Danwon High School 4·16 Archive Passes Domestic Review for UNESCO Memory of the World Registration

The Danwon High School 4·16 Archive has passed the domestic review for inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Register.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education 4·16 Institute for Life and Safety Education announced on September 15 that the registration for the Memory of the World, jointly promoted by the nonprofit civilian organization 4·16 Memory Storage, which has been collecting and preserving records after the 2014 Sewol Ferry disaster, and the 4·16 Institute for Life and Safety Education, has passed domestic screening.

The "Danwon High School 4·16 Archive" contains records of the daily lives of Danwon High School students who perished in the 2014 Sewol Ferry sinking, the nation's mourning activities, and the recovery efforts of bereaved families and survivors.

Sewol Ferry Boarding and Operation Schedule of Danwon High School in the Danwon High School 4·16 Archive

These records are significant because they document the reality of a social disaster from the perspective of citizens and bereaved families, and because the process of recording itself serves as a means of healing and recovery from the pain and trauma of the disaster.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education 4·16 Institute for Life and Safety Education submitted records from the oral history project (2021-2023) on preserving the Danwon High School 4·16 Memorial Classroom to the "Danwon High School 4·16 Archive" list. The institute plans to actively communicate with the National Heritage Administration in order to secure registration approval at the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Committee (MOWCAP) General Assembly in June next year.

Meanwhile, there are currently six Korean documentary heritages listed in the Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Register: Plaques of Korea (2016), Royal Signboards of the Joseon Dynasty (2018), The Petition of Ten Thousand People and Ten Thousand Signatures (2018), Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (2022), Naebanggasa (2022), and Records of Overcoming the Taean Oil Spill (2022).