APME Community Engagement

During a ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., on February 27, 2026, local archaeologist and APME F2F Fellow, Meaitiiti Erika Radewagen and president of the non-profit organization The American Samoa Cultural Heritage Collective, was awarded a certificate for the completion of the Heritage Emergency and Response Training (HEART) program held February 23-27, 2026.

Organized by the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, the training prepares cultural stewards, first responders, and emergency managers to work together to address emergencies and disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, or floods that affect cultural institutions and historic sites. The sessions offered realistic, hands-on training in the Incident Command System, risk and damage assessment, disaster planning, health and safety, emergency evacuation and salvage of museum objects, and working with the media.

Selected through a competitive nation-wide application process with almost 200 applicants vying for this session, the 24 participants, representing 18 states, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa, came from a wide variety of museum specialties and library, archives, and emergency management fields.

“I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to learn more about collections care in emergency situations and to bring these skills back to our community and our institutions,” said Radewagen.

The Heritage Emergency National Task Force is a public- private partnership of the Smithsonian Institution and FEMA’s Office of Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation. Its members comprise over 60 federal agencies and national service organizations dedicated to protecting our nation’s cultural heritage from the damaging effects of natural disasters and other emergencies.

We are excited to share that Ignatius Gerry Apriryan, APME Participant from the Irama Nusantara Foundation, has been awarded funding by the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme (EAP1749). His project, Surveying pre-independence Indonesia’s popular music archives in Haryadi Suadi’s collection (1900–1950s), will document magazines, shellac records, and music sheets from Indonesia’s pre-independence period. This important work will help preserve the history of Indonesia’s recording industry and popular music culture.

The Asia-Pacific Museum Professionals Exchange (APME) has recently been featured by two U.S. embassies, highlighting the program’s success in fostering cross-cultural collaboration and knowledge exchange. The U.S. Embassy in Honiara (Solomon Islands) spotlighted participant Grinta Ale’eke Bemama, an ethnologist at the Solomon Islands National Museum, and her reflections on heritage stewardship. We are excited to see the program recognized internationally, and we look forward to continuing these conversations across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

The Asia-Pacific Museum Professionals Exchange (APME) has recently been featured by two U.S. embassies, highlighting the program’s success in fostering cross-cultural collaboration and knowledge exchange. The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta (Indonesia) highlighted five Indonesian museum professionals who joined the APME program in Hawai‘i this summer. We are excited to see the program recognized internationally, and we look forward to continuing these conversations across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.