Here are some of the written (in their own handwriting) evaluation feedback quotes from children, young people and parents / guardians who have attended the Bereavement Days:

'I feel calmer, less worried.  It was good being able to speak to people my age who understood what I'm going through.'

'I was very included in all the activities and was always involved in conversation.  There was a calm atmosphere making it easier to speak to people there.'

'I was very welcomed and was immediately approached by a friendly face.  It was very inviting and was easy to speak to people there.'

'HAPPY' ?

'Love ? happy'

'Thank you Diolch, Diolch ?'

A mother of one of the young people said 'I feel much better than I did.'

Another mother said 'All was lovely, made to feel welcome, everything we did was good and the girls enjoyed themselves.'

The two memory quilts will be competed by the end of August 2022, following which we will hold a final project event with Cruse Bereavement Support Wales on 25^th September at St Fagans National Museum of History, where we will display the two quilts and invite both the contributors who sent squares and the participants from the Bereavement Support Days to attend, along with the public, to see the quilts and share their experiences of taking part in the process.

We look forward to seeing you there.