Cultural knowledge is a vital part of learning

5-year-old students, from Buk bilong Pikinini (BbP) Library Learning Centre at Pari village, have today had the opportunity to go on a field trip to visit the PNG National Museum & Gallery.

The visit is part of the organisation’s Literacy Week celebrations, which has a strong focus on cultural learning and knowledge. Indeed, children in all BbP’s LLCs across the country will be studying the importance of the ocean, village, forest and animals in PNG culture through craft activities and story-telling by parents and officers from the National Museum of PNG.

The children will share the stories, which will also be collected and added to the BbP learning app. The learning app has been developed by BbP to assist the children with their digital skills through fun learning activities, which have a 100% PNG focus. The cultural stories will allow all children in BbP’s ECE program across the country to share their local culture and customs with each other.

As part of the visit to the museum, the children will be learning about shell money, artefacts and other objects, which have traditionally been used for “financial” transactions. This cultural knowledge will complement their financial literacy studies, which includes getting to know PNG notes and coins and the cultural significance of the animals, people and buildings featured on the currency.

BbP is also proud to announce that the organisation is currently in the process of producing a book entitled: “When I Grow Up I want to be an Archaeologist”. The book follows 5-year-old Anna Dinatau, as she learns what it takes to become an Archaeologist from PNG National Museum & Gallery role models Jemima and Kenneth.

Loretta Hasu, Manager – Access, education and public programs, PNG National Museum Gallery Curator said: “We applaud Buk Bilong Pikinini for its continued effort in seeing the value in educating the younger generations of our unique PNG`s culture, what better way to do it then bringing them to see, witness and appreciate the cultural objects displayed at the Museum and bringing the knowledge bearers from the Museum to its libraries.

In our endeavor to bring Museum collections to the People and the People to the collections, we are creating a unique experience in binding people to our Museum objects. And better still with the younger generations, this experience creates an opportunity for our younger ones to know and appreciate PNG`s material culture and the way of life of the past, the current trend and how it has shaped us into the future. We are grateful to have Buk Bilong Pikinini again this year to engage and work closely with the Museum Education team and we look forward to many more of such collaborations going forward”.