Dong Dinh Museum – Keeping the memory of marine culture

People from Nam Tho – an ancient fishing village (Tho Quang ward ,Son Tra district, now) has quietly collected each item which associates with the seafaring activities life as a way to hold their memories, beautiful stories of their village, their fathers and of themselves.

Telling the story of their Village

Born and growning-up in Tho Quang coast, the idea of building a small room but nicely where displays items of fishing village of the Middle, which photographer My Dung has performed during the past 10 years in the basement of his house. The room is about 40m2 wide and 2.2 m high. The background is covered by white sandy taken from the sea. Mr. My Dung said that when the room were built, he must dig the deep soil layers to about 1.5 m .

“Building this basement, I want to keep the culture of marine village, which associates with my father‘s childhood and his career,” Mr My Dung said. In the small basement, the marine tools have been collected in many coasts in Da Nang which are formed fairly artistic. The round boat covers a large area in the basement, which Mr My Dung bought bamboo and rent aboriginal knitted on the spot. The most favorite item of Mr My Dung in the room is the fermented gourd. Mr My Dung told that the ancient coastal fishermen used gourd to brought fishes and fermented to the mountainous area to exchange for rice, cassava to take down. Fishermen also signed their name or the name of their children on the gourd to distinguish and avoid from being stolen and as Squid, Rice … – the simple name brought their rustic desire to avoid disaster. “Look simply, but with ancient seafarers, fermented gourd is very precious ,” Mr Dung said .

In all the corner of the basement, Mr My Dung exhibited artistry photographs associated with sea taken by him. Most impressive photos of marine life is probably the photograph of an elderly woman standing in front of the sea when rising a sea storm. With one bunched, one dropped – trousers, and slumped hats wearing, seeing from her back we could relize that she is looking far into the sea . Mr My Dung said : ” She is looking forward to her husband .” as a sentence remembered acrossly: ” Get married to seafarer, soul hang on spar “

Thinking about a Marine Museum

Leaving the room of Photographer My Dung which is full of marine memories, we went to Dong Dinh Museum , where has the ” Fishing Village Memories House ” – the heart of a poet, journalist – director , Meritorious Artist Doan Huy Giao , owner of Dong Dinh Museum, who owns hundreds of exhibits and artifacts of historical value and archeology . With Meritorious Artist Doan Huy Giao, in the space of Dong Dinh Museum, and in many precious collections he collected over the past 40 years, “Fishing Village Memories House ” has a pecial significance, because it is a place to keep the life story of his home village Nam Tho before the breakneck pace of urbanization.

“Fishing Village Memories House” was taken over 2 years with full of materials from two sailing boats sailing of Nam Tho people. Inside the house , the items associated with the working lives of seafarers as baskets , fishing nets , fermented gourd, fermented jar hanging at first rig … are neatly furnished . In addition to the items associated with seafaring, the black and white photographs are hung in the house impress many visitors specially. Meritorious Artist Doan Huy Giao said, these are the photos taken by the French at the beginning of the twentieth century in Nam Tho village – which are the precious visual documentation of ancient ancestors’ life.

In the story with us , Meritorious Artist Doan Huy Giao repeated so many times which so-called the marine museum . He said ” Fishing Village Memories House ” reflect only a small part of the story of hí village , of seafaring . ” the Museum is a local, the regions and national identity. Marine Culture plays an important role in the lives of the inhabitants of the coastal regions in particular , Vietnamese people in general, including Da Nang – the coastal city, yet so far we have not had an ” ID card ” of this unique culture of this region . It was a great pity”.

As with photographer My Dung , the search and collection of exhibits and items related to seafaring life has never stopped . Besides the passion of photography , he will spend a lot of time to complete his own marine culture space.