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‘Culture Gate’... Digital Platform to Document, Explore Saudi Cultural Wealth

The platform displays artifacts that were discovered in Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
The platform displays artifacts that were discovered in Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
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‘Culture Gate’... Digital Platform to Document, Explore Saudi Cultural Wealth

The platform displays artifacts that were discovered in Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
The platform displays artifacts that were discovered in Saudi Arabia. (SPA)

The Saudi Ministry of Culture has launched a new digital interface that opens doors to explore the kingdom’s cultural wealth, enhance its presence in the national and global spaces, and reflect the modern evolution that took place in all the cultural sectors in the past few years.

The “Culture Gate” is a platform that provides the audience with an easy access to art and heritage valuables and rare memorabilia that Saudi Arabia has preserved as a witness on the authenticity of the land and the legacy of its inhabitants, and meets the world’s need to explore the details of the Saudi culture through museums, theater, arts, music, fashion, and films, in addition to many other culture components of the Saudi culture.

The platform offers an interactive map that showcases the massive cultural and heritage wealth across Saudi Arabia, and enables visitors to enjoy fun and constructive tours in museums, libraries, theaters, and Islamic and historic sites, as well as urban heritage sites and antiquities discovered on the kingdom’s lands.

One platform that witnesses on the richness of Saudi Arabia

The “Culture Gate” features an inclusive database that covers the sector, its assets, infrastructure, institutions, antiquities, and accomplishments, and enables the interested audience to contribute by uploading all sorts of cultural materials.

The platform also shares written works made by the “Saudi Translation Observatory” including a collection of books translated into Arabic, a collection of books on the Saudi heritage and historic sites, in addition to old Arabic manuscripts loaded with valuable information. Saudi Arabia has a great share that accounts for 27 percent of all the Arabic and Islamic authentic manuscripts. The platform displays the natural and cultural Saudi sites and their rich history.

The “Culture Gate” also features man-made arts including the traditional Saudi crafts and cultural practices, as well as an inclusive insight on the Saudi cuisine, dishes, and traditional Arabic spices, stone carvings that document the life and civilization of the Arabic populations in the past, and historic discoveries that highlight the fine Saudi heritage. Moreover, it lists the cultural records of museums, libraries and theaters.

Documentation of the cultural sectors

Since launching its all-sector strategy, the ministry of culture has led accelerating efforts to preserve and document all kinds of cultural and historic information and details from all the Saudi regions. It has also worked on registering many natural and historic sites on international lists.

In addition to upgrading the cultural scene with initiatives aimed at activating the literary and artistic fields, the ministry has ensured to preserve the historic legacy of the kingdom as part of its aspirations to build a prospering future of culture in line with the ambitious transformation program promoted by the Saudi Vision 2030.

The cultural sector plays a major role in accomplishing the Vision’s goals by emphasizing culture as a lifestyle, and harnessing culture to serve the economic growth and the kingdom’s global position.

The Saudi culture sector has managed to enlist 11 local cultural elements on the UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage List, and seven natural sites on the World Heritage List, in addition to registering around 5,000 craftsmen and women in the National Craft Record.

The Cultural Gate comes as part of the ministry’s efforts to gather the Saudi cultural resources in one platform that serves the interested audience and promotes the cultural wealth nationally and globally.

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Culture

Trinidad and Tobago Reckons with Colonialism in a Debate on Statues, Signs and Monuments of Its Past 

A vandalized statue of Christopher Columbus towers over Columbus Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Officials in the Caribbean island nation are reviewing on whether to remove statues, signs and monuments that reference European colonization. (AP)
A vandalized statue of Christopher Columbus towers over Columbus Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Officials in the Caribbean island nation are reviewing on whether to remove statues, signs and monuments that reference European colonization. (AP)
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Trinidad and Tobago Reckons with Colonialism in a Debate on Statues, Signs and Monuments of Its Past 

A vandalized statue of Christopher Columbus towers over Columbus Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Officials in the Caribbean island nation are reviewing on whether to remove statues, signs and monuments that reference European colonization. (AP)
A vandalized statue of Christopher Columbus towers over Columbus Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Officials in the Caribbean island nation are reviewing on whether to remove statues, signs and monuments that reference European colonization. (AP)

In a small auditorium in the seaside capital of Trinidad and Tobago, Christopher Columbus and other colonial-era figures came under scrutiny late Wednesday in a lengthy debate punctuated by snickers, applause and outbursts.

The government had asked residents of the diverse, twin-island nation in the eastern Caribbean if they supported the removal of statues, signs and monuments with colonial ties and how those spaces should be used instead. One by one, people of African, European and Indigenous descent stepped up to the microphone and responded.

Some suggested a prominent Columbus statue be placed in a museum. Others requested it be destroyed and that people be allowed to stomp on the dusty remains. One man encouraged officials to round up statues of colonial figures and create a “square of the infamous.”

The majority of the more than two dozen people who spoke, and dozens of others commenting online, supported removal of colonial-era symbols and names.

“It’s an issue about how after 62 years of independence ... we continue to live in a space that reflects the ideals and the vision and the views of those who were our colonial masters,” said Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada, executive chair of the islands’ Emancipation Support Committee.

Trinidad and Tobago is the latest nation to embrace a global movement that began in recent years to abolish colonial-era symbols as it reckons with its past and questions if and how it should memorialize it as demands for slavery reparations grow across the Caribbean.

The public hearing was held just a week after the government announced it would redraw the nation’s coat of arms to remove Christopher Columbus’ three famous ships — the Pinta, the Niña and the Santa María – and replace it with the steelpan, a popular percussion instrument that originated in the Caribbean nation.

Others pushed for further changes on Wednesday night.

“What the hell is the queen still doing on top of the coat of arms? Please let us put her to rest,” said Eric Lewis, who identifies as a member of the First Peoples, also known as Amerindians.

Trinidad and Tobago was first colonized by the Spanish, who ruled it for nearly 300 years before ceding it to the British, who governed it for more than 160 years until the islands’ independence in 1962. The colonial imprint remains throughout streets and plazas, with a statue of Christopher Columbus dominating a square of the same name in the capital of Port of Spain.

The islands’ National Trust calls it “one of the greatest embellishments of our town,” but many differ.

“It’s disrespectful to those who were the victims of him. The people suffered tremendously,” said Shania James as she called for the statue to be placed in a museum. “His atrocities should not be forgotten.”

But a handful of people dismissed concerns about how their ancestors were treated, including tour guide Teresa Hope, who is Black.

“They survived, and I survived, and we will keep on moving,” she said, adding that if the actions of historical figures were scrutinized, “everything would get knocked down.”

Rubadiri Victor, president of the Artists’ Coalition, said his country should instead erect statues and monuments to honor some of the more than 200 Trinbagonians who represent the best of the islands.

“We are stumbling and tripping over heroes,” he said. “To have produced so much genius, and that lineage is nowhere present in the landscape.”

Among the suggestions of people to honor was Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul; Cyril Lionel Robert James, a historian and journalist; and Kwame Ture, who helped spearhead the Black Power movement in the US Others suggested that prominent Amerindians and more local women be honored, including Patricia Bishop, an educator and musician and Beryl McBurnie, a teacher credited with promoting and saving Caribbean dance.

The debate was scheduled to continue soon in the sister island of Tobago, with the government having received nearly 200 submissions overall so far on what it should do.