Section 2

any object, whether movable or immovable or a part of the soil or underwater within the territory of

Sarawak, which has been constructed, shaped, painted, carved, inscribed, erected or otherwise produced or modified by human, non-human agency and which is or is reasonably believed to be at least fifty years old;

any part of any such object referred to in paragraph (a) which has been excavated, modified, added to, reconstructed or restored, which may be categorised as follows:

Class I antiquity are items in paragraph (a)

that have documented history or records and are one hundred years old or more;

that are deemed to be one hundred years old or more, but do not contain any documented history or records; and

any human, plant or animal remains or impressions which is or is reasonably believed to be at least one hundred years old; and

any other object which in the opinion of the

Director is of outstanding historic, artistic, cultural or traditional interest or value and ought to be preserved as a heritage of the people;

“buffer zone” means an area designated as the perimeter of the site identified and used for the purpose of protecting the monument, building or site;

“building” means any building, structure or work (whether above or below the surface of the land or water), monument, commemorative statute or memorial;

“conservation” means the process of looking after and conserving artefacts, documents, heritage site, heritage buildings or a conservation area so as to retain its heritage significance, and includes maintenance, preservation, restoration, reconstruction, adaptation, reuse, rehabilitation, approved for change or any combination thereof;

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“conservation area” means an area or site, including its buffer zone, declared as a heritage site under Part VI;

“Controller” has the same meaning assigned to it by the

Sarawak Rivers Ordinance, 1993 [Cap. 4];

“Council” means the Sarawak Heritage Council established under section 3;

“cultural heritage” includes tangible or intangible form of cultural property, structure or artefact and may include a heritage matter, object, item, artefact, formation structure, performance, dance, song, music that is pertinent to the historical or contemporary way of life in Sarawak, on or in land or underwater heritage of tangible form but excluding natural heritage;

“dealer” means any person who acquires antiquities or historical objects for resale, trade or other activity carried on for the purpose of gain;

“Director” means the Director of the Sarawak Museum

Department appointed by the Minister under section 8;

“District Officer” means an officer appointed to be the

District Officer in the State, and includes an officer temporarily discharging the duties of a District Officer;

“enforcement officer” means any officer appointed by the

Minister under section 8;

“Fund” means the Sarawak Heritage Trust Fund established under section 7;

“heritage” includes any antiquity, treasure trove, historical object, human remains, buildings, monuments, historical and cultural site, area (whether on land or ship wrecks in the territory of Sarawak), fabric, structure, ethnographic material, work of art, handicraft, manuscript, document, coin, stamps, currency note, medal, badge, insignia, crest, flag, armour, vehicle, ship, plant and animal or part of, which has a significant and special architectural, aesthetic, historical, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, including songs and dances, oral tradition, scientific, economic, environmental (modified landscape) or any other 7

subject interest or value to the State and its people and has been declared to be subject to preservation, conservation and curation under Parts VII and VIII;

“heritage buildings” means classes of building which are categorised in the First Schedule;

“heritage significance” means heritage having aesthetic, archaeological, architectural, cultural, historical, scientific, social, spiritual, linguistic or technological value;

“historical monument” means any monument which is or is reasonably believed to be at least one hundred years old and which is declared under section 33 to be a historical monument;

“historical object” means any artefact or other object to which religious, traditional, cultural, artistic or historical interest or value is attached, and includes any—

ethnographic material such as a household, trade or agricultural implement, tool or equipment, decorative article, personal ornament;

work of art or craft such as a carving, sculpture, painting, architecture, textile, musical instrument, weapon and any other handicraft;

manuscript, coin, currency note, medal, badge, insignia, coat of arm, crest, flag, arm, armour or any article of symbolic heritage significance and importance; or

vehicle, ship and boat or any other article or object in part or in whole, whose production have ceased, which in the opinion of the Director is to be preserved by reason of its cultural, religious, traditional, artistic or historic interest or value as a heritage of the people;

“historical site” means any place, site or area which is, in the opinion of the Director, to be preserved by reason of its archaeological, palaeontological, religious, traditional or historic interest or value entered in the Register under section 32(1) and declared under section 33(1) to be a historical site;

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“maintenance” means the continuous protection and care of a heritage or conservation area as distinguished from repair which involves restoration or construction;

“Minister”

means the

Minister charged with the responsibility for heritage;

“monument” means any building, port, earthwork, standing stone, keramat, cave or other structure, erection or excavation, and any tomb, tumulus or other place of interment or any other immovable property of a like nature or any part or remains of the same, which ought to be preserved as a heritage of the people by reason of the cultural, architectural, archaeological, religious, historic, traditional interest or value attaching thereto; and includes any part of the site of any monument and such portion of land adjoining such site as may be required for fencing, covering in, cordoning off or otherwise preserving any monument from damage, and also includes the means of access thereto;

“preservation” means the process of maintaining a heritage in its existing state or original form and controlled deterioration without materially changing or modifying any part or parts;

“reconstruction”

means the process of accurately reproducing by new construction, the form and detail of a vanished structure, or part of it, as it appeared at some period in time and includes full or partial reconstruction;

“Register” means the Sarawak Heritage Register established under section 32;

“rehabilitation” means the process of returning a property to a state of utility through repair or alteration, which makes possible its contemporary use while preserving those portions and feature of the property which are significant to its historic architecture;

“restoration” means the process of returning the existing heritage or a conservation area to an earlier established state or form by removing accretion or by reassembling the existing repairs with best museum practices and supervision, without the introduction of new materials;

“safeguarding”

means the identification, protection, conservation, restoration, renovation, maintenance,

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documentation and revitalization of historic or traditional matter, artefact, area and their environment;

“Sarawak Museum Complex” comprises of the following buildings:

Borneo Cultures Museum;

Museum Sarawak;

Kuching Aquarium;

Islamic Heritage Museum;

Natural History Museum;

Taxidermy Building;

Annex Office Building; and

Sarawak Arts Museum;

“State Government museums” means those museums under the charge of Sarawak Museum Department;

“territory of Sarawak” means all areas within the boundaries of the State which comprised the territory of Sarawak immediately before Malaysia Day, and includes, by virtue of the

Sarawak (Alteration of Boundaries) Order in Council, 1954 [Vol.

VI, p. 1025], the continental shelf being the seabed and its subsoil which lies beneath the high seas contiguous to the territorial waters of Sarawak;

“traditional cultural expressions” include music, dances, arts, designs, names, signs and symbols, performances, ceremonies, architectural forms, handicrafts and narratives, or any other artistic or cultural expressions;

“traditional knowledge” means knowledge, know-how, skills and practices that are developed, sustained and passed on from generation to generation within a community, forming part of its cultural or spiritual identity, excluding those traditional knowledge defined under the Sarawak Biodiversity Regulations,

2016 [Swk. L.N. 312/2016];

“underwater heritage” means all traces of human existence having a cultural, historical or archaeological character which 10

have been partially or totally underwater, periodically or continuously, for at least fifty years such as—

sites, structures, buildings, artefacts and human remains, together with their archaeological and natural context;

vessels, aircraft, other vehicles or any part thereof, their cargo or other contents, together with their archaeological and natural context; and

objects of prehistoric character.

For the purpose of deciding whether any object is or is not an antiquity or a historical object, the Director may examine it and may seek the assistance of any person whom he considers to be competent or qualified to help him with the investigation and examination.

Without prejudice to the provisions for appeal to the

Minister under section 50 or 75, the decision of the Director whether any object is or is not an antiquity or a historical object within the meaning of this Ordinance shall be final.