Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific

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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.

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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.

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Celebration of the Inscription of the National Debt Redemption Movement Archives

The Spirit of the National Debt Redemption Movement Spreads across the Globe

This was the title of an international conference organized by the Commemorative Association of the National Debt Redemption Movement to celebrate the first anniversary of the inclusion of the Archives of the Korean Debt Redemption Movement in UNESCO’s Memory of the World International Register. The conference was held in the Grand Hotel in Daegu on 2 October 2018, with over 200 attentive listeners.

The opening speech was given by Mrs Dong-Hak Shin, President of the Association, followed by welcoming and congratulatory speeches on behalf of Mr Young-Jin Kwon, Mayor of Daegu, by Mrs Ji-Sook Bae, Chairperson of the Daegu Metropolitan Council and by Mrs Eun-Hee Kang, Superintendent at the Daegu Metropolitan office.

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Petitions Inscribed on International Memory of the World Registers

An International Symposium on Petition Movements in the Nineteenth Century was held on 13 September 2018 at the Advanced Center for Korean Studies in Andong, Republic of Korea.

There are two inscriptions on petition movements on international registers. The New Zealand Women’s Suffrage Petition was inscribed on the Memory of the World International Register in 1998. The Maninso: Ten Thousand People’s Petitions was inscribed on the MOWCAP register in 2018.

The Women’s Suffrage Petition requested the New Zealand Parliament to extend the franchise to women aged 21 years and over. It consists of 546 sheets of paper, glued together to form one continuous roll, 274 metres long. It was presented to the New Zealand Parliament with great drama. John Hall, a Member of Parliament and suffrage supporter, brought it into the House and unrolled it down the central aisle of the debating chamber until it hit the end wall with a thud. The number of women who signed was close to one quarter of the female adult population.

On 19 September 1893, 125 years ago,  New Zealand was the first country in the world to pass legislation to give women the same voting rights as men.  The Women’s Suffrage petition made a major contribution to this achievement.

The Maninso: Ten Thousand People’s Petitions consist of two massive paper scrolls, each measuring some 100 metres in length. The petition for the Posthumous Enthronement of Crown Price Sado, dated 1855, was signed by 10,094 like-minded individuals and presented to the King. The Ten Thousand People’s Petitions against dress reform, dated 1884, was signed by 8,849 people and was not presented to the King. The petitions represent collective actions taken to influence reforms in important state affairs to achieve the ethical politics prescribed by Confucian ideology.

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International Conference on Safeguarding and Increasing Access to the Documentary Heritage of the Silk Routes

The International Conference on Safeguarding and Increasing Access to the Documentary Heritage of the Silk Routes has been held in Fuzhou, China, from the 6-8 November 2018. The meeting was organised by the National Archives of China, in cooperation with the East Asian Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (EASTICA), and hosted by the Fujian Provincial Archives.

The meeting brought together delegates from China, SAR Hong Kong, SAR Macau, Japan, Korea and Mongolia to share information the different documentary heritage relating to the Silk Road and Spice Routes held in their collections, and then discussing cooperation strategies for safeguarding and increasing access to them.

A number of MOWCAP Bureau members and Special Advisors were invited to participate and speak at the seminar, including: Misako Ito, who gave an overview of UNESCO’s Silk Road initiatives; Ray Edmondson, who shared an update on the current state of the MoW program; and Andrew Henderson, who outlined how MOWCAP acts to support regional cooperation for documentary heritage preservation/access.

An exhibition on Documentary Heritage Along the Silk Road was also held in conjunction with the seminar at the Fujian Provincial Archives. The exhibition featured documents from the National Archives of Chine, some of which had never been exhibited before.

The program from the seminar can be found here.

Meeting on the UNESCO Category 2 International Centre

Second Expert Consultation Meeting on the UNESCO Category 2 International Centre for Documentary Heritage, Cheongju, Republic of Korea, 28-30 September 2018

A new UNESCO Category 2 Centre for Documentary Heritage was approved by General Conference in 2017, to be established in the city of Cheongju, Republic of Korea, as the International Centre for Documentary Heritage (ICDH).

As part of the development of the ICDH, a number of MoW experts participated in a consultation meeting in Paris in April 2018, followed in late September by a second meeting in Cheongju that coincided with the award of the Jikji Prize.

The expert group – Dr Ray Edmondson, Mr Jan Bos, Ms Joie Springer, Professor Kyung-ho Suh, Mr Papa Momar Diop, Dr Ramesh Gaur, and Dr Roslyn Russell ‒ provided feedback on the ICDH planning process before the workshop. This was discussed further in Cheongju at meetings that also included representatives of the National Archives of Korea and the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, and Dr Fackson Banda, Programme Specialist for the MoW Programme. The group also visited the World Heritage-listed Beopjusa Temple, and crafted lotus-shaped lanterns.

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Asia-Pacific Workshop Held in Seoul July 2018

Dr Roslyn Russell provided this report on the nomination workshop held in Seoul in July 2018

Delegates from Afghanistan, the Cook Islands, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Samoa, Singapore, Tajikistan, and Tuvalu gathered in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in July this year for the biannual workshop to improve nominations to the Memory of the World registers. The workshop was organised by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO and the Cultural Heritage Administration of the Republic of Korea.

The participating delegates worked on improving draft nominations. Presentations on the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme and the nomination process were given by a group of MoW experts that included MOWCAP members Dr Ray Edmondson, Dr Helen Jarvis, Professor Kyung-ho Suh and Dr Roslyn Russell; and Mr Jan Bos, Chair of the Register Sub-Committee for the International Register, and Ms Joie Springer, former Chief of Secretariat of Memory of the World in UNESCO Paris.

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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

 

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.

 

 

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.

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