Esther Chipashu

Esther Chipashu

Curator of Ethnography, National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Biography:

Esther Chipashu is a Zimbabwean heritage practitioner, historian, ethnographer, researcher, and museum curator with extensive professional experience in cultural heritage management. She currently serves as Curator of Ethnography at the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences under the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ), where she is responsible for the research, documentation, conservation, exhibitions, and promotion of Zimbabwe’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

She holds a Master of Arts in Heritage Studies and a Bachelor of Arts Honors Degree in History from the University of Zimbabwe. Her professional development includes international training in cultural heritage documentation through the ICOM-CIDOC Summer School at Texas Tech University, USA, and specialized conservation training with the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) and the Beijing Palace Museum.

She has made significant contributions to the heritage and museum sector in Zimbabwe. Her work encompasses ethnographic research, oral histories, genealogies, and heritage inventories. She has also contributed to government investigations on traditional leadership histories and chieftainship claims.

Internationally, Esther has represented Zimbabwe at conferences and professional forums in the United States, United Kingdom, Croatia, Namibia, Romania, Turkey, Chile, and Ethiopia, presenting papers on museum practice, ethnographic collections, conservation, and cultural identities. She served on the Board of the International Council of Museums Committee for Museums and Collections of Ethnography (ICME) from 2016 to 2019.

A dedicated advocate for heritage preservation, Chipashu continues to promote the safeguarding, documentation, and interpretation of Zimbabwe’s diverse heritage for present and future generations.