Mr. Gary Serrao, Director/Proprietor of the Guyanese Heritage Museum, addresses the audience.

THE National Trust began Heritage Week observances on Monday, with an exhibition at the National Museum, Company Path, Georgetown.

The display was described as an initiative to sensitise, refresh and enlighten Guyanese about their rich social and cultural heritage, as well as the importance and significance of preserving relevant resources such as monuments, sites, objects, structures, buildings, landscapes and furniture for the benefit of both the present and future generations.

Viewers saw depictions of people and dress, rural village life, social heritage, recreational lifestyles, festivals and celebrations, monetary heritage, architectural elements, industrial heritage, sugar and rum industry, communication and transportation, urban landscapes and heritage erased.

Director of Culture, Dr James Rose, who deputised for Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony, told the audience at the opening that heritage is everybody’s business.

Attendees at the Heritage Week Exhibition at the Guyana National Museum.

“Preserving our heritage is, in essence, an attempt to preserve what is best about us,” he said, noting that the National Trust is the agency charged with the responsibility of protecting, preserving and promoting national heritage.

Rose said Georgetown has been blessed more than any other location with sites such as the 1763 Monument, the Umana Yana, City Hall and St. Georges Cathedral.

He pointed out, however, that, even though, those are in the city, they belong to the people of the country.

Rose warned that destruction is not a one off incident but is caused by neglect.

He said when memorabilia go they do not come back and instances of historical reconstruction are rare, not to mention exceedingly expensive causing a nation to become poorer.

Chairing the proceedings was Mr. Gary Serrao, Director of the Guyanese Heritage Museum.

He declared: “If we have nothing of our ancestors, we say to the world that we are ashamed of our past.”