Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and Culture Minister Owen Bonnici presided over the launch of “The first 35,000,000 years of my life,” a Maltese children’s book covering Maltese history.

The launch, held at the national museum of Archaeology in Valletta, saw a small audience of children from ‘Skola Sajf’, who read extracts from the book.

Minister Evarist Bartolo explained how the book is for both children and adults, and will also be found online and not just in paper form.

“The identity of Malta is not one of isolation, but one of relationships built with different cultures and religions,” the Minister said. “We are not overly nationalist to the point of intolerance, we are a diverse nation”.

Minister Bartolo argued that for one to understand Malta, one must understand the Mediterranean. In addition, the Minister explained that “Maltese history is not different between the political parties, but rather is common. To know where we are going we must know where we have been”.

Culture Minister Owen Bonnici addressed the children, and said that in order for Malta to move forward, we need to know what we have been through. “When looking back after the coming holiday festivities, we should also reflect on how far Malta has come”.

Novelist Trevor Zahra also gave a brief speech, saying that it is sad to see people from other countries forget their past. “Luckily this is not the case in Malta”.

The Ministers, prior to giving their speeches, took a tour through the exibit titled; “Malta: a great story of a small island-nation through 100 objects”.

The book is written by Vanessa Ciantar, illustrations were drawn by Martin Spiteri and was published by Heritage Malta.