The National Arts Council of Namibia has sponsored the annual Heritage Week with N.dollars 300 000, up from N.dollars 140 000 in previous years.
The annual event provides an opportunity for Namibians to celebrate their heritage by encouraging them to keep their culture alive and pass on inherited traditions and knowledge to their descendants.
The goal is also to celebrate Namibia’s rich and diverse heritage by promoting the safeguarding and protection of all cultural heritage in Namibia, regardless of religious or ethnic identity.
In an interview with Nampa on Monday, the council’s chairperson, Patrick Sam, stated that it was an obvious choice for the council to sponsor the Museums Association of Namibia (MAN) because the institution has been able to account for the money and they have been able to see the impact of their work over the years at a decentralised, national level.
“We raise the stakes when people do good work. It’s not a question of where the money comes from; we have the same budgets as last year, however, the organisation’s strategic focus is shifting toward things that have an annual consistent basis so that it can cement that national footprint that public money and public investment is going into,” he explained.
This year’s commemoration, Sam said, will be a celebration of diverse expressions, because the pandemic has raised the stakes on what is important to Namibians, and what should be regarded as important.
MAN Development Officer, Tuuda Haitula said in a separate interview all participating regions will be provided with N.dollars 10 000 each, with five per cent going to the association’s administrative costs and the rest going to projects during Heritage Week.
“The activities from the applications were chosen because they corresponded to Heritage Week’s activities,” Haitula said noting that the association does not discriminate between applicants from different regions.
Heritage Week is set to take place from 20-26 September 2021 under the theme ‘Feshene; te tlhale e e re lomaganang’, which translates to ‘Fashion; the threads that bind us together’, in Setswana.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency
