Preserve state’s heritage for posterity — Mawan

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THE people are urged to be more proactive in the preservation of the state’s heritage for posterity.

Our heritage is a living legacy of our culture and history, which the Sarawak Museum is tasked to safeguard through the Sarawak Cultural Heritage Ordinance 1993.

Speaking at the winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly here yesterday, Minister of Social Development Tan Sri William Mawan said that in 2011, the Sarawak Museum organised 12 temporary topical exhibitions on heritage in the 12 museums throughout Sarawak and six road shows. In the same year, over 1.25 million have visited the museums.

In the first four months of this year, the Sarawak Museum has organised five temporary exhibitions on the subjects of heritage namely: ‘From Studio to Old Street’ with the theme ‘Capturing Cultural Heritage Through Arts; Heritage of our old currency; Black and white impressions with the theme ‘Body sculptures in light’; Bario Commandos Heritage; and Orang Ulu and The Museum – with photographs of the Baram and Tinjar in the old days.

Mawan told the august house that the Sarawak Museum would continue to organise a series of topical exhibitions and educational programmes to reinforce “our commitment towards heritage conservation”.

In the current 10th Malaysia Plan, the Sarawak Museum has been allocated with some RM30 million by the state and another RM2.8 million from the federal government.

The state’s allocation, Mawan said, would be used to build and furnish a museum collection and storage centre at a cost of RM25 million this year.

He also said the restoration and upgrading of Fort Alice in Sri Aman was projected to cost about RM5 million. This would come from the state government.

“The project is still in the documentation stage and it will be tendered by the end of this year.”

Mawan also said the conservation and upgrading of Fort Magherita in Kuching at a cost of RM2.8 million would come from the federal government “as the project is undertaken by the Department of National Heritage with the cooperation of Sarawak Museum and the state Public Works Department.

He said that heritage was a factor that attracted many visitors to the state and the Sarawak Museum would continue to organise regional exhibitions on heritage with its counterparts in Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan.