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| PRESERVING HISTORY: Jason Brooke (left) and Bugo exchanging MoA documents while Japri (right) looks on. The MoA will make Brooke era documents available for the benefit of Sarawakians. |
KUCHING: The Sarawak State Library (PNS) believes that Brooke era writing and documentation can be found within the state itself, but its existence will remain unknown unless the owners come forward.
Speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between PNS and The Brooke Heritage Trust yesterday, PNS chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Hamid Bugo asked that locals who possess these items to bring it to the attention of the state library for documentation and preservation.
Bugo added that the library would also like to make duplicates of the materials so that they could be added into their State Records Repository, available to the public.
“If there is an original document, we can verify if the history is accurate or not,” he said.
Bugo later signed the MoA on behalf of PNS, while Jason Brooke signed on behalf of The Brooke Heritage Trust.
In his speech, Brooke said that his grandfather Anthony Brooke understood that those who were too closely involved in the events might be unable to form an objective viewpoint, thus his approach was to make documented evidence available and allow others to form their own judgement.
“This is the philosophy of the Trust,” he said. “It is up to others to interpret – the historian, anthropologist, sociologist, film makers. It is for Sarawakians to know and understand their shared heritage.”
Brooke later presented Bugo with a hard drive containing 36,514 digitized Brooke era records. The originals are housed at Rhodes House Library, in Oxford. The digitization of these records is part of a large project undertaken by the Trust, with cooperation of Oxford University and Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, in an endeavor to support the expansion of knowledge on Sarawak’s history.
According to Arpah Adenan, head of the library’s depository services, the Trust and the library were mulling the possibility of housing the original documents in Sarawak.
“This is only when we have proper storage facilities for these documents. Right now we don’t,” she told reporters.
The library hopes to make the digitized documents available to the public within the year, but first, they will have to examine it themselves in order to better respond to requests for specific documents.
Also present at the signing was PNS acting chief executive officer Japri Bujang Masli.
Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/25/state-library-appeals-for-local-source-of-brooke-era-material/#ixzz2jmjsFbDd
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