Dubai: The Hamdan Bin Mohammad Heritage Centre (HHC) has taken an enterprising step towards preserving and documenting the UAE’s national heritage by launching an initiative that invites the public to pool any documents they possess pre-dating 1980.
The initiative called ‘Wathiqati’ (My Document) was announced last August but was officially launched on Monday during a press conference at Intercontinental Dubai Festival City alongside a small exhibition displaying 100 old documents already received from contributors.
Wathiqati is being held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, and is aimed at preserving important documents and manuscripts and protecting them from loss or damage, while at the same time making them available and easily accessible to researchers and students by archiving them electronically.
As they announced the type of documents they will be accepting, Abdullah Bin Dalmook, CEO of the HHC, said the launch of Wathiqati is considered the most important initiative they have launched so far as it follows the main vision of the centre itself.
“Wathiqati gives people a chance to have their documents preserved in one place and at the same time helps everyone in our society understand our history better. Instead of relying on the documentation of biased historians, we have to find these documents to prove our own history and understand our past better,” he said.
Bin Dalmook said that videos from the past, letters or pictures “can uncover hidden facts which can benefit future generations, and this is why we encourage people to come forward if they have something as it will benefit a whole nation.”
Ameenah Khamis Al Daheri, Director of Research and Studies at the HHC, said taking part in the initiative is a national duty for those who have something to contribute. She added that with the help of contributors they have already received a number of rare documents, the oldest being a letter dating back to 1927.
“For those who wish to present something, they will first have to fill a form which has some questions regarding the ownership of the document. If it actually belongs to them and if they wish to keep it, we will take a copy of it. For those who want to sell the document, we offer the option of buying it from them,” she said.
Ameenah also said the centre had formed a committee to determine the documents’ originality and to supervise the collection and documentation process.
The centre has also adopted a system to systematically categorise the documents to make them easily accessible for interested researchers.
