Who preserves the memory of the nation?

The first answer to the question of who preserves the memory of the nation may seem obvious: government institutions. They are the ones that gather documents, maintain archives, restore manuscripts, establish libraries, and build digital databases. Yet this answer, important as it is, does not tell the whole story. National memory is greater than any institution and broader than any archive, for it is the vessel that preserves the nation's identity in all its official, societal, and human dimensions.

The United Arab Emirates has devoted considerable attention to protecting national memory, recognising that nations which preserve their history possess a greater capacity to shape their future. To that end, it has invested in building specialised institutions for document preservation, archive digitisation, and the application of artificial intelligence to knowledge management — thereby ensuring that historical records are safeguarded and made accessible to future generations. These efforts have undoubtedly placed the UAE in an advanced regional position in the field of digital archiving and records management.

Even so, national memory cannot be reduced to official documents alone. There is another history that lives among people — in old photographs, personal letters, diaries, oral accounts, and the details of daily life that do not always find their way into the archive. These testimonies, simple as they may be, form parts of the national narrative and may in the future serve as an important source for understanding the social and cultural transformations the nation has witnessed.

The gravest threat facing national memory is not a shortage of technology, but the loss of information before it is documented. Every day, people pass away carrying in their memories events and experiences that were never recorded; documents and photographs stored in homes deteriorate; and digital content created just a few years ago disappears without ever being regarded as part of history. Here a new challenge emerges, one that demands institutions broaden their concept of archiving to encompass community memory alongside official memory.

In this context, artificial intelligence represents an exceptional opportunity — but it is not a complete solution. It is capable of reading millions of documents, analysing data, enhancing the quality of old images, linking scattered information, and accelerating access to historical content. Yet technology, however advanced, cannot recover a document that was never preserved, an account that was never recorded, or a photograph that vanished before reaching any archive.

It follows that the responsibility for preserving national memory does not rest on government institutions alone; it is a shared national responsibility. Institutions establish the framework, universities document and research, media outlets preserve the memory of events, and members of the community contribute the documents, photographs, and accounts they hold — all of which form part of the national record. The wider this partnership grows, the more complete and accurate the portrait of the nation becomes.

The question that should occupy us all remains: do we wait until part of our history is lost and then search for it, or do we take the initiative to document it while it is still alive among us?