Stakeholders
Language
ICH Stakeholders 16
Organization
(12)-
Fiji Museum
The Fiji Museum is a museum in Suva, Fiji located in the capital city's botanical gardens, Thurston Gardens. The Museum holds a remarkable collection, which includes archaeological material dating back 3,700 years and cultural objects representing both Fiji’s indigenous inhabitants and the other communities that have settled in the island group over the past 200 years. The Museum is a statutory body governed by the Fiji Museum Act and the Preservation of Objects of Archaeological and Palaeontological Interest Act.\nIn 1908 the Fijian Society was formed with the specific aim of researching and preserving the country’s history and culture. The formation of a museum was included in this aim. In 1910 the government approved an annual grant of £25 to appoint a collection caretaker. With the passing of the Fiji Museum Ordinance in 1929, the museum was formally inaugurated as a Government Statutory Body with a Board of Trustees.\nThe collection remained on display in the Town Hall until 1919 when a substantial part of the hall was destroyed by fire. The collection was moved to a variety of venues until the government was persuaded by the Trustees to build a National Museum.\nThe current museum was opened in 1955 by the Governor of Fiji, Sir Ronald Garvey. This building was used to house the displays, reserve collection and provide storage. Today the building has two adjoining sections, the first constructed in 1972 and the second in 1978. Together, these buildings provide a history gallery, masi gallery, art gallery, Indo-Fijian gallery, temporary exhibition space, store rooms and gift shop. The archives, photographic studio, editing suite, library and administration offices are located in what was the Nawela Hostel for women, adjacent to the main museum building.
Fiji -
SOMAIYA KALA VIDYA
To provide artisans with the opportunity to realize their creative capacity, and to insure that craft traditions remained genuine cultural heritage, Judy Frater began a design education program for artisans in Kutch. In 2005, Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya opened its doors to artisan students: traditional weavers, ajrakh printers, bandhani artists, and embroiderers, with no further prerequisites of age or formal education.\nIn 2014, the year-long program evolved and expanded to Somaiya Kala Vidya. In six two-week intensive residential sessions spread over a year, artisan students learn to innovate within their traditions. nThe most innovative tool that we use in our design classes is simply to present problems to solve. We also draw on local traditions and teach as practically as possible. In effect, the design course re-imagines traditional systems in an appropriate contemporary form. Master artisan advisors teach students about traditions, as children once learned from elders; weavers, printers, and dyers learning together revitalizes the inherent interdependence in traditional textiles; and interface with urban markets reinvents direct contact with hereditary clients.\nAfter design education for artisans in Kutch reached its goals, Somaiya Kala Vidya is scaling out their approach to other regions. Keeping cultural heritage as the foundation, they intend to teach design within regions, drawing on local language and culture.
India -
THAAP and Institute for Art & Culture, Lahore, Pakistan
IAC highly values the traditional knowledge of our people and seeks to contemporize it with input from the latest technological knowledge. IAC believes in integration with community, building long term industrial linkages and National and International partnerships. This Liberal Arts education platform will not only impact the education sector in Pakistan but also reach out to the neighboring countries and contribute towards global scholarship. By incorporating a trilingual approach, which includes English, Urdu and their Mother Language, the students recognize culture and art education not as a foreign stimulus but the one they are inherently connected with.
Pakistan -
Khamir Craft Resource Centre
Khamir was established in 2005 as a joint initiative of Kachchh Nav Nirman Abhiyan and the Nehru Foundation for Development to strengthen and promote the rich artisanal traditions of Kachchh district. The name ‘Khamir’ means ‘intrinsic pride’ in local language and it stands for Kachchh Heritage, Art, Music, Information and Resources. The organizational aim is to provide a platform for the promotion of traditional handicrafts and allied cultural practices, the processes involved in their creation, and the preservation of culture, community and local environments. Also a common roof of a democratic and empowering space has been created, where a range of stakeholders can exchange their ideas and collaborate. The organization works on shift consumer perspectives and raises the cultural value placed on crafts to establish a vibrant, sustainable Indian craft sector in which crafts and artisans alike are highly valued by people worldwide.
India -
Rupayan Sansthan(Rajasthan Institute of Folklore)
In the 1960s, Late Komal Kothari ,a renowed folklorist and ethnomusicologist and his very close friend, Vijaydan Detha an eminent Rajasthani writer realized that the problem of language covered the whole way of life of people and soon set out on a goal which became larger than collecting tales and songs. They further expanded their archival and research work in the field of folklore encompassing folk songs, folk tales, folk beliefs, proverbs, folk ballads, folk epics of long plays, folk gods and goddesses, social practices, rituals, fairs and festivals, rural food, nomads and pastoral ways of life. Until 1990’s they travelled more than 29000 villages to collect the large repository of cultural heritage both intangible (oral) in the form of audio video and tangible object’s of daily life made from natural resources. During 30years of intense study by them on folklore (in ethno-geographic regions) they finally looked into the traditional ways of knowledge transmission where the practice is to “learn but not to teach” in a structured way. In the year 1995 Komal Kothari got the recognition of his work by the Government of India and has been awarded Padma-Shree in 1983 and Padma Bhusan in 2004.
India -
Bhabanagara Foundation
The Bhabanagara Foundation aims at articulating age-old multidimensional language, literature, education procedure, and cultural performances locally and globally. Committed to revitalization of cultural origins, they conduct events and workshops for the safeguarding of Bengali intangible cultural heritage (ICH) such as Charya Songs. In addition to their Weekly Sadhusanga (discussion and performance on Wednesday afternoon) for the youth, scholars, and practitioners, they publish Bhābanagara: International Journal of Bengali Studies. The foundation has translated and published the Convention for the Safeguarding of the ICH. They hold an inventory of four thousand Bangladeshi living Folk Artists and Artisans.
Bangladesh -
Tharika
“Tharika” (meaning heritage in Maldivian language) is a new NGO which aims to protect, conserve and raise awareness on the tangible and intangible heritage of the Maldivian people. The founders of this NGO are Ms Dheene Hussain and Ms Yumna Maumoon.
Maldives -
MATAGINIFALE WOMEN’S GROUP
Mataginifale Women’s Group (MWG) was established in Avatele in the 1980s. Originally named Avatele Women’s Group, its members decided to change its name in the 1990s to better reflect the unique status of women. Mataginifale was a female warrior from Avatele born around 700 CE and was a great weaver that created local tapa cloth called hiapo.\nMWG has been active in and around Avatele over the last three decades. Its members fulfill various church obligations of the Avatele Fellowship of Christian Women and promote culture through language, crafts, traditions, and customs. They work in collaboration with the Avatele Village Council, the Ekalesia Kerisiano Avatele, and other youth groups.\nMWG’s membership consists of MWG’s membership consists of ninety-four women and girls between ages one and eighty-two. Its executive members are elected every three years, and meetings are held quarterly to share ideas and receive updates on various events. MWG works to safeguard Taoga Niue (ICH of Niue). One element is made up of traditional knowledge, customs, traditions, and Avatele history, and the other is traditional food. Vagahau Niue, the official language of Niue, is what underpins them all and upholds Niuean society.
Niue -
Itaukei Institute of Language and Culture
The iTaukei Institute of Language and Culture (TILC) is responsible for safeguarding iTaukei culture and heritage. In that regard, it updates and edits entries into the iTaukei monolingual Dictionary. It is also custodian of significant iTaukei records such as iTaukei dialects from the fourteen (14) provinces. An important program of the Institute is the culture mapping of the 1,171 villages in the 14 Provinces of Fiji. This exercise is focused on recording all traditional knowledge and expressions of culture significant to the iTaukei but more importantly, it is for the purpose of addressing issues such as intellectual property. nnThe Institute was initially formed as the Fijian Dictionary Project funded by renowned actor Raymond Burr and the American-Fiji Foundation in 1974. The Government later funded the project and in 1986, the Great Council of Chiefs, with Cabinets' endorsement renamed the iTaukei Dictionary Project as the iTaukei Institute of Language and Culture. The Institute was then charged with the three major responsibilities: completion of the iTaukei Monolingual Dictionary; safeguarding and preservation of iTaukei Culture; research and documentation of all iTaukei dialects from the 14 Provinces.
Fiji -
ALISHER NAVOI INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Aliisher Navoi Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan was formed in 1934 based on the Philology Department of the Scientific Research Institute for Cultural Transformation (1931—1933). The institute achieved significant results in a study of Uzbek folklore (publishing heroic epics, folk tales, proverbs and sayings, etc.) and recently started developing a fifteen-volume History of Uzbek Literature and Folklore, which traces the evolution of Uzbek literature and folklore from ancient times to today.\nThe institute has its own journal named Ozbek Tili va Adabiyoti (Uzbek Language and Literature), which has been published six times per year since 1957. The authors of the journal articles represent leading linguists, literary critics, and folklore experts of Uzbekistan and foreign scholars.
Uzbekistan -
INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF MONGOLIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The Institute of Language and Literature (ILL) at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences is a scientific organization that manages academic researches on philology, literature, and folklore in Mongolia. The ILL was founded as the Institute of Sutra and Script in 1921. The name subsequently institute changed to the Cabinet of Philology in 1930, to the Centre for the Study of Philology and Literature in 1957, and finally to the Institute of Language and Literature in 1961 when the Mongolian Academy of Sciences was established. nSince 1962, the ILL at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences has been implementing fieldwork on folk heritage and local dialects one to three times per year. Sometimes folk tellers and singers have been invited to make audio and video recordings. As a result of these activities, the ILL has built a treasury of audio recordings and manuscripts of Mongolian cultural heritage. For instance, this treasury contains tales, heroic epics, long and short songs, and wise and metaphoric words. Also our researchers have recorded ethnic legends and stories about rituals and customs and festivals. About 1100 hours of audio recordings have been preserved in this fund. We are also preserving 451 units of handwritten books and manuscripts.
Mongolia -
The College of Language and Culture Studies (CLCS)
The College of Language and Culture Studies (CLCS) is situated 16 kilometers south of Trongsa town, towards Kuenga Rabten Palace along the Trongsa-Zhemgang highway. Kuenga Rabten used to be the winter residence of the second King, Jigme Wangchuck.\n\nEarlier, the institute was popularly known as the Rigney Lobdra. It came into existence on the 4th day of the 6th month of the Male Iron Ox Year corresponding to the 16th of July 1961 at Wangdi Tse, in Thimphu. It was established under the auspices of the late third King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk. His Holiness the late Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche (1910-91), an accomplished and spiritual leader, was the first principal of the Lobdra (1961-63). The Lobdra started with a total of fifty students. Two months after its establishment, the Lobdra was relocated to Semtokha Dzong. It was housed inside the Dzong until the early eighties. Later the Dzong was taken over by Dratshang Lhentshog and the institute moved out of the Dzong. A separate site was created above the Dzong for the institute to function, and it has been operating in this location for the last two and half decades.\n\nInitially the institute started as a semi-monastic institute. It was only in 1989 that the original curriculum was revised for the first time to include several cultural subjects. The institute was upgraded to Rigzhung College in the same year. Forty-three female students were admitted for the first time, thus breaking the 27 year old tradition of admitting only males. The curriculum, however, remained largely influenced by the monastic system of education.\n\nIn 1997, the institute was formally upgraded to the Institute of Language and Culture Studies and implemented a new curriculum. The first batch of thirty-five ICSE passed students was admitted into the new programme. Of the 35 students, 9 were girls and 26 were boys.\n\n1999 was a landmark year in the history of clcs. The three-year bachelor’s program in ‘Language and Culture’ was introduced for the first time and a batch of nineteen students was admitted. It was, in fact, the first ever homegrown programme developed and executed in Bhutan without any external assistance.\n\nPrior to the establishment of the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB), clcs was under the Ministry of Education. Among the tertiary institutes of RUB, clcs was the first institute to be formally handed over to the RUB by the Ministry of Education on 28th April, 2004. A founding member of the Royal University of Bhutan, today clcs remains a premier institute.\n\nOver the years the institute has managed to maintain the momentum of academic progress. The institute, through the success of its graduates in different fields, has been able to create its own identity in the country. This distinction that clcs holds is reflected in the graduates that constantly feature in the top rankings of the RCSC common examination. The absorption rate of its graduates is currently 100% and the demand is increasing each year. The graduates of clcs have been faring well in their work place as well as in their lives.
Bhutan