What do the head of the Traditional Council, a Regional Councillor, the Mayor of a city, an architect, a general practitioner, director of the Museums Association of Namibia, members of the National Monuments Council, member of the leading NGO in town, member of the Scientific Society, the city’s chief engineer and members of the local Chamber of Commerce all have in common? Omaruru’s Heritage.

On the 25th of February all these people and several more interested residents of Omaruru gathered for the day to discuss Omaruru’s Heritage and the requirements of creating a growing and vibrant regional museum in our town. The entire day was dedicated to showing the interested stakeholders in Oma-ruru’s heritage how they could establish their museum, and how under the new Heritage Act they could protect their heritage from random destruction by wanton forces of development.

The meeting was called by the Muse-ums Association of Namibia through the Omaruru Branch of the NCCI, whose Chairperson, Mr. Haynes McFadden, convened the meeting and acted as facilitator.

Mr. McFadden said, "A famous philosopher said that people who will not learn from history are doomed to

repeat it," and stressed the importance of our heritage to protect us, give us direction and courage for the future. He then introduced Mr. Reinhold Tourob, director of Tourob Tours, a community based tourism initiative in Omaruru and Chairperson of the Omaruru Heritqge Committee, the theme of whose presentation was conservation of our heritage as the basic building block of our combined culture. "We have to break down the silence between all the cultures in our society, share each’s version of the past and create a new and reconciled history upon which to build our future."

Mr. Tourob was followed by local practitioner, Dr. Dan Craven, also a believer in the Heritage of Omaruru

and the conservation of our architectural heritage, who tried to put the day’s brain-storming session into historical perspective.

Dr Craven was followed by Mr. Werner Thaniseb, Director of the Museums Association of Namibia who

stressed the importance of museums in remembering our history and heritage. "Museums are indeed treasure houses of the human race. They store the Memories of the world’s peoples, their cultures, their dreams, their hopes," he said. "Museums contribute to the development of group identity and a sense of belonging to even a national identity while they are also agents of social change."

This presentation was followed by an introduction of the Mayor of Omaruru, Mr. Mike Tjirare, who tried to explain the recent establishment of the Local Authorities Development Committee in Omaruru, and it’s purpose and how the museum committee could practically become a member of this body and charter itself through the Municipal Council.

Mr. Gunter von Schumann, Treasuser of the Museums Association of Namibia addressed the meeting on the Historical sites lying in and around Omaruru.

About the Zeraua Cemetery he stated, "This cemetery is today the most important monument on nation building in Namibia. . . . In this cemetery we have a little ‘United Nations’, and thus a monument which clearly underlines

reconciliation. . . . Here in this confined space I have counted twenty-two different Nations amongst all the

persons buried here." He then underlined some of the significant persons buried in this small cemetery: the first wife of Hosea Kutako, Natalie Kutako was buried here on 16 February, 1905. Chief Abraham /Khaukorob //Amamos of the Damara community was buried here on the 17th

March, 1900. And he, a chief in his community is not honored by a grave-stone.The first wife of Petrus Swart booi, Hanna Swartbooi, was buried here on 12 May, 1898. And these are only three of the little known graves.

Mr Florence Sibanda from the National Monuments Council was there and continued during the whole length of the conference to drop tidbits on information for the participants. We learned of the existence of the Heritage Act of 2004 \, protecting any building that is more than fifty years old. Some of the steps for protesting the destruction of historic buildings for the wanton development of the community without regard for the heritage of the inhabitants in the town were carefully explained to the participants.

The day continued with lively discussion going on around the entire conference table. At the end we shared a vision of a possible future for Omaruru, based upon development of the tourist potential of the town centered on the Mission House, Church and Cemetery Complex in the center of town being the focus of development as a tourist attraction, to be expanded with a memorial garden honoring Chief Wilhelm Zeraua, whom we consider the founder of our town as well as other places of historic interest to be protected and developed to make Omaruru a must-see tourist attraction for every tourist coming to Namibia.