HERITAGE

MUSEUM
JANAWAI 2015

In Janawai Village, Neelum Valley, AJK, a local person, Bashir Ahmed

Mughal has taken the initiative to establish a small museum in his village.
Mr Bashir started collecting items of heritage importance from community
elders in Neelam Valley at an early age. Over the past 18 years, his
collection has reached apx 110 items that have been placed in this museum.
Bashir believes that the indigenous culture is important to preserve and
conserve. Old indigenous items such as tools, pottery, apparel and household
items have been collected from the villagers across the valley and kept in a
room. Laajverd Visiting School core team observed in August 2015 that the
museum was in a dilapidated condition and required uplifting and
restoration, along with cataloguing and proper display and extended full
efforts in up-lifting the museum as an LVS outreach project, and carried out
the following tasks,

- Items have been cleaned and placed on wooden base/shelves.

- Proper lighting arrangement for the artifacts has been provided.
- Digital inventory of the museum has been prepared with photographs of
each item.
- The museum logo and identity has been designed.
- Maintenance kit for the artifacts has been provided.

The next phase includes,

- Sharing the museum archive with other established museums and platforms
in order to make this community effort known, as well as give an insight to
the culture and artifacts of Neelum Valley, that have not been documented
before.

- Janawai Heritage Museum is currently operating from a rented build-

ing and aims to construct one of its own building in the coming years, as a
larger space are required for the collected items and to include more commu-
nity crafts and knowledge based activities in the museum.

I have visited the Oriental Museum in Durham University and I think it’s a
fascinating platform to make links with such community initiatives, not only
to share the archive but also to see how such links can help Janawai in the
next phase of development.

Sincerely,
Zahra Hussain
Co-curator Janawai Heritage Museum
PhD Researcher, Department of Geography, Durham University