KUCHING: Northern Territory Minister for Community Services and Parks and Wildlife Bess Nungarrayi Price will promote the Sarawak Museum as a tourist attraction when she heads back to the Australian state.
Price (second left) listening to Leh (left) explaining about the cultural artefacts at the Sarawak Museum, while Liwan (third left) and others look on.
She was clearly impressed by the contents of the Sarawak Museum (also known as the Ethnology Museum) when given a tour by Culture and Heritage Assistant Minister Liwan Lagang and museum curator Dr Charles Leh yesterday.
“I will go back to the Northern Territory and make sure people know of your museum and what it has. I will encourage people to visit it as a tourist attraction,” she said, adding that she hoped Sarawakians will also visit her country.
Price also commended the museum for preserving the cultural artefacts well, thus allowing everyone to view them.
“It is wonderful to see what artefacts there are in the museum and how history had developed. We all share different kinds of history with our cultures and indigenous cultures.
“It is amazing to see how history always changes as we go along. Even when modernisation takes over we still have our cultures and still going strong.
“This shows in the museum, which tells us the story of your people and how they have survived and remain strong even today. You still share your cultures, dances, stories and languages with others, same as my people today,” she noted.
Besides visiting the Ethnology Museum, Price also visited the nearby Natural History Museum where wood fossils are currently being exhibited.
The indigenous Australian politician of Warlpiri descent was on a four-day working visit to Kuching since Sunday.
She was accompanied by her delegation that included her husband Dave Price, Parks and Wildlife Department chief executive Andrew Bridges, Community Services Department executive director Peter Campos, Price’s chief of staff Paul Mossman and Department of Chief Minister’s Asian Engagement director Wayne Fan.