2019 Asian Sites of Conscience Regional Meeting
Press Release
Contact: Ashley Nelson, Communications Director
International Coalition of Sites of Conscience
[email protected]
“Reconstructing Memories: Objects, Narratives and the Legaciesof Colonialism”
2019 Asian Sites of Conscience Regional Meeting
Dharamshala, India – September 10-14, 2019
“Knowledge must be shared to grow a world with more empathy and caring for one another, and museums are the medium,”proclaimed His Holiness the Dalai Lama on October 27, 2018 when he addressed museum delegates from around the world. This ethos will manifest at the 2019 Asian Sites of Conscience Regional Meeting, a gathering of representatives from museums, historic sites and memory initiatives from seven countries in the region. The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and the Tibet Museum will host the 2019 Asian Sites of Conscience Regional Meeting, in Dharamshala, India from September 10 – 14, 2019.
The 2019 Regional Meeting will create a space where participants can identify, share and exchange lessons and best practices in confronting a colonialist heritage and its contemporary forms of interethnic, divisive, racial violence. Throughout the meeting, participants will learn and experience firsthand Tibet’s efforts to preserve its history and culture, and explore and address the unique colonial legacies in countries like the Philippines, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and India.
The Tibet Museum is the official museum of the Central Tibetan Administration’s Department of Information and International Relations and is located near the main temple of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, at Mcleod Ganj, Dharamshala. The new Tibet Museum located at Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamshala, will open in mid 2020 and will seek to engage a global community about the history, culture and present reality of Tibet and its diaspora.
The 2019 Asian Sites of Conscience Regional Meeting will include capacity building workshops, working groups and plenary sessions structured to support the development of regional partnerships and the launching of “Our Shared Journeys,”a long-term regional collaborative project that aims to shift from large-scale societal narratives to bring forward local, site-specific, memories. The project aspires to create common understandings of shared histories, around the different ways in which colonialism manifested in the region and the ways colonial histories still influence local histories.
The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (the Coalition) is the only global network helping historic sites, museums and memory initiatives that connect past struggles to today’s movements for human rights and social justice. With over 275 members in 65 countries, the Coalition builds the capacity of its members through grants, networking, training, transitional justice mechanisms and advocacy. The Asian Regional Network brings together sites remembering both conflict and peace to promote ethnic and religious pluralism and democracy. Asian Sites of Conscience open dialogue on human rights and democracy and inspire young people to become actively engaged in promoting those values.
For more information or if you are interested in attending the Opening Ceremony, please contact Ashley Nelson, Communications Director at the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, at [email protected], Silvia Fernández, Regional Manager at the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience at [email protected], or Tashi Phuntsok, Director of The Tibet Museum at [email protected].