Our past and heritage, our future gateway

I HAD the privilege of visiting the restoration labs at the Museums Department the other day.

It was a humble set-up, four or five rooms dedicated to putting back together pieces of evidence of our past, gathered from archeological sites throughout the country and from shipwrecks.

According to the curator who showed me around, thousands of objects will come through here before going to the store. They tend to be fragile objects, items that have been left undisturbed for hundreds of years before finally being uncovered or unearthed, and time is seldom kind to many things.

I wondered how many of these historical items will finally be placed on display and how many more would be taken to be kept for safe-keeping in the museum's storerooms. During one interview with a museum officer, some 17,000 items or more were supposedly in the stores.

Brunei does have a number of museums. The Brunei Museum in Kota Batu, which I remember going there as a child, a teen and finally as a working man, wandering the hallways displaying our traditions and culture to those who wish to learn more.

There is the Royal Regalia Building, which celebrates the setup of our Monarchy and our Sultan and the Malay Technology Museum, which I have only discovered recently, hidden behind the Brunei Museum, which exhibits the tools of the trade of native Bruneians decades ago, some are still practiced and used in communities deep in the jungle and forests.

And yet, all of this maybe inadequate to showcase some 600 years of history, culture and tradition that the country had recorded since the first Sultan. Personally, it does not feel like it adequately explains the years before, or give enough details of our development to our years now.

During a visit to Korea, I toured a number of museums — cultural and science centres — and the one thing that struck me was the sheer number of young children being shown around. Every where I went, I found crowds of school children.

After making sure it was not some sort of public holiday, my translator explained briefly that they considered hands-on learning to be important, especially at a young age.

In a country which offers high-tech learning, they decided that it would be good to witness first hand, the rich cultural history, the story of their nation first hand in aspects of science, heritage and nature.

In Brunei, the only science museum that comes to mind right now is the Oil and Gas Discovery Centre in Seria. A Maritime Museum, located next to the Malay Technology Museum, remains unopened, despite looking like a completed building.

The Brunei Museum itself is located somewhere rather inconvenient in terms of infrastructure, with the only road connecting it often congested during peak hours, and an extremely limited number of parking spots.

Tourists not part of a package tour or students who are spending time socialising after school hours are probably not going to make that trip.

There are trips made by schools, I believe, but often on a school holiday, where not every child is guaranteed to attend. There should be more, as inspiration comes more easily to those who are young, knowledge is more readily absorbed by the naturally curious. And as such, there should also be more places, better quality places for those children to visit.

When it comes to the creative industry, the culture of Brunei is often discussed. It is rich, it is also living, as the country continues to partake in old traditions, cultural and religious, the Royal Wedding that is occurring throughout the week is an example of how much is revered.

Yet if we try to think about places where every Bruneian, every visitor, everyone can go to absorb this cultural richness, what we have does not feel like it is enough to convey everything the country has experienced, the experiences of its people throughout the ages, ancient, past and modern as a whole picture.

One can experience the rainforest by going to Temburong, or visit the Seria Oil Fields, see the indigenous cultures in Tutong or Kg Ayer in Brunei-Muara, but how does it all fit together? How do all these places make Brunei, Brunei?

Something that can incorporate all aspects of Bruneian history, culture and knowledge in all fields, including those of science and faith, should I believe, be built.

A centre of cultural and technology, a Brunei Museum that truly reflects all aspects of Brunei in its past to present, to show the promise of a future that will surpass all previous achievements.

And speaking purely from an academic point of view, it should significantly include the history and traditions of all races that have been involved in the shaping country, especially those of the Chinese, how they have interacted with society and shaped tradition.

Something notably important now that there had been an agreement between China's Nanjing and Brunei's Bandar Seri Begawan to be Sister Cities.

At the end of the day, as I was leaving the restoration centre, I was told that they take their work seriously, as caretakers of our history and past. I believed her, as I believe that the rich culture of our country needs to be better portrayed and expose because, in the end, it can inspire all of us to strive for something greater.

The views are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times

The Brunei Times