The opening last week of Alpha Mercy Historical Centre at the Convent of Mercy Academy ‘Alpha’ campus in Kingston is much more than the unveiling of another cultural facility. It is a reminder of the enormous value Jamaica stands to gain when we preserve our history, tell our stories well, and make them accessible to generations that did not live them.

The Sisters of Mercy deserve commendation for establishing the museum, which chronicles their contribution to education, health care, social outreach, and the care of vulnerable Jamaicans. Their work demonstrates that museums need not be grand national institutions to be meaningful. They can begin with a community, an institution, or a defining chapter in our history and, in doing so, illuminate the wider Jamaican experience.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness was therefore right to stress at the opening that preserving Jamaica’s history must be treated as a national priority. His observation that our historic buildings, institutions, documents, traditions, and stories constitute national wealth is particularly important because, as he rightly said, once lost, much of that wealth cannot be recovered.

“Preserving them is, therefore, not an exercise in nostalgia; it is an investment in identity, education, and national confidence,” the prime minister said.

“Young Jamaicans should know the institutions that helped to shape their country. They should know the stories of Jamaicans who saw problems in their society, took initiative, took ownership with passion, and did something about it,” he added.

We applaud.

Museums, though, are not merely repositories of the past. Properly outfitted, professionally managed, and imaginatively presented, they can be powerful engines of local development.

The global evidence is compelling. The National Museum of China in Beijing attracts about 6.96 million visitors annually, while the Louvre in Paris draws about 8.7 million. The three most visited museums in the United Kingdom collectively record 17.38 million visits. These institutions are cultural treasures, certainly, but they are also major economic assets, drawing visitors who spend on accommodation, food, transportation, shopping, and other services.

Jamaica, of course, could not expect to replicate those numbers but we should recognise the opportunity.

A network of well-designed museums across the island could help to attract tourists beyond the traditional resort corridors, generate revenue, stimulate small businesses, create jobs, regenerate communities, and deepen appreciation of our cultural diversity. Just as importantly, museums can help reinvent the identity of places by connecting communities to the stories that made them what they are.

This is why Prime Minister Holness’s vision of a wider network deserves support. A national museum in Morant Bay focused on post-Emancipation Jamaica and the 1865 conflict; a museum in Port Royal; a western Jamaica institution dedicated to National Hero Sam Sharpe and the Christmas War; a national sports museum; and a museum celebrating Jamaica’s extraordinary musical heritage would collectively give the country a richer and more geographically diverse cultural map.

We particularly welcome the prime minister’s insight that this programme must not be driven solely by tourism. Museums must first serve Jamaicans, especially children, by making history engaging, accessible and relevant. If young people can see, touch, hear and experience the stories of those who came before them, history ceases to be a collection of dates and names and becomes part of their own identity.

That matters at a time when, as Mr Holness rightly noted, young Jamaicans can sometimes look elsewhere for people to admire because we have failed to adequately celebrate our own heroes and institutions.

The Alpha Mercy Historical Centre is therefore a welcomed beginning. We hope the Government follows through on its promise to build the wider museum network and does so with the same seriousness that the Sisters of Mercy have brought to preserving their legacy.

Jamaica’s rich history , properly preserved and presented, is an asset to be invested in –— for education, identity, inclusion, tourism, and development.

We should invest accordingly.