The Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies (IPNGS) was established under the Cultural Development Act, passed by the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly on 14 October 1974. Papua New Guinea had become self-governing from Australia almost a year earlier, but independence was still about another year in the future. Today IPNGS is a national cultural institution under the National Cultural Commission Act. It moved to its present location towards the end of 1976. The distinctive welded sculptures on the outside walls and gates depict the Orokolo story of Aru Aru and his journey to the moon, as told by Sir Albert Maori Kiki.\nAlthough laws, governments, ministries, and even the location of the Institute have changed over the past four decades, the main focus has remained constant: the documentation, archiving, and promotion of Papua New Guinea cultures. Overseen by the Director, IPNGS is divided into departments for its present three main functions: Music (5 staff), Ethnology (3), Literature (1). There are also two staff in administration, and five casual workers. nResearch staff members under take research in villages and towns, or at festivals. Such research might be on specific topics, such as clan origin stories or the variety of dances performed at a particular festival, or more general survey work, such as documenting musical traditions in a particular village. While the primary focus is on traditional expressions, attention is also given to more recently developed expressions of culture, such as those performed in church or as part of widespread popular forms.\nThe Ethnology Department is responsible for documenting the many myths, legends, and other oral traditions found in the country. Publications have been produced in English as well as local languages, both to promote the maintenance of this important body of knowledge and to encourage vernacular literacy.\nFor many years, the Literature section was responsible for promoting creative writing, especially through the running of the annual National Literature Competition. Many submissions were made for categories such as novels, short stories, poetry, radio plays, essays, etc. The results appeared in our journals such as Gigibori, Bikmaus, and Sope, or as separate publications. We hope to revive the National Literature Competition in the near future.\nIPNGS Music Department has strived to develop its music archive to reflect all music-related research that has been done in the country. Although the collection can always be expanded, to a large extent this goal has been achieved.\nThe Music Archive presently contains about 12,000 hours of recordings on reels of tape, cassettes, discs, films, videos, CDs, and DVDs, with over 10,000 photos and 4,000 books, articles, and theses. These materials are a mixture of things collected by IPNGS staff, other researchers, commercially produced items, and historical recordings of PNG music from other archives around the world.\nAs with the other sections of the IPNGS, the Music Department has issued numerous publications. Presently, there is a series of cassette and disc recordings, a monograph series (Apwitihire), and a journal (Kulele). Our publications are widely used in the school system and have been well received overseas.\nIn total, IPNGS has produced about 250 publications, printed, audio, and films/videos. It has also played an important role in making materials published in languages such as German, Japanese, and local languages accessible through translations in to English or Tok Pisin.

The International Institute for the Inclusive Museum (IIIM) brings together a large number ofnclusters of research and capacity building institutions, arts, museums and heritage bodies acrossnthe world. Most of them actively engage on our social media channels. The criteria for participationninclude demonstrated commitment to the ICOM Code of Ethics and Cultural Diversity Charter;nUNESCO Charter and its suite of Soft Law and Hard Law standard setting instruments and theirnethical requirements; UN post 2015 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals. Withnhubs all over the world, IIIM enhances constructive engagement with several knowledgencommunities and promotes state-of-the-art online research, learning and teaching systems.\nnAmaravathi Heritage Society was formed in December 2015 with Amaravathi Mahila Samiti or Women’s Society. The local Ambedkar society advocates the heritage of Dalits. The society directly started working with the poorest and most disadvantaged Chenchu and Yenadi tribal communities. Then the Dhanyakataka (Amaravathi) Buddhist Society was also included. Later on the Women’s Empowerment Development Society WEDS actively participated in their working. Amaravathi is a village and with three other villages and 19 hamlets, it constitutes a mandalam or administrative unit. The total population is about 27,600. After establishment the first challenge for the institute was to raise heritage consciousness and bring together the people to take ownership of their ‘Varasatvamu’ or heritage, especially intangible heritage. Its aim is to practice of heritage tourism, where the valuing and safeguarding of primary resources, cultural and natural, in creating products for the recreational spectrum. Amaravathi Heritage Town is a lead project designated by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Curating the town brings together all the cultural heritage values and environmental ethics into one seamless local community cultural development project.\n Amaravathi Heritage Town project facilitated by the International Institute for the Inclusive Museum has given a platform to many CBOs and NGOs to work together. Participatory cultural mapping enabled the location of the first voice of primary stakeholders in the project. The town has waited for 2000 years to be considered for development since the times of the Satavahana and Ikshvaku kingdoms when Amaravathi was the capital. It was here that Mahayana Buddhism took both and spread all over Asia, especially Korea, Japan and China. It is the civil society that is revitalising and safeguarding the intangible heritage and conserving the tangible heritage. Amaravathi Heritage Town project is the catalyst for sustainable heritage development.

Prabartana is a social enterprise, working since 1986 with the artisans related to handloom for market linkage and revival of Tangail Taant shaari. The organisation provides training to the weavers with improved technical enhancement like documentation of pattern in computer instead of manual style of Jacquard patter design. As a safeguarding action they are involved in artisans’ exhibition and workshop for cultural exchange, audio-visual documentations and publications of books, social media based promotions and audience development with the use of website, webpage, newspaper articles and festival relevant brochures. Resource mobilisation is done through individual investments and collaborations with Government organisations for tourism and craft. The initiatives have helped ICH practitioners to acquire skills and enhance livelihood opportunities. Most of the beneficiaries are women from the marginalized communities living in the remote villages. They are now working for the revival several near lost performing folk art forms like Banbibir Pot (Sundarban), Chunaibibir Gaan (Chittagong), Song Jatra (Tangail), Meyeli Geet (Tangail, Kishorganj & Mymensingh) and Alkap (Chapai). They are also working on the crafts and musical instruments of Monipuri community.

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.

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.