Shaaban: International Conference on Oral History will hopefully be the start for launching future Arab cultural projects
Shaaban: International Conference on Oral History will hopefully be the start for launching future Arab cultural projects
With the participation of Syria, the activities of the International Conference on Oral History, which is organized by the Wathiqat Watan (Homeland Document) Foundation and the Omani Documents and Archives Authority in Muscat, kicked off on Monday under the title “The International Conference on Oral History… The Concept and Experience in the Arab World”.
The event was organized jointly by the Documents and Archives Authority in the Sultanate of Oman and Wathiqat Watan.
The Syrian delegation participating in organizing the conference and presenting research and lectures is headed by the founder and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Wathiqat Watan Foundation, Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, and includes representatives and researchers from several Syrian institutions, including the Syria Trust for Development, Damascus University, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Information.
The Chairman of the Omani Documents Authority, Dr. Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Dhuwayani, stressed in his speech that oral history is a fundamental factor in reading reality, writing history, and encouraging scientific research.
He highly appreciated the cooperation between the cadres of the Omani National Authority and the Syrian Wathiqat Watan Foundation in this field.
In her speech during the opening ceremony, Dr. Shaaban focused on the necessity of Arab cooperation in the experience of documenting and writing history to preserve memory and national identity and prevent the falsification of facts, stressing that what is happening in occupied Palestine today and the war of extermination to which the Palestinian people are being subjected is the greatest witness to attempts to erase memory and obliterate national identity.
Shaaban affirmed that Syria contributed to organizing the International Conference on Oral History, and participated in several research papers in it, believing in the importance of this conference to be a starting point for creating a dialogue and critical environment that contributes to developing the culture of oral history and cooperation in future Arab cultural projects.
Shaaban pointed out that the subject of oral history carries great importance, not only in documenting events and facts, but also in preserving the living memory that constitutes an essential part of the historical and cultural identity of peoples, and to continue what the Arabs began in the past by recording the oral heritage of the life of prophet Muhammad and his hadiths.
Shaaban continued: “Despite the presence of interest in oral history in a number of Arab countries such as Palestine, Libya, some countries of the Maghreb, and the Sultanate of Oman, which established the Oral Documentation Department within the National Archives and Records Authority since 2007, we in the Arab region have not yet explored the full roles of the oral document”.
She pointed out that the systematic targeting of identity, heritage, culture and national memory in many Arab countries including Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria, in the last decade, requires an urgent call to confirm the keenness of these countries to preserve, document, protect and safeguard their heritage, identity and national memory.
Shabaan noted that from the heart of this keenness, the idea of Wathiqat Watan was born in the Syrian Arab Republic in 2016, as a systematic and cognitive institutional endeavor concerned with the oral history of the living Syrian memory and its ancient cultural heritage.
“In light of this, working to spread the culture of oral history and empower it socially and culturally was one of our most important priorities. We approached this work on several tracks: One of those tracks was the great care that the Foundation gave to the scientific and methodological qualification, training, and capacity building and skills necessary for researchers and those interested in working in the field of oral history with the aim of preparing and forming trained research teams” she added.
Shaaban pointed out that “Wathiqat Watan began with a race against time to record the stories of Syrians who witnessed the terrorist war on Syria that targeted institutions, memory, national identity and coexistence. The more it progressed in recording and documenting people’s stories, the more wathiqat Watan foundation felt that the need for this documentation was great in more than one domain”.
“In addition to conducting more than 1,200 interviews to record testimonies of people who lived through the war across the Syrian Arab Republic, Wathiqat Watan has begun projects to document the role of women in times of war and the role of art in steadfastness in these critical times,” she said.
Shabaan added “Fearing for our Syrian heritage from this targeting, the Foundation has begun to document the Syrian Muneh, which have historically played an important role in the steadfastness of our country over the centuries. The Foundation Ialso proposed projects to document handicrafts, which are the title of Syria’s historical identity”.
Shaaban will give a lecture on the experience of documentation and oral history in Syria.
Members of the Syrian participating delegation including academics and researchers will also give several lectures and research works in the field of history.
The three-day conference will also include lectures to discuss theoretical, practical and future axes on ways to develop the experience of oral history at the Arab level.
Rawaa Ghanam