Georgetown: The Iwokrama International Centre (IIC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, recently launched a ‘Travelling Exhibition’ at the National Museum in Guyana. The exhibition opens at 10:00 hrs today, will run through to December 13th.
IIC, in a statement yesterday, noted that in collaboration with the Newcastle University, UK and the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB), it has been implementing, since 2010, a project titled ‘En-compass – an international diamond of cultural dissemination, capacity building with countries from the North, East, South and West’.
This project is focused on heritage management and preservation in Guyana (North Rupununi), Kenya, China (Hainan Province) and Newcastle, UK.
The key purposes of the project are to strengthen local indigenous culture through increasing access to intangible and tangible cultural heritage expressions, products and services in China, Kenya (and Anglophone Africa) and Guyana and to encourage improved management and safeguarding of these resources.
These issues have taken on an added urgency in the increasingly fast globalising world in which we live, especially because dominant cultural expressions, products and services have tended to become internationalised to the detriment of local cultural diversity.
The overall objectives of the project are to:
- Strengthen local cultural expressions, production and services;
- Improve access to culture, dissemination of culture; and,
- Support protection of cultural heritage in imminent danger.
Some of the key activities supported by this project were:
- Exchange visits of heritage and culture experts (2010 to 2011): Guyana was represented by Glendon Allicock (Music and Culture specialist), Benita Roberts (Makushi Researcher and culture specialist) and, Ozzie Hussein (renowned Sculptor). The three visited Newcastle, China and Kenya. And in return the teams from Kenya, China and Newcastle came to Guyana (North Rupununi) as well. They also had to do research which contributed to a travelling exhibition. This exhibition has already been shown in Kenya. Guyana is the second stop; it then goes to Newcastle and China.
- Internal country workshops on heritage: The Guyana Workshop was held in the North Rupununi in December 2011 with experts in the area. Dr Aron Mazel from Newcastle University facilitated this session. The Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Amerindian Affairs were also represented.
- Three indigenous Guyanese attended Newcastle University in 2012 to 2013 to read for their Masters in Heritage Education and Management. They were Anil Roberts, Sabanto Tokoroho (Grace Roberts) and Guy Marco. They all were successful. Anil is now with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, Sabanto with Ministry of Culture, while Guy has returned from the USA to the Rupununi to share his knowledge.
Additionally, the partners in collaboration with the Amerindian Research Unit, University of Guyana (UG), will be hosting a workshop on Heritage Management on November 27, 2014 at the Biodiversity Centre, University of Guyana. The workshop will focus on language, communicating cultural hertiage, documentation and preservation. Techniques of participatory videos and photo stories as methods to preserve culture will be discussed.
Also, Iwokrama along with the NRDDB, UG and the Cobra Project will host an Indigenous Film Festival at UG from 9 am to 2 pm at the Learning Resource Centre, UG, on Friday, November 28, 2014.
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