Indonesian museum battles to save quake island's heritage

GUNUNG SITOLI, Indonesia (AFP) — A private museum on the quake-ravaged Indonesian island of Nias is fighting a lonely battle to help preserve the unique cultural and heritage of the inhabitants here.

The seven-year-old beachfront museum plays host to a collection of more than 6,000 artefacts from the mainly Christian island, where many people still practise ancient animistic traditions.

Delicately-carved stone and wooden ancestral statues are on display along with earthenware utensils, sizeable architectural models of the different styles of traditional Nias' homes, ancient weapons, and impressive steel armory.

The museum, which emerged largely unscathed from a massive earthquake last March that killed more than 850 residents, was the brainchild of German-born Catholic priest Father Johannes Haemmerle.

He began to build his own collection in 1972, painstakingly adding individual items from across the impoverished island, which is about the size of Bali. The collection ...