Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific

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The 2019 MOWCAP-ACC Grants are now open

In the Asia Pacific region, many libraries, archives and memory institutions face formidable challenges: economic, climatic and geographic. The newly established MOWCAP-ACC Grants Program aims to contribute to addressing this challenge by assisting with the preservation of, and universal access to, the documentary heritage of the Asia/Pacific region, and also to increase awareness of the existence and significance of the heritage.

The MOWCAP-ACC grants program supports the efforts of the many groups and organisations that collect, and preserve and provide access to documentary heritage from the Asia-Pacific region. It aims to encourage collaboration and partnerships to undertake projects (e.g. preservation of materials, digitizing, exhibitions, publications etc) as well as to develop skills and resources (eg. workshops, training programs, expert assessments etc).

Grants of up to $US 5,000 are available for the preservation and sharing of the documentary heritage of the Asia-Pacific. Grants are required to be fully expended, and the project completed and acquitted, within a 6-month period (July-December 2019). The grants are administered through the MOWCAP Office, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.

The Grants Program is made possible through the generous support of the Asia Culture Center.

Download the Grants Guidelines

Download the Application Form

Applications for the grants close on 31 May 2019

For all grant enquiries, please contact us at: grants@mowcap.net

Results of the 2018 MOWCAP-ACC Grants

The Envoyship Journey to China : Documentary heritage inscribed on the UNESCO MoW Regional Register in 2018 and translated/published as part of the MOWCAP-ACC grants program.

The 2018 MOWCAP-ACC Grants Program has led to some diverse and exciting projects and partnerships across the Asia-Pacific. Below is a brief summary of the results of the 2018 Program.

The MOWCAP-ACC Small Grants Programme is made possible through the generous support of the Asia Culture Center.

  • In Timor-Leste, Timor-Aide worked to make digital copies of the Baguia Collection available to the people of Timor-Leste. This collection has 300 black and white photographs circa 1935, which include original images of the communities of Makasae and Naueti.
  • In the Philippines, the Center for New Cinema held a two-day workshop in cooperation with UNESCO, focusing on the study and use of motion pictures and how they can provide knowledge about the rich documentary heritage of the Southeast Asian region.
  • Tuvalu has recently formed a National Memory of the World Committee, and the MOWCAP-ACC Grants were used to hold a workshop to develop a national register of documentary heritage and a work plan for the Committee.
  • The University of the South Pacific’s (USP) archives, located in Fiji, contain a wealth of documentary heritage relating to the Pacific region. The MOWCAP-ACC Grants is helping bring an expert in the ICA-AtoM (web-based archival description software) to implement the system at USP and improve access to this collection through.
  • The Save Myanmar Film Organization is an NGO dedicated to preserving and sharing the rich cinematic heritage of Myanmar. The grant funds were used to procure archival equipment that is crucial for preserving a film archives collection.
  • The Envoyship Journey to China collection, held in Vietnam, was recognized on the regional Memory of the World register in 2018 for its significance for understanding Vietnamese-China relations. The grant was used translate the documentary heritage into English and publish the English translation, making the collection accessible to the wider world.
  • The Archaeological Documents and Reports of Iran (from 1908 to 1941) relating to the Persepolis and the Tomb of Cyrus the Great, held by the Documentation Centre of Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, have begun to be digitized and made accessible through a web-based platform.
  • The MOWCAP-ACC Grants grant supported the creation of a documentary film about the Hikayat Hang Tuah, documentary heritage from Malaysia recognized on the international MoW Register in 2001

The 2019 round of the MOWCAP-ACC Grants are now open: http://www.mowcapunesco.org/grants/

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: UNESCO Memory of the World Regional Workshop on Joint Nominations

The UNESCO Bangkok Office will host the Memory of the World Regional Workshop on Joint Nominations from 20-21 June 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The workshop aims to:

  • Increase participants’ knowledge on UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme and inscription criteria and processes to the International and Regional Registers,
  • Build capacity for transnational joint nominations of new documentary heritage to the Regional and International MoW Registers, and
  • Promote regional cooperation through documentary heritage and Memory of the World programme.

Participants will be from memory institutions, private collection holders or individuals in the Asia-Pacific region who have previously identified collections of documentary heritage for the purpose of joint nominations across several countries.

If you are interested to participate, please complete the participation form (link below) and send it to Ms Misako Ito, Adviser in Communication and Information, UNESCO Bangkok (m.ito@unesco.org) by 10 May 2019, indicating whether you require travel support or not. Selection will be made based on the proposal of joint nominations as well as available funding.

UNESCO will provide the lunches and coffee breaks to all participants of the training. However, as the funding for travel is limited, participants are encouraged as much as possible to seek travel support to their own institutions or UNESCO field offices in Asia and the Pacific.

AgendaDownload
Participation FormDownload

Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles 3rd Edition


Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles 3rd Edition is now available in the Myanmar language.

The addition of a version in the Myanmar language means that this valuable publication is now available in 7 languages: Chinese  English Japanese Portuguese Spanish Thai and Myanmar language.

The English text was written by Dr Ray Edmondson and released as a third edition in 2016.

The book was published under UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, and provides the rationale and theoretical basis of audiovisual archiving.

Preservation of Documentary Heritage for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

On 29–30 November 2018, UNESCO and the Royal Government of Bhutan – with the support of the Japanese Funds in Trust (JFIT) – jointly hosted a regional capacity development workshop in Thimphu on the ‘Preservation of Documentary Heritage for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management’. The two-day workshop brought together around 30 preservation and conservation experts from the South Asia and Asia Pacific region, and sought to examine documentary preservation in the context of strategies for disaster management and disaster risk reduction. The initiative was the first of its kind in the subregion.

Here is more information on the workshop

MOWCAP and the Asia Culture Center (ACC) Renew Cooperation

MOWCAP and the Asia Culture Center have renewed their cooperation for a further three years at a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony held today in Seoul, Korea.

Dr. Lee Jinsik, Acting President of the Asia Culture Center, and Mr. Kwibae Kim, Chair of MOWCAP, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which provides a framework of cooperation to promote the protection, preservation, awareness, universal access to and use of the documentary heritage in Asia and the Pacific.

Through the MOU, MOWCAP and the ACC will continue to develop and organise activities including exhibitions, publications, seminars, talks and other education and outreach activities, including the extension of the MOWCAP-ACC Small Grants program. In addition, the ACC will also continue to host the MOWCAP Office for a further three years.

In his remarks at the ceremony, Dr Lee Jinsik shared that “the ACC’s mission is to create, produce and distribute cultural contents based on studying, researching and archiving cultural resources in Asia and the Pacific. In this regard, we see a close alignment with the vision and mission of MOWCAP and we are looking forward to continuing and expanding our cooperation”

Mr. Kwibae Kim stated that “I sincerely thank our partner, the Asia Culture Centre, whose support has made a number of important initiatives possible for the preservation of our region’s rich documentary heritage. I would also like to thank the Asia Culture Institute, who have generously supported the work of the MOWCAP Office. We look forward to continuing our cooperation for the benefit of MOWCAP’s members in the Asia-Pacific.

Film World Meets Memory of the World

An Asia Pacific Cinema Documentary Heritage Conference took place in Manilla from 26-28 October. MOWCAP and the Asia Culture Center  are very pleased to have supported (along with many others) this important initiative through our 2018 small grants program.

Moving images are how the memory of the world of the 20th and 21st centuries has been and is being captured, preserved and transmitted. Photojournalists’ recording of historic events as they take place and filmmakers’ efforts to document, investigate and look below the surface or to convey literary works or fantasy — in all these ways film represents the quintessential modern means of communication.

[Read more…]

UNESCO News Release on Inter-regional Conference

A news release on the major inter-regional conference on memory preservation and accessibility organized by UNESCO has been posted on the UNESCO website. The conference was held in Panama City on 25-26 October 2018.

The news release can be accessed in English, Spanish (no link) and French.

See the photo gallery of the delegates participating in this important event.

MOWCAP Contributes to First UNESCO MoW Inter-regional Meeting

MOWCAP was well represented at the first UNESCO Memory of the World Inter-regional Conference on Preservation and Accessibility of Documentary Heritage. The conference was held in Panama City from 25-26 October 2018. One of the objectives was to foster co-operation among the members of the MoW community. This objective and others were all achieved in the dynamic two days of sharing MoW experiences. The conference programme can be found here.

The opening remarks were made by Lidia Brito, Regional Director, UNESCO Montevideo; Luis Oporto, Chairperson of MOWLAC and H. E. Mr Flavio Mendez, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Panama to UNESCO. This was followed by two days of sharing Memory of the World experiences and challenges from around the world.

The following is a brief report on the contribution made by the MOWCAP representatives. It also includes an update on the international Memory of the World Review.

[Read more…]

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