Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State is currently taking advantage of every opportunity to deliver the message of his administration’s focus on tourism.
This time, curators in the state are being tasked to organise, structure and distribute unique social guides, consisting of user generated content and other inspirational sources to attract, and guide visitors to museums.
The governor’s Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Tourism, Piriye Kiyaramo, made the development public while speaking as Chairman of the International Museum Day celebration, organised by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, National Museum Yenagoa, at the Ijaw House.
Kiyaramo who said museums play a crucial role in preserving local culture, maintained that with careful documentation and artifact preservation, a culture can be recorded and remembered regardless of its future.
While adding that through museums culture can also be shared and better understood by those from different cultural backgrounds, he pointed out that curators are saddled with the responsibility of collecting both tangible, and intangible items or exhibits of historical value for preservation in a museum or art gallery.
The governor’s aide maintained that part of the curator’s job is to develop ways in which objects, archives and artworks can be interpreted, through exhibitions, publications, events and audio-visual presentations.
He reiterated that museum collections such as objects, specimens, and archival and manuscripts are important museum resources in their own right as well as being valuable for the information they provide about processes, events, and interactions among people and the immediate environment.
Chief Historian and Archivist of Bayelsa, Dr. Stephen Temegha Olali, in his lecture, tittled The Museum and Its Significance to Societal Advancement Worldwide: The Niger Delta Situation, said museum has several benefits to society, describing museum as the memory of human good experiences.
Olali noted that people who don’t preserve their past are lost, just as those who don’t know their history have a huge challenge because they could be easily be misled into modern slavery without even realising it.
“Museum preserves the memories of the past. Museum is a place of interpretations of evidences. Museum gives knowledge and teaches us significance of cultural heritage.
‘’Bayelsa has the most historic monument sites Museum is indispensable to tourism. A new museum is coming up in Bayelsa. The new museum will attract tourists to the state’’, he said.
Acting Curator of the National Museum Yenagoa, Mrs Adelani Rachael, on her part expressed gratitude to God for making it possible for the event to hold, inspire daunting challenges.
She thanked the Chief Historian and Archivist of Bayelsa State, Dr. Olali for allowing her to use his office to host the event. She also thanked Governor Diri’s aide, Kiyaramo for accepting to chair the occasion of the International Museum Day celebration on short notice.
The acting curator was happy that all the invited schools for the event turned up, making the event a huge success with any hitches.
Dignitaries that graced the occasion include; Dr. Segun Kuforiji, a Chief lecturer at the Federal Oil and Gas Polytechnic, Ekowe, among others. There was cultural dance performance by the participating schools.
