One territory, many museums:
the emergence of a project

The territory of the Guiana shield fits between two rivers: the Orenoque river in the north and the Amazon river in the south. It is composed of 5 countries: a part of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and a part of Brazil – more specifically the Amapá and Pará states.

In addition to an exceptionally recognized biodiversity, the Guiana shield is remarkable for its cultural richness and diversity. The people living on it do not limit themselves inside the administrative borders. This transborder specificity, especially in the heritage field, is very significant.

Three museums:

The Musée des cultures guyanaises (MCG) in Cayenne, the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (MPEG) in Belém and the Stichting Surinaams Museum (SSM) in Paramaribo, curate and valorise amazing collections that have a lot in common: cultural origin, material, use...

Together, they have got involved in the Amazonian Museum Network in order to initiate and organise the cooperation between the museums of the Guiana shield. Thus, the transborder specificity of the populations and their heritage can be better taken into account and common cultural productions can be carried out.

The cooperation program also aims at building long term bonds between the museums, based on a real and mutual knowledge of the staff and collections of every institution.