Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific

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Pacific Action Plan on Implementation of UNESCO Recommendation

The Pacific Action Plan was initially developed at a workshop held on Wednesday 6 September 2017 in Suva, Fiji.  The workshop was held in conjunction with the PARBICA (Pacific Regional Branch of the International  Council of Archives) biennial meeting and was made possible through the support of PARBICA and funding from the Asia Culture Centre.

Delegates who attended all or part of the workshop were from Australia, Federated States of Micronesia (including YAP, Ponhnpei ), Fiji, Kiribati,  New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.

Following the workshop there was consultation with other Pacific documentary heritage experts.

Information on all the action plans can be viewed here

 

MOWCAP Bureau Elections Update

Elections for the MOWCAP Bureau will be held at the next General Meeting in Gwangju, Republic of Korea. The key points of the MOWCAP voting process are summarized below:

–          1 Chairperson, 3 Vice-Chairpersons and 1 Secretary-General will be elected

–          The order of election will be as follows: first the Secretary-General, then the Chairperson and finally the three Vice-Chairpersons

–          All MoW National Committees that have submitted the annual reports will have the right to vote

–          The voting will be conducted by secret ballot and decisions will be taken by a simple majority

–          Special Advisors will be appointed by the newly elected Bureau after the General Meeting

–          If there is only one candidate for the Secretary-General’s position and there are no objections, we do not proceed to a vote

–          If there is only one candidate for the Chairperson’s position and there are no objections, we do not proceed to a vote

–          If there are 3 or less than 3 candidates for the Vice-Chairpersons’ positions and there are no objections, we do not proceed to a vote

–          The voting process will be chaired and scrutineered by UNESCO staff

–          One candidate may apply to several positions

Note: The candidates’ application forms, statements in support of the nomination, and other supporting documents will be distributed to registered delegates one week prior to the General Meeting meeting.

Myanmar News

UNESCO has been working with stakeholders in Myanmar to support the identification, preservation and access to the country’s documentary heritage within the framework of the Malaysia-UNESCO Cooperation Programme. In cooperation with the Myanmar National Commission for UNESCO and the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation.

Read more about this important initiative including the workshop that took place in Yangon on 20, 21 February 2018.

 

 

Jikji Memory of the World Prize call for nominations

 Nominations  open for the  UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize.

The Prize was created to commemorate the inscription of the Buljo jikji simche yojeol – the oldest known book of moveable metal print in the world – on the Memory of the World International Register. As such, it has become an important symbol of the Memory of the World Programme’s efforts to support the preservation and accessibility of documentary heritage as a common heritage of humanity.

UNESCO Member States, in consultation with their National Commissions, as well as international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) maintaining official relations with UNESCO and whose work is in the field of preservation and conservation of documentary heritage are thus encouraged to submit their nominations no later than 30 March 2018.

Here is  more information on how to submit a nomination.

 

International Symposium on the Preservation of Woodblocks in Asia held in Vietnam

An International Symposium entitled “Preservation of woodblocks in Asia : Sharing experiences” was held by the State Records and Archives Department – Vietnam, Ministry of Home Affairs on November 11 – 12, 2017 in Da Lat City, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam.

Woodblocks are special type of record found in a number of countries in East Asia, including Korea, Japan, China and Vietnam, and reflect the historical and cultural identity of each country.  The wooden collections are particularly susceptible to climate and require active preservation and management strategies. In this regard, the objective of the Symposium was to promote exchange of knowledge cooperation amongst countries with woodblock collections.

The Symposium brought together experts from Vietnam, South Korea, China and Japan and a number of papers were presented on preservation techniques, practical solution for storage and management issues and sharing information about different collections in the region. 

MOWCAP Vice-Chair, Dr. Minh Huong VU THI and Dr. KIM Kwibea were the speakers at the Symposium. 

Within framework of the Symposium, the International Woodblock Printing Association conducted its General Meeting in the National Archives Centre.

Vietnam,  three collections of woodblock records have been inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Registers, the most recent of which was the “Woodblocks of Phuc Giang School” in custodian of Nguyen Huy Family in Ha Tinh Privince (inscribed in Asia-Pacific Register in 2016).

Printing woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana and miscellaneous Buddhist scriptures (Republic of Korea, 2007) and the Tibetan Dictionary of Definitions and Terms entitled as The Space for Attaining Wisdom (Mongolia, 2016) are other examples of wood blocks inscribed from the region.

Preserving the documentary heritage of Macau, Goa, Timor-Leste and Malacca

The Macau Knowledge Centre, City University of Macau, Macau Documentation and Information Society, with the generous support of the Macau Foundation, have organised a seminar focused on increasing cooperation for the preservation of, and access to, the documentary heritage of Macau, Goa, Timor-Leste and Malacca.

The seminar took place on the 22 of November 2017 at the City University of Macau, and brought together archivists, academics, students, and Memory of the World (MoW) experts to share information and to discuss ways to develop cooperation. Approximately 50 people attended the seminar.

Macau, Goa, Malacca, Timor-Leste have been linked for over 500 years through trade, colonial governments, and religious institutions. Extensive records were created from these exchanges, covering a range of topics from population data, legal matters, to culture and more. However, currently many of these collections are difficult to access and strong links between the archives are yet to be developed.

In his remarks during the seminar, Mr. Horacio Marques, Director General of the National Archives of Timor-Leste, outlined the importance of addressing this issue, sharing that many collections that testify to the history of Timor-Leste only exist in Goa, Macau and other archives overseas. Gaining access to this material is vital for the county’s national identity, education, and research purposes.

In the key note address, Dr Roslyn Russell, MoW expert, shared the process of developing MoW nominations, and gave examples of multi-national nominations from the region. While Mr. Andrew Henderson, Secretary General of the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP), shared an overview of MOWCAP’s work to promote regional cooperation through the programme.

In her closing remarks, Dr Helen Iong, Director of the Macau Documentation and Information Society, spoke about the importance of working together to promote understanding and research opportunities across borders. Dr. Iong shared that she hoped the initial seminar could develop in to a wider cooperation between the different archives.

An exhibition was held in conjunction with the seminar at the Knowledge Centre, City University of Macau. The exhibition featured material contributed from each of the participating archives and highlighted the connections between the places through correspondence files, plans and photographs, postcards, and more.

Korean National Commission Supports Documentary Heritage in Africa Region

A  UNESCO Memory of the World Training Workshop for the Africa Region was held in Windhoek, Namibia from 16-18 October. The workshop was organized by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea, and the Namibia National Commission for UNESCO.

The objective of the workshop was to increase awareness of the significance of documentary heritage in the Africa region and to assist countries to prepare their applications for nomination to UNESCO registers.

[Read more…]

Archives and Human Rights Seminar

An International Seminar on Human Rights Archives: Agents of Accountability and Justice was held in Gwangju City, Republic of Korea,  in September 2017.  The international seminar was jointly organised by Gwangju City, the Asia Culture Center, and the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, in cooperation with MOWCAP and the Asia Culture Institute.

The purpose of the seminar was to acknowledge human rights archives as powerful agents for achieving justice, by supporting reconciliation and recovery in societies. The seminar was also an opportunity to enhance cooperation and networking among human rights archivists, associations, and human rights defenders in participating countries.

[Read more…]

MOWCAP Supports a Film Preservation Workshop in Yangon

A Memory of the World (M0W) training workshop for film archivists was held in Yangon, Myanmar, on 18-19 October 2017.

The organisers were the “Save Myanmar Film Project”,  a voluntary group associated with the Wathann Film Institute, a local non-government organisation, in collaboration with the Myanmar Ministry of Information and Culture. The Ministry maintains the country’s most important film archive collection, and the venue for the workshop was the Ministry’s head quarters building. The 15 participants came from various backgrounds and included some staff of the Ministry.

The workshop was led by Mick Newham and Ray Edmondson, both of whom have long international careers in audiovisual archiving, are former senior staff of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, and former presidents of the regional professional federation SEAPAVAA (South East Asia Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association). In preparation for the workshop, the MoW publication, Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles (2016 edition) was translated into Burmese and distributed to all participants.

The group of participants was divided into two: on the first day, Group 1 spent the day with Ray discussing basic archiving concepts and principles, the practicalities of identification, collection management, preservation and access, and disaster preparedness. Group 2 learned about the physical and chemical attributes of film, and had hands-on practice with film winding and splicing. On the second day, the two groups changed places.

The workshop was intended to encourage the growing interest in film preservation among film makers, researchers and archivists, and to help develop a more comprehensive approach to the assembling and protection of the nation’s film heritage. Some follow-up actions were agreed on to help ensure that the experience of the workshop is built upon as the Save Myanmar Film Project and the work of the Ministry develops.

The training was made possible by the generous financial support of the Asia Culture Center through the ongoing partnership with MOWCAP.

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