1. Australia
The Australian Academy of Science received a grant for the Fenner Collection Digitisation and Digital Access Project.
The manuscript collection of Professor Frank Fenner in the archives of the Australian Academy of Science covers the life and work of a distinguished Australian scientist and was added to the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register in 2019.
Professor Fenner is widely known for his significant contribution to global public health as Chairman of
the World Health Organisation Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication. He has made major contributions to the understanding of viruses and the literature of microbiology and has stated that his proudest achievement was announcing on 8 May 1980 that smallpox was gone from the earth.
The collection records Professor Frank Fenner’s enormous contribution to scientific research and communication over more than eight decades. It is also an unexpectedly rich personal archive documenting Professor Fenner’s experience of his work, his broad-ranging intellectual interests, the history and development of the Australian National University, and his contribution to the broader community.
The Fenner papers are open for research and study, but there were no digital surrogates in existence at
the beginning of this project.
The ACC-MOWCAP grant has enabled the Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the National Library of Australia to digitise MS143 Series 15 which comprises Professor Fenner’s diaries documenting his vital international work undertaken between 1948 and 1999. It includes his involvement with the program to eradicate the virus that causes smallpox, a momentous achievement in the worldwide history of public health.
The digitised diaries are accessible to anyone with an internet connection via Trove, an initiative of the National Library of Australia that establishes a single-entry point for digital and digitised collections from across Australia.
Digitisation of a relatively contained amount of unbound allied material in MS143 Series 16 was conducted in-house by the Academy in parallel with the National Library’s work on Series 15. The focus was on the administrative side of Fenner’s involvement with World Health Organisation programs in contrast with the personal observations present in his diaries. These digitised papers have been made freely accessible via the Search Academy Collections web portal.
The Australian Academy of Science based in Canberra, Australia is a not-for-profit organisation of individuals elected for their outstanding contributions to science and research. It provides independent, authoritative and influential scientific advice, promotes international scientific engagement, builds public awareness and understanding of science, and champions, celebrates, and supports excellence in Australian science.
2. Cambodia
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum received a grant for the Research and Publication of Twenty Life Stories of S-21 Victims. S-21 was the main interrogation, torture, and extermination site of the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975-1979.
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum chronicles the Cambodian genocide. Located in Phnom Penh, the site is a former secondary school that was used as Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 until its fall in 1979. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives were inscribed on the Memory of the World MOWCAP regional register in 2008 and the international register in 2009.
The archive does not hold a lot of information about the victims’ life stories. Much of the information held in the archive is based on forced confessions at S-21 which were given under brutal torture and coercion.
The grant enabled researchers at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum to complete fourteen individual life stories which were representative of the diversity of the victims. The sources used included advanced searching of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives website, examination of transcripts from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia’s trial hearings, publications, and movies related to S-21.
The researchers also reached out to six families directly and several close colleagues and friends of the victims, not only in Cambodia but also in the United States, Canada, France, New Zealand, Japan, and Germany. They also searched for the family and close friends of twenty prisoners. The Covid-19 pandemic meant that a number of interviews were conducted using email and online meetings.
The fourteen stories offer different perspectives through which the victims can be remembered. They are available on the Bophana Khmer Rouge History Application. The app is called “Khmer Rouge History” and is downloadable via Play Store (Android) and App Store (iOS). The stories of the fourteen victims are in Chapter 6, The Security System, Voices of the Prisoners and available in Khmer and English. Factsheets have also been designed and printed and will be used by the Museum for educational purposes.
3. Indonesia
The Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja (PSBK) in Yogyakarta received a grant for the Memory Access Activation Project. The purpose of the project was to enhance the preservation, maintenance, and access to the archive and artwork collection of Bagong Kussudiardja (1928-2004). Bagong Kussudiardja was an important Indonesian artist, contemporary dance choreographer, and painter. The collection covers the 1950s to 1979.
The archive and artwork collections were in inadequate storage, were not well described and so could not be easily accessed by scholars, researchers, students, and the general public.
The grant enabled PSBK to develop a preservation scheme and an archives management system to ensure that good archival practices were applied to the collection. The PSBK collaborated with specialists from the Indonesian Visual Arts Archive (IVAA) to design the archiving system and provide training. Graduates from the University of Gadjah Mada’s Archives and Records Management Program developed the description system and produced a list of the items in the collection.
The collection of 18,311 items was described. Physical and digital storage systems were created, 23% or 4,244 items were digitized.
The Indonesian company MonsterAR developed the web-based platform INGATAN (eng: memory) to enable access to the lists of documents (accessible via https://ingatan.psbk.or.id). The online list enables academics, researchers, cultural organizations, and individuals to identify the textual, photographs, and ephemera items that are held at PSBK. The web-based platform was officially launched on 15 December 2021 with an inaugural curated digital archive exhibition of 106 digitized items.
In addition, the successful outcome of the project is important because it provides a model for other arts and culture archives to use to introduce robust archive management and access systems.
Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja was established by Bagong Kussudiardja in 1978 and is an art centre that contributes to the cultural enrichment of Indonesian society by shaping arts practice as an important learning resource for artists and communities. It presents works of emerging artists, facilitates artistic investigation and professional development, and devises programs that increase community engagement and networking with the arts.
4. Indonesia
The Museum Musik Indonesia received a grant for the Documentation of Recorded Albums of Indonesian Traditional Music from Sumatra to Papua.
The project described 101 collections of Indonesian traditional music from an estimated 15,000 collections of recorded music in the Indonesian Music Museum. The selection covers the years 1956-2000.
The descriptions include images of the recording, the album title, the artist or group, song titles, language, the year of release, and the record label as well as information on the recording and the artist, artists or group. The description also contains information on each collection based on historical, cultural, and educational aspects. The discography digital catalog is available on the Indonesian Music Museum website. The website also includes links to recordings.
A printed catalogue book is currently being designed and printed. The target audience is students, teachers, musicians, journalists, researchers, artists, music scholars, culture and art institutions, and international Music Museums.
5. Indonesia
The Oral Traditions Association received a grant to make a documentary film Negarakertagama, Raising Awareness as Memory of the World UNESCO. The video can be accessed online via this link.
Nāgarakrĕtāgama or Description of the Country (1365 AD) was inscribed on the Memory of the World Asia Pacific register in 2008 and on the international UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2013. Nāgarakrĕtāgama is a Javanese text written on palm leaves that gives an account of government and society in the Majapahit kingdom that covered most of the geographical area that is present-day Indonesia. The memory of this kingdom inspired the founders of Indonesia in their struggle against colonial rule.
The aim of the project was to make a documentary film to raise awareness and generate an appreciation of the importance of preserving and raising awareness of the Nāgarakrĕtāgama and other manuscripts, such as those held by the Cultural Institute of Karangasem in Bali.
The project was commissioned by the Indonesian Oral Traditions Association with support from the Directorate of Cultural Human Resources and Cultural Institutions Empowerment, Ministry of Education and Culture. The documentary is 25 minutes long and was filmed in Bali. It includes an explanation of why the Memory of the World Pogramme is important, a section where a reader chants the Karawin Nāgarakrĕtāgama script, information about the Majapahit kingdom, and an explanation of why the manuscript is relevant for today’s society.
It is also intended that the film will generate an interest and appreciation of Indonesia’s other documentary heritage. There are plans to promote the film and the importance of the Nāgarakrĕtāgama through focus group discussions, social media, and educational material for schools.
6. Malaysia
The World Heritage Moving Image Centre was awarded a grant for a National Celebration of ‘World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2021 (Virtual Event).
The National Heritage Act 2005 (Act 645) is the main government law relating to heritage in Malaysia. However, the law does not classify audiovisual as one of the mediums in the definition of heritage. This means that audiovisual material cannot be listed in the Malaysian National Heritage Register and has also meant that 2019 was the first year that Malaysia celebrated ‘World Day for Audiovisual Heritage’. This was followed in 2020 by a seven-day online festival supported by a MOWCAP-Asia Culture Centre grant.
The 2021 grant was used to support an online event on 21 October 2021 for policymakers, government officials, students, heritage archivists, the public, and civil society. The aim of the day was to promote the importance of preserving audiovisual heritage so that Malaysia’s audiovisual heritage makes progress toward being classified as national heritage.
The event was organized by the World Heritage Moving Image Centre (WHMIC) in collaboration with the Malaysia UNESCO National Commission, the Malaysia National Film Development Corporation, the Film Archive Division of the Lao Cinema Department, Save Myanmar Film, Sinematek Indonesia, and SIAR (film streaming platform). The Facebook Live event reached 7494 people and had 1321 engagements.
The Executive Secretary of the Malaysian National Commission for UNESCO has reported that the event was “successful and impactful in promoting audiovisuals as part of the National Heritage. Malaysian policymakers are now strengthening the framework to support audiovisuals heritage as part of the country’s nomination for the Memory of the World Programme”.
7. Mongolia
The Monsound and Vision Foundation was awarded a grant for the Safeguarding the Humun Bichig Newspaper Through Digitisation project.
In 1941, under the influence of Russia, Mongolia adopted the Russian Cyrillic alphabet and stopped using the traditional Mongolian script. The people of Mongolia are now working towards wider adoption of the traditional writing system including legally establishing it as Mongolia’s script in the near future.
The aim of the project was to digitize 900 editions of the Humun Bichig newspaper which was started in 1993 and is the only newspaper printed in the traditional Mongolian script. The project achieved its objectives by digitising 912 editions of the newspaper from the printed versions as the original computer files were lost in a fire in 2013.
The achievement of the objectives means that the digitised versions of the newspaper will contribute to the nationwide effort to shift back to the Mongolian writing system in the near future. The Humun Bichig newspaper staff will also create a digital library of the newspapers that will be accessible to Mongolian school children, researchers, and the general public. The availability of digital copies means that the original copies will only be used for approved research activities.
The project went smoothly and was completed on time with good support from the Humun Bichig newspaper office which provided two offices for the project team.
The digitized newspapers contain information on the history of Mongolia including copies of works by prominent Mongolian poets, scholars, spiritual leaders, and historians. They also include articles and historic records and lessons on Mongolian calligraphy and traditions.
In 2013 Mongolian Calligraphy was inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
The Monsound and Vision Foundation is a non-profit and a non-government institution that relies on income from local and international donations. The Foundation has been active since 2005 and contributes to the promotion and safeguarding of the documentary heritage of Mongolia by initiating public awareness campaigns, digitization projects, and media publicity. It has developed a number of projects to promote the traditional Mongolian script locally and internationally one of which was to assist the Humun Bichig newspaper with an online presence in order to reach out to more readers.
8. Mongolia
The Professional Association for the Support of Archival Studies was awarded a grant for the development of a website to introduce “The Independence Referendum Document of The People’s Republic of Mongolia to the Public“. The project was undertaken in partnership with the National Central Archives of Mongolia.
The “Referendum Document on the Independence of the People’s Republic of Mongolia” collection includes documents from the Conference of the People’s Republic of Mongolia, the action plan of the central and branch commissions for polling, reports of the Central Commission, the list of referendum voters, and documentary films and newsreels.
The Professional Association for the Support of Archival Studies is a non-government organization dedicated to improving the preservation of archival documents, in partnership with the National Central Archives of Mongolia.
9. Mongolia
The International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations (IISNC) was awarded a grant to produce a documentary film on “Mongolian Birchbark Books” on Ancient Nomadic Tradition of Mongolian Birchbark Culture. The documentary can be accessed online via this link.
The aim of the project is to produce a 30-minute documentary film to introduce and promote the results of research on birch bark culture and birch bark books of the Mongols and ancient nomads. The film is based on the research of the birchbark books unearthed from the Tavgachiin Ulaan and Khar Bukh ruins in 1999 by the archeologist Prof. A. Ochir. These books consist of 150 intact and fragmented pages.
The project activities included:
- In September 2021 a visit was made to the archeological sites where birchbark books were excavated and an interview with Professor A. Ochir was filmed. Also filmed were the daily activities of the birchbark makers in the Dadal and Binder soums (districts) of Khentii province. This included the making of birchbark objects and related rituals and customs.
- Films were made of ancient and modern birchbark books and birchbark objects kept at the National History Museum and National Central Archive. Also filmed were the ancient birchbark books and birchbark artifacts kept at the Institute of Archeology, the Institute of History of Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the Mongolian National University, and the Mongolian University of Sciences and Technologies. The film crew also filmed interviews with the archeologists who unearthed these archeological findings.
- The team has continued to work on the editing and sound engineering of the film content and is working towards an initial version of the film.
- An interview will be filmed with Japanese scholars who collaborated on the ‘Birchbark Book Study’
The International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations was established under the auspices of UNESCO under an agreement signed on September 18, 1998, between Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Turkey.
10. Tuvalu
The Tuvalu Memory of the World National Committee was awarded a grant for a Tuvalu Memory of The World Training and Capacity Building Workshop: Making an Effective MoW Nomination into Three Different Registers – National, Regional and International.
In 2018 Tuvalu received an ACC -MOWCAP grant to hold a workshop to develop a national register of documentary heritage as well as a work plan for the newly established Committee. The 2021 grant followed on from this work and was used to conduct a two-day training workshop on how to make an effective MOW nomination to three different registers – National, Regional and International.
The workshop was held at the end of September 2021 and attended by twenty-eight participants; one representative from each island, four Tuvalu National Library and Archives staff, members of the Tuvalu Memory of the World Committee, and six stakeholder representatives.
The first day of the workshop focused on raising awareness about the importance of the Memory of the World programme. The day covered an overview of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, an introduction to the Tuvalu Memory of the World National Committee, nominating to a Register, using the MOW Register Companion, and making an effective MOW nomination.
On the second day, participants were divided into eight groups which represented the eight islands of Tuvalu. Each participant was paired with a MoW Committee member, facilitators, and stakeholders to work on their draft nominations.
A future activity will be to have the Tuvalu MoW Committee visit each island to assist with identifying significant documentary heritage.
The training workshop was successful in increasing awareness of the Memory of the World Programme and its registers and in increasing awareness of the existence and significance of Tuvalu’s documentary heritage.
The project was implemented by the Tuvalu Memory of the World National Committee with the assistance of the Tuvalu National Library and Archives Department, UNESCO National Commission Office, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Culture Department, Funafuti Kaupule, Youth Department, Sports Department, and a representative from the Australian High Commission.
The Tuvalu Memory of the World Committee manages, assesses, and nominates inscriptions for the National Register as well as Tuvalu’s nominations to the international and regional registers. Tuvalu formed its Memory of the World Committee in May 2018 and its first nomination was successfully inscribed on the MOWCAP Asia-Pacific Register at the 8th MOWCAP General Meeting in 2018.
The Tuvalu National Library and Archives was established in 1978 as part of Tuvalu’s preparation towards its political independence. They are the custodians of the public records of Tuvalu and help build literacy levels. The public records were previously held in the Western Pacific Archives in Fiji.
11 Vietnam
The Nguyen Huy Family was awarded a grant for Publishing volume 1: Ba kinh toản yếu đại toàn of Phuc Giang School Woodblocks.
The Phuc Giang School Woodblocks were created by the Nguyen Huy family between the 18th–20th centuries and were used for teaching and learning at the Phuc Giang School in Truong Luu village, Vietnam. They include 383 woodblocks for printing twelve books. The Nguyen Huy family has been undertaking a major project to digitise, transcribe, transliterate, translate and publish these twelve books.
Vietnamese books printed in the ancient Han or SinoNom script are not easily accessible because there are a limited number of experts and researchers who can read the language. The Nguyen Huy family used MOWCAP-ACC grants from 2018 and 2019 to translate two of these books and make them accessible to a wider audience.
This grant was provided to support the printing of approximately 300 copies of “Ba kinh toản yếu đại toàn” which consists of 47 two-sided woodblocks. Included in the project is the license for the publication, editing, proofreading, and design of the book cover.
At the time of reporting the project had made very good progress. The transcription and translation of annotations was completed in September 2021. The Vinh University Publishing House then took over the editing, application for a license, and printing of the publication.
This publication is part of a larger project that will take many years but will facilitate access to the valuable content of the books, raise awareness of their existence and return them to the people of Vietnam and the world.
The Phuc Giang School Woodblocks (18th-20th Centuries) was inscribed on the MOWCAP Memory of the World register in 2016 and one of the books The Envoy Ship Journeys to China was inscribed on the MOWCAP register in 2018.