2024 STEAM mela had the pleasure of hosting Zain Mustafa:
16 May 2024This year at the STEAM mela we had the pleasure of hosting Zain Mustafa, architect, cultural anthropologist and the founder of the Indus River Valley Institute (IRVI), Pakistan’s first Culture and Heritage think tank. Hear what he has to say about his Safeer session, a truly wonderful experience for all the school children who attended.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/steam-pakistan_this-year-at-the-steam-mela-we-had-the-pleasure-activity-7196769644559396865-9uxn?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios
Collaboration Announcement: IRVI Team Secures Prestigious CPF Grant with Dr. Anila Naeem for Manchar Lake Project
08 March 2024
BREAKING NEWS!
The IRVI team will be collaborating with Dr Anila Naeem from NED on a CPF grant received for a project working with the Mohanna boat house fisher folk of Manchar Lake.
Our project is the first batch of 6 projects that has won the grant.
The British Council Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) is a remarkable initiative aimed at safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage that is at risk due to conflict or climate change.
Hugely exciting!
'Edutourism' to debunk colonial histroy
Released on 13 March 2023The IRVI has adopted a unique stratagem to transform a mundane activity into an exciting learning experience through travelling to archaic heritage sites, map reading, drawing, sitting in natural environment without any chair and layers with bare feet to redevelop a connection with the ancient buildings not merely a structure of stones and bricks rather the heritage of their ancestors lost after the advent of British colonial rule.
https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/irvi-starts-edutourism-in-capital-for-explori-1657736.html
IRVI Starts Edutourism In Capital For Exploring Subcontinent's Architecture
Released on 12 March 2023ISLAMABAD, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 12th Mar, 2023 ) :Indus River Valley Institute (IRVI) has initiated edutourism based on exposure visits and architecture exploration in Federal capital for debunking colonial history of the subcontinent that is home to the world’s unique culture, traditions, heritage, arts and linguistics.
https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/irvi-starts-edutourism-in-capital-for-explori-1657736.html
IRVI starts edutourism in Capital for exploring subcontinent’s architecture
Released on 12 March 2023ISLAMABAD: Indus River Valley Institute (IRVI) has initiated edutourism based on exposure visits and architecture exploration in federal capital for debunking colonial history of the subcontinent that is home to the world’s unique culture, traditions, heritage, arts and linguistics.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2023/03/12/irvi-starts-edutourism-in-capital-for-exploring-subcontinents-architecture/
IRVI starts edu tourism for exploring architecture
Released on 3rd March 2023Indus River Valley Institute (IRVI) has initiated edutourism based on exposure visits and architecture exploration in federal capital for debunking colonial history of the subcontinent that is home to the world’s unique culture, traditions, heritage, arts and linguistics.
https://pakobserver.net/irvi-starts-edu-tourism-for-exploring-architecture/+921HeritageTalks: Understanding Heritage through Ethical Tourism
Released on 3rd Feb 2023
921HeritageTalks is a project of Pakistan Chowk Community Center (PCCC), founded and conceptualized by Arch. Marvi Mazhar, where we are going to hold discussions and webinars every six months with panelists to discuss their field experience and research.
Preservation of heritage sites demands foremost an acknowledgement of its existence, and a sense of belonging and ownership among those who claim to inherit it, as the basis for any substantial conservation work. Areas where official institutions have lacked in properly educating the public, individuals have arisen to provide alternatives, like education oriented tourism.
Educational tours, and a collaborative approach that involves local indigenous communities, which live in and around the heritage sites, can be considered as an alternative to commercial models of tourism. Instead of commercial consumption, can ethical tourism become a dissemination point for cultural knowledge, mobilize communities in this regard and thus by doing so push regulatory bodies to take better care of our heritage sites?
Given the political leadership of Pakistan is busy in rebranding Pakistan, specifically Northern Pakistan, as a tourist attraction on the world scale. However, the fast tourism that is promoted here has shown its ugly consequences in the form of heavy littering in Northern Pakistan and the imbalance of power between the natives and the tourists that leads to it. Questions arise, like how can one weave together systems of sustainable tourism that aren’t extractive, protect local systems of knowledge, are inclusive and help us build a sustainable relationship with our heritage?
About Indus River Valley Institute
Released on 29 Jan 2023The Indus River Valley Institute (IRVI) is Pakistan’s first culture, heritage & identity think tank to reclaim the lost roots to our ancestors who passed through the Indus River Valley or settled there over millennia.
RSPs Annual Strategy Retreat
Released on 18th to 201h Jan 2023
Zain Mustafa presents:
Resistance to Resilience – Architecture & Mental Health
+921 Heritage Talks
Released on 24th Jan 2023IRVI is in partnership with PCCC as collaborating in developing the webinar Summer 2023. Zain Mustafa is already on the advisory board of PCCC.
https://www.pakistanchowk.com/921-heritage-talks
Collaboration with Earth Group Global
Released on 05 Oct 2022
Earth Group Global is dedicated to aligning us with vital Earth systems on which the health and well-being of all life is based. We focus on what and how we make, especially Architecture and its connections to you, to bioregions, and to the Earth.
Earth Group Global collaborates with Zain Mustafa’s Cultural Think Tank, the Indus River Valley Institute for Research & Development, because of the extraordinary world-wide significance today of Pakistan’s Heritage Architectural Sites. These Indus River Valley sites are vital links in a world-wide system that regulates the Earth’s life supporting energies.
September 2022
Damaged Mohenjo Daro At Risk Of Being Removed From World Heritage List
Released on 16 Sept 2022IRVI Founder Zain Mustafas comment for Dawn News TV on the present condition of the Indus Valley Civilization’s largest city Mohenjodaro, damaged due to the unprecedented flooding which has drowned 1/3 of Pakistan as a result of global climate change.
News
August 2022:
IRVI (Indus River Valley Institute) is launched in Islamabad. The institute is the culmination of 10 years work done by Cube Edutours, created by Founder IRVI Zain Mustafa in 2012.
The monthly IRVI newsletter will be available here. This newsletter will not only share an update on the research & development work happening at IRVI but also relevant newsworthy items we have discovered which mainstream media may not have published.