‘It’s About Time’ Travelling History Museum travels to Galle

The  Travelling History Museum is available for all to attend,  a way for  visitors to connect with Sri Lanka’s Rich History

The sixth edition of the ‘It’s About Time’ travelling history museum will open doors in Galle from February 5-12 at the Galle Town Hall. This museum explores the different ways in which people connect with Sri Lanka’s incredibly rich history. The Travelling History Museum has already travelled to Kandy, Kurunegala, Badulla, Batticaloa, and Mannar, and welcomed over 25,000 visitors. One of the main objectives of this initiative is to allow visitors to appreciate the country’s history while making people aware of the importance of preserving history for future generations. Visitors can touch, taste, listen, and interact with the exhibits to learn about history. Moreover, the ‘It’s About Time’ museum focuses on the lives of everyday Sri Lankans while helping people think about their contributions to shaping history. 

The Travelling History Museum will coincide with the Galle Literary Festival which will take place from February 6-9 at the Galle Fort. Interestingly, one of the panel discussions at the Galle Literary Festival will be about the future of museums, titled ‘Reshaping the Modern-Day Museum: Digital Collections in South Asia’. The Museum will also include two fringe events - A performance of Rajitha Dissanayake’s play “A Day In July” followed by a discussion with the director and cast and a free screening of Prasanna Vithanage’s film ‘Paradise’ followed by a discussion with the director. The play is scheduled to be staged at 10.30 am and the movie screening will take place at 3.00 pm at Hall de Galle on February 11. Both events are free of charge for anyone who would like to attend.

Emphasising the European Union’s and Germany’s shared commitment to promoting such innovative approaches in Sri Lanka for social cohesion, the German Ambassador to Sri Lanka Dr Felix Neumann said that this Travelling History Museum is an opportunity for people to see and hear lived experiences. “This gives life to events and narratives which people can relate to, thereby, showing that lived experiences of the people in different parts of the country can be similar and relatable,” he added. 

When asked about the feedback from visitors, the Museum organisers said that a majority of visitors say that they are now able to see history differently. “They also see the importance of seeing things from different perspectives to understand history. Another popular point of feedback is that commonalities between different people and their stories can be clearly seen across differences like race, religion, and socio-economics,” an official told the Daily Mirror. 

The ‘It’s About Time’ Travelling History Museum is implemented by Search for Common Ground (SFCG) with the Collective for Historical Dialogue and Memory (CHDM) playing a technical advisory role. The initiative is supported by the Strengthening Social Cohesion and Peace in Sri Lanka (SCOPE) programme. The Museum was designed and piloted by CHDM’s predecessor Historical Dialogue, which was part of the Strengthening Reconciliation Processes in Sri Lanka (SRP) programme. Both SRP and SCOPE are co-funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and the European Union and implemented by GIZ in partnership with the Government of Sri Lanka.
The organisers request interested visitors to dedicate one hour to enjoy the journey through history so that everyone would have something to take back home. 

The Museum can be viewed from 8.00am – 5.00pm and is free-of-charge for everyone.