A Great leap 2006 -2015 – Shadia Abdu Rabo

My name is Shadia and I am a senior curator at the National Museum, Sudan. In 2006, I was amongst the first participants in the ITP.

When I attended the ITP at the British Museum, it felt like a great leap from the unknown and relatively undeveloped museum in Khartoum to an ideal of what my museum could achieve; it is difficult to tell in words about what I learnt from the ITP.

During my time at the British museum I gained a good understanding of all aspects of museum life, particularly how each part of the museum related to each other, at the same time I was able to develop a specialism related to the collection.

The professional network and good relationships I built during the ITP meant that I went on to work with the British museum Amara West excavation project in Sudan from 2008 until the present, particularly focusing on researching the so called ‘fishing net weight’ which may have been tied to ancient fishing nets. Many of these objects are found in Amara West which I then study in the field. I am very happy to have had the opportunity to come back to the British Museum as a researcher to work on the documentation and illustration of this collection from Amara West excavations of the 1930s and 1940s. I had wonderful weeks working with the Amara West team as well as being part of the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan.

I would like to thank everyone in the department for their help, the hospitality and advice during my stay.

Shadia AbdRabo

Senior curator

National museum Sudan