22 May 2014

Museum artefacts are collected for their unique character which form the core of the museum’s activities for exhibition, education, research and enjoyment, says the Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama.

Speaking during the International Museum Day in Gaborone on Tuesday, May 20, Khama said the day gave Botswana National Museum the opportunity to promote museum issues.

He said museums existed in a dynamic world and were constantly challenged to rethink their traditional mandate and find new ways of connecting visitors with collections.

Museum collections, he said, were the essence of a museum because they determined the type of museum to be established. He noted that museum artefacts were acquired by field collections, loans, purchases and donations.

He said the collections make connections aimed at improving traditional methods of engagement adopted by museums in order to respond to the needs of their customers and stakeholders.

The minister said the government was constantly looking at new ways of improving protection of heritage, over and above existing legislation protecting monuments, relics, museum collections and endangered species.

He regretted that people were ignorant of the role played by museums in preserving the history of Botswana.

Botswana, he said, was currently working on ratifying the UNESCO 1970 Convention on means of prohibiting the illegal import, export and transfer of cultural property. Museum collections, he noted, were varied as they could be cultural, historical or natural objects which stored the memories or evidence of the environment, peoples, their cultures, dreams and hopes.

Minister Khama said Botswana National Museum was a general museum because it had natural history, archaeology, ethnographic and historic collections.

He also noted that Botswana National Museum was responsible for national heritage collection which was made up of the National Botanical Garden, national herbarium, zoological, archaeological, ethnographic, historical and non-movable collection in the form of monuments. ENDS