Thursday, Aug 17, 2017
Dubai: An Emirati donated the highest number of old documents to the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Heritage Centre (HHC) on Thursday, creating a record on the level of individual contributors.
Received under the umbrella of its initiative Wathiqati, the donation included 37 old documents dating back to 1961 (up to 1980).
Arif Al Syed Mohammad Al Hashemi donated these historical documents to enrich the archive of Wathiqati.
The documents were contracts, old trade licences, travel permits and passports of Al Hashemi’s father and grandfather, which marked an important era in the history of Dubai.
Al Hashemi came across an article in local newspapers about Wathiqati by coincidence.
Launched in 2014, Wathiqati aims to contribute to the preservation and documentation of the UAE’s national heritage by collecting formal and informal letters, manuscripts dating back to different eras, contracts, photos, maps, treaties, laws and ancient texts, autobiographies, certificates and permits issued by various governmental and non-governmental institutions, as well as audio and video interviews and other archival material.
Fatima Mohammad, senior researcher in charge of the initiative at HHC, said: “We have collected a large number of documents from various entities and individuals in the UAE and abroad, but this is the first time since its (Wathiqati) launch that we receive this number of documents from one contributor.
“We are working on the facilitation of a faster process of restoration, documentation and archiving with Juma Al Majid Heritage and Cultural Centre in line with the cooperation agreement signed back in 2014 with HHC, for the purpose of working with experts in the field,” added Fatima.
For the past three months, Wathiqati began releasing short videos from its archive, and will continue to release a video per month on HHC’s social media platforms, to continue to spread awareness as a call of national duty.
Staff Report
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