Symposium sheds light on community heritage

DOHA: Msheireb Museums hosted yesterday the ‘Community Archives Symposium’ organised by UCL Qatar.

The symposium organised by UCL Qatar’s Master in Library and Information Science programme gathered scholars, archivists, and community members at Bin Jelmood House, where they discussed the relevance of community archives to document the heritage of communities in the region. The participants also raised questions on the future of this community-based form of independent documentation in the region.

Hafiz Ali, Msheireb Museums Director, said: “Msheireb Museums is pleased to host this cultural and community event that documents and preserves our history. We stay committed to our community through these collaborations with educational institutions, and maintain our identity for the next generations.

“This symposium is one of many we host at the museums, we would like to thank UCL Qatar for this collaboration and a continued prosperous partnership.”

The symposium included four main panels that discussed related topics. The first panel, ‘Documenting Everyday Life’, talked about experiences in Palestine and the Arab World, as well as archiving Islamic history in UK.

Additionally, Aisha Ali Al Kuwari and Mohammed AlYousuf, Msheireb Museums, discussed experience in oral history. The second panel focused on building Gulf community archives and showcased different cases in Qatar and Kuwait, under the title ‘Building Gulf Community Archive’.

Following this, attendees looked at the importance of collecting information and documenting oral histories through ‘Listening to Archives’ panel. While oral history has been a popular tool for community archives, collections can also include photographs, written documents, material artefacts, digital files and websites.

Concluding the symposium was a panel exploring cases of ‘Communities Inside of Communities’ with an outlook on The Online Community Archive of Western Expats from 1950s Qatar.