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council to advise the Minister on matters aforesaid; and to
provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto
[14TH MARCH, 1991]

PART I: PRELIMINARY
1. This Act may be cited as the Monuments and Relics Act.
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires"Chief Antiquities Officer" means the person appointed as such t pursuant to section
3 and includes any officer subordinate to him;
"collection", in relation to relics, means a permanent collection thereof;
"conservation" means measures taken to prevent destruction, deterioration or loss of
cultural and natural heritage of Malawi;
"Council" means the Monuments and Relics Advisory Council established under
section 5 (1);
"excavation" means the removal of any overburden deposit or the exposure of any
buried or partially buried material in Malawi;
"listed monument" means a monument which is included in a list compiled under
section 22 or 23;
"local authority" means the owner of a monument or relic, .or an institution or
organization, whether a company, or a district, municipal or city council, a church or
other religious body or any other organization, whether corporate or unincorporate,
which has a claim to ownership of a monument or relic;
"maintenance" includes the fencing, covering, repairing, restoring and cleansing of
any monument or relic and the surroundings thereof, and the doing of any act which
may be necessary for the purpose of maintaining a monument or relic or securing
convenient access thereto;
"monument"means(a) any area of land which has distinctive scenery or which contains rare or
distinctive vegetation;
(b) any structure, building, erection, ruin, stone, circle, monolith, altar, shrine, pillar,
statue, memorial, fortification;
(c) any grave, tumulus, cairn, place of interment, pit dwelling, trench, excavation,
working, rock, rock-shelter, midden, mound, cave, grotto, rock sculpture, rock
painting and wall painting;
(d) inscription or any other site or article of a similar kind or associated therewith
which is of archaeological, palaeontological, ethnological, prehistorical, historical,
artistic or scientific value or interest;
(e) any remains of the matters and items referred to in paragraphs (a) to (d)
including
(i) the site on which any monument or group of monuments was discovered
or exists; and
(ii) such portion of land adjoining such site as may be required for the

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