Phil Omodamwen, a sixth-generation Benin bronze caster, speaks to us about the importance of repatriation, the new bronze artwork the museum has commissioned, and working in a 250-year-old forge in Banbury! Phil Omodamwen is a sixth-generation bronze caster from Benin City in Nigeria. He is a member of just one of 11 families licenced by the Kingdom of Benin to practice traditional bronze casting. He uses the lost wax method of bronze casting to produce his pieces, working in traditional ways which have been passed down through generations of fathers and sons.
He is working with the Making the Museum project to inform our understanding of lost wax bronze casting processes, helping us to better understand their detail and intricacy. However, Phil’s collaboration with the museum is also helping us to confront the theft of works from Benin in 1897.
The piece the museum has commissioned him to make – a brand new Benin bronze plaque, titled "Looting of the Oba's Palace in 1897" – shows what the altar in the palace would have looked like before 1897 on the left, and British soldiers in the act of looting on the right. This piece will help us to tell this history in the museum, and its purchase supports the continuation of traditional bronze casting practices in Benin today.
This plaque is the first of its kind to be produced - the only piece depicting the looting - and at c.80cm tall also one of the largest! It will make quite an impact in the museum displays and we hope you will come and visit the new display when it is installed mid-2026!
In this episode, listen to Phil discuss why the repatriation of Benin bronze artworks is important, as well as learning about the lost wax casting process, and finding out more about work Phil produced right here in Oxfordshire with Ems Orving, blacksmith at the historic forge at Tooley’s Boatyard, Banbury.
See more of Phil’s work on his social media pages:
https://www.instagram.com/omobronze/
https://x.com/omobronze
Want to follow along when we’re talking about collections items?
Numerous bells from Benin are discussed (and rung) throughout this episode. The bells in our collection that are from Benin are:
1900.39.10 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38732)
1900.39.11 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38733)
1917.38.1 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38734)
1917.38.2 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38735)
1941.2.117 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38736)
1941.2.118 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38737)
1941.2.119 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38738)
The items Phil has made for the museum have not yet been added to the online catalogue, but you can view images of the commissioned plaque in posts from Friday 28th November 2025 on the museum’s social media accounts:
https://bsky.app/profile/pittriversmuseum.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/pittriversmuseum/
https://x.com/Pitt_Rivers
You can see video footage of Phil’s time working in Tooley’s Boatyard forge in Banbury on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_q-BfoGOPM&t=2s
This episode features sounds recorded during Phil’s time in the Tooley’s Boatyard forge with Ems Orving, captured by Tim Hand, Chris Morton, and Beth Hodgett, reproduced with permission.
You will hear from (in order of appearance):
Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Martin (she/her) – Research Project Officer, Making the Museum project
Phil Omodamwen (he/him) – sixth-generation Benin bronze caster
Prof. Chris Morton (he/him) – Principal Investigator (PI), Making the Museum project
Dr. Beth Hodgett (they/them) – Postdoctoral Researcher, Making the Museum project
All content for Making the Pitt Rivers Museum is the property of Oxford University and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Phil Omodamwen, a sixth-generation Benin bronze caster, speaks to us about the importance of repatriation, the new bronze artwork the museum has commissioned, and working in a 250-year-old forge in Banbury! Phil Omodamwen is a sixth-generation bronze caster from Benin City in Nigeria. He is a member of just one of 11 families licenced by the Kingdom of Benin to practice traditional bronze casting. He uses the lost wax method of bronze casting to produce his pieces, working in traditional ways which have been passed down through generations of fathers and sons.
He is working with the Making the Museum project to inform our understanding of lost wax bronze casting processes, helping us to better understand their detail and intricacy. However, Phil’s collaboration with the museum is also helping us to confront the theft of works from Benin in 1897.
The piece the museum has commissioned him to make – a brand new Benin bronze plaque, titled "Looting of the Oba's Palace in 1897" – shows what the altar in the palace would have looked like before 1897 on the left, and British soldiers in the act of looting on the right. This piece will help us to tell this history in the museum, and its purchase supports the continuation of traditional bronze casting practices in Benin today.
This plaque is the first of its kind to be produced - the only piece depicting the looting - and at c.80cm tall also one of the largest! It will make quite an impact in the museum displays and we hope you will come and visit the new display when it is installed mid-2026!
In this episode, listen to Phil discuss why the repatriation of Benin bronze artworks is important, as well as learning about the lost wax casting process, and finding out more about work Phil produced right here in Oxfordshire with Ems Orving, blacksmith at the historic forge at Tooley’s Boatyard, Banbury.
See more of Phil’s work on his social media pages:
https://www.instagram.com/omobronze/
https://x.com/omobronze
Want to follow along when we’re talking about collections items?
Numerous bells from Benin are discussed (and rung) throughout this episode. The bells in our collection that are from Benin are:
1900.39.10 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38732)
1900.39.11 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38733)
1917.38.1 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38734)
1917.38.2 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38735)
1941.2.117 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38736)
1941.2.118 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38737)
1941.2.119 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38738)
The items Phil has made for the museum have not yet been added to the online catalogue, but you can view images of the commissioned plaque in posts from Friday 28th November 2025 on the museum’s social media accounts:
https://bsky.app/profile/pittriversmuseum.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/pittriversmuseum/
https://x.com/Pitt_Rivers
You can see video footage of Phil’s time working in Tooley’s Boatyard forge in Banbury on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_q-BfoGOPM&t=2s
This episode features sounds recorded during Phil’s time in the Tooley’s Boatyard forge with Ems Orving, captured by Tim Hand, Chris Morton, and Beth Hodgett, reproduced with permission.
You will hear from (in order of appearance):
Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Martin (she/her) – Research Project Officer, Making the Museum project
Phil Omodamwen (he/him) – sixth-generation Benin bronze caster
Prof. Chris Morton (he/him) – Principal Investigator (PI), Making the Museum project
Dr. Beth Hodgett (they/them) – Postdoctoral Researcher, Making the Museum project
Hip hop, rap, and multimedia artists X and Rawz tell us about the music they produced using sounds from the museum archives. The project team talk about how understanding more about makers (rather than takers!) fits into the work of a modern museum. The first two creative fellows on the Making the Museum project – X and Rawz – talk to us about sound quality, music as a form of time travel, and being part of a continuum of sound/music makers as they tell us about their work with the museum’s sound archives. Learn about how the museum space impacted the creative responses they produced and hear their ideas for museums now and in the future.
In a special extra segment for this first episode, we (the Making the Museum project team) discuss how creative fellowships and responses fit within the research work we do at the museum. We also discuss why researching makers is so important, setting the scene for other episodes in this series.
Want to follow along when we’re talking about collections items? This episode features the following items from the Pitt Rivers collection (in order of appearance):
Audio recording of water drumming by Bayaka women and youths (Republic of Congo, 1994) (Accession number 1997.21.2.134, Side B, Track 14)
Balonyona playing geedal (Yandoumbé, Central African Republic, 1992) (Accession number 1997.21.2.52, Side A, Track 3)
Moru sanza music by Timon Beri, recorded by Patti Langton (South Sudan, 1979) (Accession number 2013.1.11, Side A, Track 1)
'Clay Pot' Vessel | Collections online | Pitt Rivers Museum (Accession number 1886.1.489)
Want to see more from X and Rawz’s time as fellows? Check out the video from their Gathering Place event – the culmination of their fellowships – on our YouTube channel: The Gathering Place: Africa (Late Night Event, May 2024)
This episode features live versions of the following music/poetry recorded during The Gathering Place late-night event at the Pitt Rivers Museum, May 4th 2024 (in order of appearance):
X- Dear Old Man
Rawz- There’s Fire to Find
X- Ubomi (‘Life’)
Rawz- The First
Rawz (vocals) and Miles Ncube (mbira)- Art Starts A Story
Rawz- ‘Til Sunrise
X- Ingqayi Nawe Hlabula ('Ingqayi You Also Sip from This Knowledge')
X- Intsukaphi ('Where we are From')
You will hear from (in order of appearance):
Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Martin (she/her) – Research Project Officer, Making the Museum project
Rawz (he/him) – Creative Fellow
Xolile (X) Madinda (he/him) – Creative Fellow
Dr. Beth Hodgett (they/them) – Postdoctoral Researcher, Making the Museum project
Dr. Christopher Morton (he/him) – Principal Investigator, Making the Museum project
Dr. Noel Lobley (he/him) – Visiting Researcher (Assistant Professor, University of Virginia)
Also featuring Miles Ncube (he/him) – Mbira Player
About the artists:
Xolile (X) Madinda is a hip hop artist, arts activist, and founder and CEO of The Black Power Station in Makhanda, South Africa. X's practice is rooted in the re-imagining and re-archiving of African creative works to educate, liberate and empower the self and communities.
Check out what X is doing with The Black Power Station here: The Black Power Station – Arts Liberation Space
Rawz is a Multidisciplinary Artist from Oxford. His practice centres around words and music, and is rooted in social justice and the exploration and understanding of our interconnected worlds.
Rawz regularly updates his portfolio here: https://linktr.ee/rawz_official
Email: urbanmusicfoundation@hotmail.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/rawz_official
Facebook: www.facebook.com/realrawz
Twitter: www.twitter.com/realrawz
Bandcamp: www.Rawz.bandcamp.com
Making the Pitt Rivers Museum
Phil Omodamwen, a sixth-generation Benin bronze caster, speaks to us about the importance of repatriation, the new bronze artwork the museum has commissioned, and working in a 250-year-old forge in Banbury! Phil Omodamwen is a sixth-generation bronze caster from Benin City in Nigeria. He is a member of just one of 11 families licenced by the Kingdom of Benin to practice traditional bronze casting. He uses the lost wax method of bronze casting to produce his pieces, working in traditional ways which have been passed down through generations of fathers and sons.
He is working with the Making the Museum project to inform our understanding of lost wax bronze casting processes, helping us to better understand their detail and intricacy. However, Phil’s collaboration with the museum is also helping us to confront the theft of works from Benin in 1897.
The piece the museum has commissioned him to make – a brand new Benin bronze plaque, titled "Looting of the Oba's Palace in 1897" – shows what the altar in the palace would have looked like before 1897 on the left, and British soldiers in the act of looting on the right. This piece will help us to tell this history in the museum, and its purchase supports the continuation of traditional bronze casting practices in Benin today.
This plaque is the first of its kind to be produced - the only piece depicting the looting - and at c.80cm tall also one of the largest! It will make quite an impact in the museum displays and we hope you will come and visit the new display when it is installed mid-2026!
In this episode, listen to Phil discuss why the repatriation of Benin bronze artworks is important, as well as learning about the lost wax casting process, and finding out more about work Phil produced right here in Oxfordshire with Ems Orving, blacksmith at the historic forge at Tooley’s Boatyard, Banbury.
See more of Phil’s work on his social media pages:
https://www.instagram.com/omobronze/
https://x.com/omobronze
Want to follow along when we’re talking about collections items?
Numerous bells from Benin are discussed (and rung) throughout this episode. The bells in our collection that are from Benin are:
1900.39.10 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38732)
1900.39.11 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38733)
1917.38.1 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38734)
1917.38.2 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38735)
1941.2.117 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38736)
1941.2.118 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38737)
1941.2.119 (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-38738)
The items Phil has made for the museum have not yet been added to the online catalogue, but you can view images of the commissioned plaque in posts from Friday 28th November 2025 on the museum’s social media accounts:
https://bsky.app/profile/pittriversmuseum.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/pittriversmuseum/
https://x.com/Pitt_Rivers
You can see video footage of Phil’s time working in Tooley’s Boatyard forge in Banbury on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_q-BfoGOPM&t=2s
This episode features sounds recorded during Phil’s time in the Tooley’s Boatyard forge with Ems Orving, captured by Tim Hand, Chris Morton, and Beth Hodgett, reproduced with permission.
You will hear from (in order of appearance):
Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Martin (she/her) – Research Project Officer, Making the Museum project
Phil Omodamwen (he/him) – sixth-generation Benin bronze caster
Prof. Chris Morton (he/him) – Principal Investigator (PI), Making the Museum project
Dr. Beth Hodgett (they/them) – Postdoctoral Researcher, Making the Museum project
