The Montserrat National Trust (MNT) at its headquarters in Olveston, under the theme “AW-e Heritage – a Digital Approach to Preserving our Heritage,” conducted an official ceremony to mark the opening of an exhibition showcasing archival documents, photographs, and digital images.
The exhibition took place on Tuesday, March 10, 2015, under the distinguished patronage of His Excellency Governor Adrian Davis and his wife Sujue Davis.
The exhibition also showcased documents including a marriage registration for slaves, videos from the 1960’s and 70’s which showed pieces of Montserrat’s history among other things.
Mrs. Sarita Francis, MNT executive director in delivering welcome remarks at the opening ceremony, reminded all of the importance of Montserat’s history which is now under threat of being lost due to poor storage among other issues. ”We are very ambitious, in that we are focusing on the work that we just recently carried out on our documents and picture slides that are and have been under threat for a number of years due to natural and man-made disasters and its inadequate storage.”
Mrs. Dulcie James, President of MNT, said that the timing for the exhibition in its digital stage is timely since there is a need to bridge the present with the past. “The mounting of this exhibition is being held at an opportune time when we are rebuilding our county as we connect the present with the past whilst building for the future,”
According to MNT president the Trust benefited from a grant by the British Library who appointed a consultant to undertake the endangered archival project to assist in what steps were needed to be undertaken as a country to preserve the documents, photographs and images that “depict our history”. Some of these very items were on display in the exhibition.
Mrs. James’ presentation joined her efforts with Mrs. Francis to reinforce the importance of history and the importance of digitalizing them for the future. The exhibition is also showcasing the history of some of the areas lost due to the volcanic crisis which began in 1995.
Chair of the St. Patrick’s Day celebration Mr. David Duberry, gave brief remarks during the opening ceremony and: “Over the years I have recognized the tremendous work the National Trust has been doing in maintaining our heritage and heritage sites, helping us to improve our tourism,” also praising the Trust, “for all the other charitable work they have been doing over the years.”
Patron Governor Davis at his turn to speak said that the exhibition was a great example of the changing times and the importance of digitization. He shared information from an old sale advertisement for a desktop computer system in the late 1970’s. “It was an advert for a state of the art computer; it had ten (10) mega-bites, a 5 1/2inch floppy disk, a state of the art dub matrix printer, and a picture of a happy lady completely fulfilled and doing all her typing and computing, and the price was US $5, 995.” The Governor cited that he is always very excited by the limitless opportunity that modern technology makes available. H. E. Davis also cites the contribution of the Montserratian diaspora in preserving our history.
Premier Donaldson Romeo, gave the key note address, in which he reiterated the need for the recording of history. “It’s very important that we record our history and it is importantly fitting that we are doing this in a digital format, However once digitized it is also critical that we make that information accessible. Therefore the focus must be on digitization and public access.”
The exhibition runs for two weeks beginning at commencement as the St. Patrick’s Day week of festivities.
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