Mona Melling, Sarawak Museum, Malaysia: Programme highlight

Mona Melling, Documentation and Content Development Officer, Sarawak Museum, Malaysia

Hello everyone. I am Mona Octavia of the Sarawak Museum, Malaysia. I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of the ITP 2017. Time does really fly fast when you’re busy absorbing new knowledge as well as getting to know various people from different countries and background. This is my first time in London and the city is very much lively and beautiful.

We have had many sessions and programmes scheduled for us during our time here. I’ve been assigned to the Department of Asia. I must say I personally enjoyed the visit to Blythe House, one of the three sites being used for storing the Museum’s collection. Here, we were given a tour of the area and background of the building by Zeina Klink-Hoppe, a Project Curator from the Middle East Department. We were introduced to some of the textiles of our own culture in the collection and were shown around the storage area. We also got hands on experience on packing and storing textiles under the guidance of the Collections Manager, Helen Wolfe. Alexandra Green, Henry Ginsburg Curator of Southeast Asia, showed us some of the ethnographic collection available, leading to the discovery of a mysterious object which I have chosen to use in my exhibition proposal project. Yay!

All in all, I am very much delighted by the day trip to Blythe House. A very pleasant and insightful visit, looking at how the Museum stores it’s collections and of course, looking at material culture of my fellows whom I have become close with over the weeks.