Dear Frank Howarth,

 

  

Thank you for your words of concern - it means a lot to me and others to get such messages of sympathy from friends and colleagues around the world. I will of course convey your message within the museum community. I myself am safe and well and so is everybody else I know, but we are bound to know some of the victims as name lists get released (or at least their parents - most of the victims were just teenagers, to make this horrible incident even worse). Also the museum community was directly hurt, as one of the adult persons murdered at the island happened to be the recently appointed director of the Norwegian Maritime Museum, who for many years had been serving as the "housewife" of the Utøya summer camp and was especially mentioned as such by the Premier in his moving speech at the memorial service in the Oslo Cathedral on Sunday.

 

 

 

Fortunately it seems Norwegian society will make something good out of these terrible events - by a determination not to be overcome by hatred and cries for revenge, but rather take it as a cause for moving Norway in a direction of more democracy, more openness and more compassion. The Rose Walk vigil last Monday was truly moving, with a record 200 000 people gathering in the Town Hall Square to listen to speeches by the Prime Minister and the Crown Prince and others and all carrying roses which they later laid down all over town - the whole city is now literally covered in flowers, a very moving sight.

 

 

 

Again, thanks for your sympathy,

 

 

 

Leif Pareli

 

 

Fra: Frank Howarth [mailto:Frank.Howarth@austmus.gov.au]

Sendt: 29. juli 2011 08:37

Til: Leif Pareli

Kopi: Bernice Murphy; 'ICOM Executive'

Emne: Our thoughts are with you in the Norwegian museum community

 

Dear Leif,

On behalf of ICOM Australia, and the museum community in Australia, I want to say that our thoughts are with you and the people of the Norwegian museum community following the horrific shooting and bombing last weekend.

Australia has had to deal with something similar in the recent past with the shootings at Port Arthur in Tasmania, which was an eerily similar event to that in Norway. We have some sense of the national grieving and soul searching that will occur.

Needless to say it's a key role of museums to interpret and talk about very difficult events in history, and this will be one that I am sure will require a lot of thinking and talking in the museum community of Norway.

If there is any way in which we can assist, please let me know. Would you also pass these thoughts to the national museum association of Norway (if there is one separate to ICOM Norway) as I do not have any contact details.

Very sincerely,

Frank

Frank Howarth

Director, Australian Museum, & Chair, ICOM Australia