TUNIS: The Literary Forum reviewed the Omani experience in documenting and preserving intangible cultural heritage during the International Conference on Regions and Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in Tunisia. The event featured a selection of researchers, experts and cultural institutions from various countries around the world.
During the conference, Fahd bin Mahmoud al Rahbi, Head of the Oral History Department at the Literary Forum of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, presented a working paper addressing the Omani experience in protecting oral memory and safeguarding national identity. He reviewed the methodology followed by the Sultanate of Oman in documenting oral history and transforming it into a sustainable cognitive and cultural asset.
Al Rahbi noted that Omani efforts stem from a firm commitment to international conventions, primarily the 2003 Unesco Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. This commitment contributed to the registration of 18 Omani files on Unesco's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as of 2026. The paper also highlighted the “Unesco-Sultan Haitham Prize for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage” as one of the initiatives supporting international projects concerned with protecting and ensuring the sustainability of human heritage.
The presentation covered the experience of the Literary Forum and the Oral History Department in collecting oral narratives from the elderly, described as "human libraries" that preserve the details of Omani social and cultural life across generations. - ONA
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