Last fortnight, coinciding with the International Museum Day, this newspaper carried a compilation of rural museums in Mokokchung where we managed to highlight 11 of them. There are probably more rural museums in Mokokchung but we could only identify eleven villages that have a museum to their credit. ABAM Museum in Impur, Rendikala Subong Museum in Mokokchung, and the District Museum housed inside the District Art and Culture Office complex are three other known museums in Mokokchung but were not included in the compilation for the fact that they do not fall under the rural museum category.
Of the eleven rural museums, as commented by H. Khehovi, Advisor for Tourism and Art & Culture, Nagaland, the one in Mopungchuket is believed to be the oldest, established circa 1956. Meanwhile, it was found that the one at Molungyimsen has the highest number of artefacts on display at 203. The recently established museum in Changtongya, aptly called Nüngo Reju, was found to be the most unique of them all. All the eleven rural museums have interesting artefacts on display. Unfortunately, despite the locals’ best effort, these rural museums seem to be underappreciated because none of them reported to have entertained more than a thousand visitors in a calendar year.
Museums are important for a community and their importance must be given its due recognition. All the villages are encouraged to keep a museum because its importance are manifold and benefits innumerable. Museums play a crucial role in preserving local culture. With careful documentation and artifact preservation, a culture can be recorded and preserved regardless of its future. Museums educate people. Specifically, rural museums educate people about the village, about how people of the village in the past reacted to their environment and the effects of those reactions to their past, present, and future.
In the meantime, students should be encouraged to visit museums. Institutions should take their students to the rural museums. The importance of museums for students lies in the fact that it helps to enrich their learning in various fields, gain experiences in a new environment, and provide a unique setting for educators to teach students a wide range of topics. Museums teach critical thinking, empathy, and other generally important skills and dispositions. Trips to museums help get kids excited about school subjects as well as culture. Museums expand the general world knowledge of students.
Given the importance and significance of our rural museums, the department concerned may initiate appropriate measures to facilitate further development and upkeep of the rural museums. Special grants must be provided to the village museums. The state government may also resort to finding ways to rope in the Museum Grant Scheme from the center for the rural museums. However, it is the community that should first of all step up to promote our local or rural museums. With the rate at which our culture is disappearing, the importance of museums assumes even more significance.