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.

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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.

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