24 Feb 2019  |   06:01am IST

Story of a Goan Collector

On the quest to find, document and educate the world about the traditions, heritage and artefacts of Goa, Victor Hugo Gomes is still on his quest- to save Goan heritage. Café meets the ‘collector’

Neshwin Almeida

Three unique museums in Goa, a top draw

for international students, an online podcast, a documentary and above all, the constant yearning to dig deep, and dig wide to discover, recover, preserve and protect Goan artefacts, before they disappear from our and memories.

The man behind all this, Victor Hugo Gomes, is Goa’s best known “Collector’, a gatherer of pieces of history strewn n Goa’s villages and towns

Victor is working on restoring artefacts from Goa’s pre World War 2 medical college, which is Asia’s oldest; he is also busy sorting his collection of sea shells from across the globe to add to his museum, while simultaneously working on a lovely homestay overlooking the river Sal in the midst of the fishing community in Betul. But that’s not only making the buzz.

The buzz is the fact that Victor was in Dubai for the launch of a documentary, namely ‘Story of a Goan Collector - The Story of Victor Hugo Gomes’, based on his life and works. While two Goan television channels are currently airing a docu-series and interviews on the life of Victor Gomes, Victor himself, along with his staff at Goa Chitra, are busy hosting students from prestigious universities like University of Bologna, University of Milan and our own Indian uni students from NID, NIFT, Deccan College, Flame University and NIIT.

At Goa Chitra at Benaulim, the brainchild of Gomes, hosts three museums, namely Goa Chakra, Goa Chitra and Goa Cruti, comprising Goa tools, old modes of transport and historical instruments and tales of Goa’s colonial past that see hundreds of Goans, Indians and international tourists visiting.

These collections, though vast, are still works in progress

An artefact a day, preserves our Goa for another day

Every Goan across the globe, known to and associated with Victor, receive a beautifully well curated and researched message with a picture of an artefact-of-the-day on a daily basis, where Victor explains the heritage tool from Goa, its usage and benefits. These are messages that relive the past and make people realise our ancestors in Goa were smart and crafty. Besides this, Victor also kickstarted an initiative called Maven Haven, aimed at enriching and widening the minds and perspective of individuals, besides inviting people from the field of international music, anthropology and other spheres to discuss heritage at Goa Chitra.

A phone call at 8am and two rings later we have a bright, energetic and chirpy Victor Hugo, excited to talk to us about so much going on at the museum. “I am so excited that every week we have over 100 students from different schools in Goa over. Telling them about our ancestors, their ideas, their plastic-free tools, their practices of reusing implements and materials, is just amazing,” explains Victor.

He tells us that in a fast developing world, Goa is getting wiped out of its past and heritage, and he’s just making ends meet to buy old artefacts, pieces of history and restore things from Goa’s past just to allow the younger generation to witness Goa’s rich heritage and culture.

“This week, I have a set of women writers who will travel across 30 areas of the hinterland of Goa and document articles, photographs and lifestyles of tribal Goans. It’s my way of celebrating women’s day and taking these women writers to see how our communities in Goa are led by women,” he says.

Victor gives us an example of the Dhangar community women, who were tormented by their men and made to walk on hot charcoal while the men would tend to the flock of goats.

Over the years, Victor explains, the men quit their traditional job as shepherds from the Dhangar community and got involved as mining labour and took to drinking, dying over the last three decades. These widowed women then took the mantle and today run their families and tend to the goats.

Victor tells us that Goa is a land where gender, caste, community and religion never mattered and the rice, curry and fish we eat have no divide on that when it’s in our plate. He uses this analogy to explain to us that Goa’s heritage is across the population and across the various dynasties that ruled us and that similarly, it’s necessary to save it all.

“I am teaching children to use our old implements, our old methods of naturally weaving and crafting from Mother Nature and not using plastic, believing we can recycle it and make a mess. If I can inspire and teach just about 25 per cent kids to bring a change in Goa, then I believe I can reverse the trend by 25 per cent to change the death of our tradition and culture. That's the key for me,” explains Victor, in the midst of his many programmes at the museum.

A parting thought: Victor himself is an ‘artefact’ intrinsic to Goa and he and his work need preservation.