Under the joint venture of the International Centre for Inclusive Cultural Leadership, Anant University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat and the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal, a week-long academic workshop on Sustainable Heritage Development organised by the two institutions here on Wednesday.

Thirty International Fellows from the disciplines of Architecture, Design, Planning, Art and Engineering including two faculties from the Anant University attended the workshop. The workshop was coordinated by Dr SK Pandey, Asstt. Keeper, IGRMS.

In this programme, an introductory visual of the museum was screened and Dr P Sankara Rao, Asstt Keeper delivered an insightful introduction of the museum with special emphasis on the Tribal Habitat Open Air Exhibition of IGRMS which has been chosen to be the study area for the Senior Fellows.

On this occasion, Prof Amareshwar Galla, Director, International Centre for Inclusive Cultural Leadership, Anant University, spoke about the relevance of choosing IGRMS as the site of study. He maintained that IGRMS sets a perfect place example to know about 'what is National about the National Museum. It connects people and truly represents the indignity of Indian Culture. He emphasised on the need to work on 'decolonizing the heritage discourse'. Collections in the museum largely appear to have focused on the tangible heritage, which is very much a colonial perspective.

The legacy of western colonialism still continued and we need to work with our pride sense of indigenous wisdom. Citing examples from South Africa, New Zealand where 'Heritage' is given the due focus on the values of intangible culture. "When you ask them what is your heritage, they proudly respond- "we breathe the values we received through our intangible heritage; we breathe through our ancestors. This inter-generational transmission also appears strong to the Maoris of New Zealand.

The programme was also attended by Rakesh Bhatt, Head of the Office, Curatorial Staff and officials of IGRMS. The programme concluded with the proposal of Vote of Thanks given by N Shakmacha Singh, Museum Associate. In the Post-lunch session of the workshop, a guided tour was organised by P Sankara Rao, SK Pandey and other curatorial and documentation units of the IGRMS.

The International Fellows availed the opportunity to interact with the curators on this first-day visit in the Tribal Habitat Open Air Exhibition of the Museum.