Goa Smiles through His Ancient Collection

by JOAO SOUSA M
Posted on 2009-01-23
In this modern age where Goa and Goan heritage is being destroyed, Goa can still afford to smile, thanks to an inspirational effort by Mr Victor Hugo Gomes, whose vision has led to creating Goa’s first ethnography museum at Benaulim, which will be the home to around 40,000 odd items ranging from ancient agricultural tools to ancient jewellery to ancient pottery.
Mr Gomes dared to dream of collecting the ancient objects artifacts etc, never realising that someday he will come up with a museum, ‘Goa Chitra’. He said that his journey has not been easy as people from the village ridiculed him and even mocked him, never believing in his abilities.
The collector informed that his love for antiques dates back to his childhood days after he was inspired by his mother, who used to take care of the old things in the house. He recalls how curiosity led him to find out more about the ancient tools that were being used at his own house which led him to the store room, a place where children were not allowed, where he stumbled upon ancient teasures.
He said he spent over three years away from home and while he was in Lucknow, he used to observe that every Sunday antiques from the ‘nawabs’ homes were being put on sale, which used to attract a lot of people from all over the country, which further added to the curiosity, ‘Is this also happening in Goa?’
He later returned to Goa and set up the Christian art museum. At the time, he visited every church to identify, document and to collect exhibits and in the process realised that the churches in Goa had a lot of treasures that were being destroyed due to neglect.
He said it hurt him a lot and he wanted these things to stop and he suggested that every church has its own museum while the Christian art museum remains as the mother museum. But things didn’t work out and he eventually quit in 1994.
Mr Gomes said, “The Goa Chitra museum is an answer to a lot of unanswered questions, which I wanted to find.” He said that the aim of the museum is to collect, restore and document traditional implements, tools and material culture of the Goan people for the contemporary society.
Mr Gomes also informed that the museum aims and documents empirically, traditions and their accompanying rituals for research, to acquaint  people with the level of indigenous and environmentally technology that was used by our ancestors to live a sustained lifestyle and connected  to nature among others
He suggests, “For the love of Goa and its artifacts etc, the government should make ethnography as a subject. The students are thought the history of India and the world, but not Goa, which is very sad.”
He said that this museum will also help in protecting the Goan identity. Besides the museum, he is also looking forward to documentation based on the oral history and will cover things that have never been written before. The museum will be inaugurated shortly, but before that one has to salute this man for preserving Goa for posterity.