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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A second Knowledge Centre was opened on 11 July 2017. It is based in Beijing at the School of Information Resource Management, Renmin University. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Dean Zhang Bin; Professor Nuo Jin, Chairperson of the University Council; Li Minghua, Director General of the State Archives Adminstration of China, chair of MOWCAP and chair of the China MoW Committee; Professor Lothar Jordan chair of SCEaR; Papa Momar Diop, Memory of the World International Advisory Committee; and Zheng Suiquan,Vice- Chairperson of the University Council.
Mr Li Minghua welcomed everyone to the opening. He spoke about the value of the Memory of the World Programme and noted that China had 10 items inscribed on the Memory of the World Asia and Pacific register. Professor Nuo Jin spoke about the importance of the Knowledge Centre to Renmin University and the importance of the work done by UNESCO to encourage institutions and citizens to preserve national memories.
UNESCO and the Asian Film Archive Workshop June 17
From the 7-8 June 2017 UNESCO and the Asian Film Archive cooperated to hold a two-day workshop that explored how UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme (Memory of the World Asia Pacific “MOWCAP”) can help protect and preserve Southeast Asia’s precious audiovisual heritage. Twelve participants from ten Southeast Asian countries attended the workshop which aimed at helping in the identification of potential audiovisual heritage for nomination and assistance in the inscription process. The workshop was generously supported by the National Library Board, Singapore.
A five-point UNESCO-ASEAN Member States Action Plan emerged from the ASEAN-UNESCO+3 Consultation on the UNESCO Recommendation on Documentary Heritage (09-11 May 2017, Kuala Lumpur).
The Action Plan identifies concrete actions that can be taken in the areas of documentary heritage identification, preservation and access, as well as policy measures to support efforts in these areas and opportunities for international cooperation. The Action Plan was adopted by delegates from 10 ASEAN Member States and Timor-Leste.
Action Plan: http://bit.ly/2rlekp1
ASEAN Member States, museums, archives and libraries will use the Action Plan to guide the implementation of UNESCO’s Recommendation at the national level. The Action Plan will also help the ASEAN Secretariat, UNESCO, and the Memory of the World Committee for the Asia Pacific develop policies, trainings and projects to address challenges identified by member states. [Read more…]
Myanmar’s documentary heritage is rich and diverse, ranging from ancient texts carved in stone and palm leaf manuscripts to cinema and audio-visual materials. As a developing nation, however, Myanmar faces major challenges in safeguarding this heritage and making it accessible to all.
UNESCO working closely with the Myanmar National Commission for UNESCO, held a national level Memory of the World (MoW) training workshop from 4-5 May 2017.
The workshop focused on increasing participants’ knowledge of and skills related to the MoW programme, particularly developing nominations to MoW registers and how the programme can bolster efforts to safeguard Myanmar’s documentary heritage through the establishment of a Memory of the World National Committee.
