The founders of the Open Museum Initiative for Water Cultures (OMI) firstly wish to honour the makers and communities who have preserved traditional boatbuilding and water cultures, and who have generously shared their knowledge, skills, and spirit to enable this heritage to be passed on for future generations.

Secondly, we acknowledge the dedicated efforts of the Safina Projects team and all collaborators since 2016 whose work has contributed to revitalising traditional Iraqi boatbuilding and water cultures and learning from this heritage.

We thank Basra Museum as an essential partner in the development of OMI, as host of the Open Museum Basra project site (ongoing) and the Maritime Heritage Gallery (2024-25, currently undergoing relocation) and as partner in OMI’s programme of ethnoarchaeological workshops and studies. Shanashil Foundation for Humanitarian Heritage Revival, and al-Turath al-Sha’bi journal are invaluable partners in OMI’s research and publishing programme.

The Open Museum Basra was launched (initially as the Material Cultural Heritage Lab) in 2021-22, thanks to the kind support of the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund in partnership with DCMS. Its collection was brought together from workshops and studies by artist-researcher Rashad Salim (from 2016) and Safina Projects (founded 2017), supported by many kind contributors including Ruya Foundation, Makiya Kufa Charity, Nahrein Network, AFAC, ACSS, Community Jameel, and ALIPH Foundation as well a series of grants from the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund.

We thank the hosts and partners of local exhibitions at other sites, including Basra Centre for Manuscripts and Heritage, Diwaniya Memory Archive, Paia Agency and Waterkeepers Iraq-Kurdistan, for their initiative and collaboration in sharing and promoting knowledge of Iraq’s water heritage.