Culture & Education | Tuesday 19 February, 2019 1:29 pm |

Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated entity for culture, arts, and heritage, is preparing to launch a range of events and activities to familiarise Global Village visitors with the history and culture related to the marine environment in the UAE.

These activities are part of the 9thedition of ‘Live Our Heritage Festival’, themed ‘Treasures of Heritage from Emirati Culture’ which will run at Global Village till 6thApril 2019. The Festival aims to raise awareness about the UAE’s heritage assets by underlining their unique value to all segments of the community.

Fatima Lootah, Director of Cultural and Heritage Programmes at Dubai Culture, and Chairman of the Living Our Heritage Festival Organising Committee, said: “Last few months have seen a huge turnout of visitors at the Festival as we crafted events catering to both Arabic and English language visitors making it engaging and interesting for them. The events explained the environment-related heritage tools and assets of the UAE, which were conveyed by a range of carefully selected activities.”

“Marine environment has always been, and continues to be, an integral part of UAE’s cultural fabric. Weaved around traditions, practices, and handicrafts that embody the UAE’s national identity, this phase of the Festival, depicting marine environment, is bound to catch the attention of visitors and garner a positive response,” added Lootah.

It is notable that the Festival’s agenda for this month will focus on the UAE’s marine environment, where the creativity of UAE’s ancestors manifested into reality and paved way for a developed industrial sector that is an important part of the national economy today. The hard work and innovative approach of ancient marine community is reflected in strong ships that they built, which allowed them to break through raging seas to make a living, explore the world and establish trading agreements and bridges of communication with other nations. Thanks to their cumulative skill set, they succeeded in starting new activities, such as building heritage boats and rowing, in addition to traditional fishing tools.

This challenging environment served as an incubator to many individual and group activities and crafts practiced by our ancestors, some of which are still alive and used. These marine crafts include, diving, Tiwasha (pearl diving), Qilafah, Sifarah and traditional medicine.

This year’s Festival was divided into four segments, in order to shed light on the different environments in the UAE: Bedouin, Mountainous, Agricultural and Marine. The next phase of the Festival will take visitors to the world of marine, its history and how it influenced the cultural landscape across the UAE.

The Dubai Heritage Development Centres are playing an active role in the Festival by familiarising visitors with the culture of the country, through a variety of traditional games, which are an integral part of the UAE’s heritage. Using simple tools that promote happiness and strengthen ties, these games bring joy to visitors, underlining the country’s environmental practices. The Centres are also organising folk performances that celebrate the national history. Other customary practices being highlighted include living art forms like oral traditions, performing arts, ceremonial customs, and the knowledge and skills required to execute the aforesaid.

The Festival welcomes all Global Village visitors, every day, from 5 pm to 10 pm, allowing them to enjoy the colourful program, featured workshops and events that are educating visitors about art and culture across the UAE’s environmental spectrum.

Dubai Culture aims to enhance Dubai’s cultural scene and draw attention to the UAE’s rich heritage. The Authority’s mandate is to build bridges of constructive dialogue between different civilizations and cultures to enhance Dubai's position as a creative and sustainable global city for culture, heritage, arts, and literature, with the aim to empower these sectors by developing creative and innovative projects and initiatives locally and globally.