Cultural diplomacy of the NTB Museum yields official invitation from Australia

Mataram (ANTARA) - The head of the NTB State Museum, Ahmad Nuralam, said that the cultural diplomacy that has been built has yielded results after his institution received an official invitation from Australia.

“The invitation was sent by the Art and Gallery South of Australia (AGSA) to the Governor of NTB to be a speaker at the launch of the book on Lombok-Bali textiles,” he said in Mataram, Wednesday.

The launch of the book, which reviews traditional Lombok and Bali textiles, is combined with a joint exhibition between the Art and Gallery South of Australia and the NTB Museum.

“This is proof that the cultural diplomacy and international cooperation initiated by the provincial government has received a good response from international parties and circles,” said Nuralam.

Furthermore, he said that the NTB Museum plays an active role in initiating international cultural cooperation that places Lombok textiles as an important part of the narrative of Southeast Asian textiles at the global level.

According to Nuralam, the implementation of the joint exhibition and the launch of the book provides great benefits for West Nusa Tenggara, especially for Lombok’s distinctive textiles.

“The cultural diplomacy we carry out has a very good effect on the promotion of NTB culture,” he said.

The book, which is about 500 pages thick, is sponsored by an Australian collector named Michael Abbott and contains an in-depth study of the patterns, colors, threads, and materials used by the people of Lombok in weaving textiles, such as songket and limpot umbaq.

A number of local writers from Lombok were involved in writing the book, including Khaerul Anwar, Bunyamin, Salsabila Luqyana, and Ahmad Sugeng.

The First Expert Cultural Officer of the NTB Museum, Salsabila Luqyana, said that the involvement of local writers and curators in writing the book is an important part of the effort to document and preserve the cultural history of Lombok academically.

“The book plays an important role in enriching the historiography of Lombok. For me, this is not just involvement in a publication, but also a form of responsibility to document and preserve the history of the region,” said Salsabila.