Dr. Haya Farhoud Al-Emadi, within Itqan program accompanying the activities of Doha International Book Fair, presented a workshop on the impact of collective memory on preserving heritage and culture, targeting many groups of society.
The workshop axes revolved around the concept of collective memory and its importance, while highlighting the importance of oral heritage.
Dr. Haya, speaking about the issue of sustainability and its connection to collective memory, emphasized the importance of documenting and including stories and narratives of the cultural heritage. She defined the concept of collective memory as the cultural memory of each group. She said that each people has its own identity that preserved its entity, strengthened cohesion among its members, rekindled solidarity and renewed belonging to all who belonged to it, noting that this memory was formulated by some things and filled with ideals and beliefs, embodied in rituals and traditions, perpetuated by heroics and epics, fueled by dreams, and written experiments and experiences.
On the importance of collective memory, she emphasized the importance of establishing the identity of groups and civilizations through social remembrance as a result of the joint interpretation and the joint recall of this group. She touched on the importance of the transparent heritage, she said: Oral memory is considered one of the first memories that preserved that past for us, the peoples whose history was not recorded in writing preserved their culture in poems, wisdom, proverbs and legends. She stressed that through it we can read the past and learn about the most important events that were documented and preserved, either through poetry, sung arts, proverbs or beliefs, as these elements were means of preserving the popular culture at the time. Regarding sustainability and its connection to collective memory, she said: If museums are the memory of nations and peoples and the cultural platform that preserves their heritage and history for peoples, collective memory is a virtual historical, cultural and social platform for the culture of peoples and the sustainability of the history, culture and societies of peoples in all its details, which were passed on from generation to generation.
Dr. Haya talked about the issue of sustainability and its connection to collective memory, and confirmed that in order to achieve sustainability, we question our role as individuals in achieving this, and among the questions that must be asked in this context: What is our role as individuals in documenting and including stories and narratives of the cultural heritage? How can you link the current generation and the future generation with the memory of our generation (the time of the good people) and the generation of parents and grandparents (the time of challenge and steadfastness)? What is our role as individuals in documenting and including stories and narratives of cultural heritage?