Sharjah International Narrator Forum Virtually Celebrates The Twenty Years Of Honouring Human Treasures

SHARJAH, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 26th Sep, 2020) Under the patronage of H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, the virtual twentieth edition of the Sharjah International Narrative Forum, SINF, was launched on Saturday, under the slogan 'Celebrating the Twenty'. The three-day event which aims to bring together storytellers, narrators, performers and experts from around the world, will take place from 26th-28th September.

Organised by the Sharjah Institute for Heritage, SIH, the fully virtual festival will include a mixture of seminars, cultural cafes and special events, which will be broadcast on the Institute’s online platforms Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The virtual opening ceremony included a speech by Dr Abdul Aziz Al Musallam, Chairman of SIH, and Chairman of the Supreme Organising Committee, a presentation of a short film documenting the journey of the Sharjah International Narrator Forum over twenty years, a speech by the honourable personality, and a session about Living Human Treasures presented by Dr Ahmed Esconti, an expert on intangible cultural heritage at UNESCO.

Dr Abdul Aziz Al Musallam said in his opening speech: "With the advent of the month of September every year memories flock, narrators of understanding who enriched our experiences with their rich popular knowledge at the Sharjah International Narrator Forum, which has become an established heritage tradition, and an annual renewed occasion loaded with everything new and useful thanks to the directives of H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to celebrate our extraordinary wealth and the campaign of the popular heritage of human treasures, and celebrate their knowledge and their arts and experiences, and recalling their biographies and cultural stock of the wealth, which is considered the safety valve for preserving our ancient heritage from loss and extinction, through inventory, preservation and documentation.

He added: "Due to current exceptional circumstances with Coronavirus, we decided to proceed with the virtual launch of the forum with the participation of experts, researchers, storytellers and media professionals from many countries".

For her part, Aisha Al Shamsi, Director of the Arab Heritage Center, and General Coordinator of the Sharjah International Narrator Forum, stated: "The twentieth session of the forum will be launched under the slogan 'Celebrating the Twenty', celebrating twenty years of honouring human treasures and extending the campaign of popular heritage from previous sessions, having strengthened the forum's status internationally."

Chosen as the guest of honour at the twentieth session of the SINF, the Lebanese Republic was represented by Dr Ani Tohme Thabet, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Saint Joseph University in Beirut.

As an expert in UNESCO in the field of intangible cultural heritage, Dr Thabet was honoured to be celebrated for her contributions in the field of cultural heritage and chosen because of her prominent and pivotal role in preserving heritage.

This year, in recognition of their contributions to preserving and publishing oral narratives, the Sharjah Institute for Heritage honoured some of the most important oral narrators of the bearers of intangible heritage, namely Saif Muhammad Saif Al Qara'a Al Nuaimi, Aisha Abdullah Muhammad Al Naqbi, Ali Muhammad Ali Chun Al Dhahouri, Obaid Rashid Obaid Ghadeer Al Kutbi and Muhammad Saeed Muhammad Al Qaidi, Muhammad Hamdan Al Hantoubi Al Naqbi, Saif Khalifa Rashid bin Samha Al Shamsi, and Dr Abdul Sattar Al Azzawi.

The upcoming session of the forum is unique in being a virtual event celebrating 20 years of creativity and excellence and highlighting cultural heritage through workshops, and a program that celebrates diversity in the presence of highly experienced elites in the field of heritage culture.

This year’s activities include virtual sessions about living human treasures, a seminar from Morocco documenting oral heritage, a documentary on cultural heritage in the United Arab Emirates, cultural cafe sessions on the narrator’s journey, and a variety of spoken sessions entitled 'Stories from the Heritage of Peoples'. There will also be sessions named: ''They said about the narrator - testimonies and experiences'', as well as screening films related to the narrator’s journey, and short stories entitled ''Biography of a Narrator'' and ''Between the Books of a Book'', where the activities will be concluded with a word from Dr Abdulaziz Almusallam, and reading the forum’s recommendations from Aisha Al Shamsi, Director of the Arab Heritage Center, the General Coordinator of the forum.

Dr Mini Bounama, Director of the Content and Publishing Management, said: "This year, the Culture Cafe raises new issues that celebrate the narrators and the knowledge that they deposited in their books before they were published, in line with the direction of the forum that works to create everything new to enrich the cultural scene and fulfil the desired goal."

He added, "The program will also be divided into two parts, a virtual one during the first two days, and a section that will be organised in the heritage area of Khorfakkan with owners of personal museums to highlight their experiences in this field."

SINF Cultural Cafe hosted a group of researchers and scholars who offered various approaches and celebrated the narrators. Aisha Al Shamsi began by reviewing the forum’s march and its stations over twenty years while Dr Salem Al Tunaiji talked about the biography of the narrator Rashid bin Abdullah Al Mahyan.