2019 Expert Workshop for ICH Video Production Project in Southeast Asia successfully held in Kuching, Malaysia

2019 Expert Workshop for ICH Video Production Project in Southeast Asia was successfully held from 21 to 23 October, 2019 at Damai Beach Resort, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

ICHCAP has been collaborating with eight countries in Southeast Asia for the ICH Video Production and has organized several expert workshops since 2017. This year’s workshop was the last one to wrap up the three-year project by sharing experiences, progress and outcome of each country’s project and to provide a chance to discuss the future utilization of the produced videos together.

The workshop was co-organized by ICHCAP, the Department of National Heritage of Malaysia (DNH) and the Arts and Culture Association of Malaysia (PPSKMK). The participating countries were eight in total, including Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar. Two participants from above countries attended the workshop, and two special guests from Singapore National Heritage Board (NHB) and Korean Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) also joined the workshop to share their experiences and expertise in the field of ICH video production.

During the opening ceremony held in the auditorium of Sarawak Cultural Village, YB Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, honorable Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Sarawak attended and gave the officiating speech on the importance of safeguarding ICH. Mr. Weonmo Park, Director at the Cooperation and Networking Office of ICHCAP also gave the opening speech to appreciate the participants and highlight the meaning of this workshop. The opening ceremony was followed by the ICH performance of Sarawak, which was truly amazing with well representing varieties, dynamics and richness of intangible cultural heritage of Sarawak.

The three-day workshop was successfully completed with sharing the project result and outcome videos of each state, exchanging fruitful discussions and comments, and providing suggestions for the future collaboration especially for the utilization of the outcome videos. ICHCAP shared some previous examples on public events such as film festivals and exhibitions, and educational contents developments for schools using the outcome videos from Central Asia.
By the way, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre of Malaysia is going to be launched in Kuching, Sarawak in the near future to accelerate the ICH safeguarding activities in Malaysia. ICHCAP expects that the rich cultural heritage of Sarawak as well as Malaysia will be well represented and promoted through the Centre and hopes to collaborate together with sharing information and networking.