Keningau Heritage Museum to be officially opened

KOTA KINABALU: The newly-opened Keningau Heritage Museum has received overwhelming number of visitors since it first opened its doors late last year.

To date, over 10,800 visitors have visited the museum with 5,589 visitors recorded in the first six months this year.

The Sabah Museum is expecting that more will know about the new facility when it is officially opened by Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan and Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun on Friday.

According to the State Museum Director Joanna Kitingan, the 2,400-sq foot Keningau Heritage Museum is an added attraction for Sabah tourists and the people alike.

“It’s an annex to house exhibitions and activities but we hope to connect it with the historical Residence House in the future,” said Joanna.

Joanna added that the building began construction in 2012 and was completed late last year.

She added that with the opening, the museum would draw more youths to learn about their history.

“It becomes more meaningful to them (youth) to learn that their lineage was part of the State’s development,” said Joanna, who is the younger sister of Pairin.

The opening also coincides with the annual Crafts Exotica, which is currently ongoing in all museum branches across the State until the end of the month.

Visitors to museums this month will be treated with crafting and weaving demonstrations and traditional costume exhibitions.

“These days we’d buy the fabric and then sew them into traditional outfits. But there was a time when we’d weave the fabrics ourselves and turn them into the costumes, which look different from our modern-day costumes,” said Joanna.

She added that lucky visitors would stand a chance to win prizes during their trips to all museums over the weekends.

Meanwhile, Joanna encouraged the public to donate any items of historical value to the State Museum.

“Currently we have plenty of photographs and also artifacts from different periods of the Sabah’s development but we’d like to see more of this,” she added.

She also encouraged travel agencies to make the Keningau Heritage Museum part of their tours.

The Keningau Heritage Museum, formerly known as the Residence House, was built in the 40s to accommodate dignitaries and foreign visitors.

Joanna said that it was used by the Japanese and British North Borneo Chartered Company up to independence in September 1963 when it was taken over by the State government and turned into a rest house until 1998.

The decision to turn the structure into a museum was made in 2007. The rest house was never renovated and was only preserved to keep its historical aesthetics.

“We see it as a living museum where visitors can experience a sense of belonging to the history, especially for the locals,” said Joanna.

New Sabah Times