The National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI) is collaborating with the Southeast-Asia Audiovisual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA), an association of archivists in the Southeast Asian region, to organize the 28th audio-visual archive conference in 2024. The event with the theme “Navigating New Horizons in AudioVisual Archiving” took place from June 9 to 14, 2024.
Surakarta was chosen because it is one of the important cities in Indonesia, especially in terms of audio-visual archiving, knowing audio-visual archiving in Surakarta means also knowing about how Lokananta has survived until today, not to mention the Press Monument which holds a lot of press records that accompany and guard the history of the Republic of Indonesia. With all its archiving history, Surakarta is expected to be an example for all delegates of archive organizations from each country present.
“Audio-visual archives are very important for education, but are vulnerable to damage. Through this convention, we hope to find innovative solutions to protect and preserve this heritage,” said Imam Gunarto, Acting Head of the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia, Monday (10/6/2024).
In addition to representatives from each SEAPAVAA member country, the event was also attended by various representatives of archive organizations in Indonesia, such as Lokananta, Liarsip, and the Indonesian Film Archivist Society. Dr. Hilmar Farid as the Director General of Culture expressed his hope that all elements can work together to realize the principles of “Gotong Royong Kebudayaan” in the realm of Indonesian film archiving.
“Collaboration between state institutions and many archiving organizations in Indonesia, such as ANRI, and Sinematek Indonesia, as well as film communities and researchers is needed. Which some of the representatives are also present here, such as the Indonesian Film Archivist Society, Indonesia Raja Minikino, Arkipel Forum Lenteng, and many more. And I think if we can work together, think about the core of this agenda, and certainly I hope we can all realize what we call now as “Gotong Royong Kebudayaan” said the Director General of Culture, Hilmar Farid when giving a conference speech, Tuesday (11/06/2024).
With this year’s SEAPAVAA conference, it is hoped that it can further strengthen Indonesia as one of the countries that is always committed to audio-visual archiving work. Collaboration is also expected to strengthen global cooperation in various audio-visual archiving sectors, such as in the human resources sector, to technological facilities that are always up to date.