The Papua New Guinea National Museum and Arts Gallery held a seminar recently for staff who recently completed training in Osaka, Japan as it looks to turn their training into practical plans for improvements.
The Osaka training was under Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Museum Training Program. Following their return, the seminar was to give the opportunity to these officers to present what they learned and outline how the museums can benefit from the training.
A senior technical officer in the museum’s Natural History division, Noriega Igara was among the staff who attended the program in Osaka. He said the experience exposed him to a wider museum environment and new ideas on conservation, digitisation and collection management.
“Japan has over 4,000 museums which was quite fascinating. During the training, we visited, toured and had lectures at some of them,” Igara said.
Igara gave two insightful presentations on areas of improvement which covered subjects relating to preventive conservation, digitization and museum evaluation methods such as the 3-dimensional records of museum artifacts.
During his presentations he stated that the training has enhanced and broadened his knowledge in understanding his work and his country on an international level.
“Sharing knowledge, ideas, and work experiences with fellow professional museum students from other parts of the world has really changed my perspective and pushed me to fully carry out what I’ve learned for the museum” Igara said.
The event also had positive feedback from NMAG’s Acting Director Alois Kuaso. He stressed that the seminar was important because staff who receive overseas training should share what they learn with colleagues.
He said this helps spread practical knowledge across the organisation and keeps ideas from being lost.
“It’s always encouraging when someone comes and talks about their experiences because it provides ideas to others on how well they can improve in their own work. Sharing knowledge from fieldwork and training prevents information from being lost,” Kuaso said.
Kuaso said the museum’s goal is to turn the seminar discussions into a formal work plan. He added that further training helps officers build skills and adapt to the demands of a more competitive world.
