On October 26-27 Kazakhstan ICH National Committee in cooperation with the Uly Tagzum accredited NGO has conducted the first online ICH Forum in Ulytau, Kazakhstan - the first medieval capital of Kazakhs. Public forum, which was supported by the UNESCO National Commission, was aimed on preservation and development of intangible cultural heritage. Kazakhstan joined the Convention (2003) in December, 2011. The intangible heritage of Kazakhstan had been recognized worldwide for last decade. Eleven elements of cultural heritage were inscribed to the UNESCO Representative List, including: Nauryz, Kazakh kuresu (traditional wrestling), traditional hunting with falcons, Heritageof Dede Korkyt, assembilng of a yurta, traditional playing of Kazakh kyi, spring holiday of horse breeders. Last year the list was amended with an ancient Kazakh game toguz-kumalak.
Academician Myrzatay Zholdasbekov, Chairman of National ICH Committee, and poet and ambassador Olzhas Suleimenov, Head of the International Center of Rapprochement of Cultures addressed forum participants. The forum was welcomed by Mr Zhenis Kasymbek, Akim (Governor) of the Karaganda Province and Ms Aliya Baysabayeva, Secretary General of the National Commission for UNESCO and ISESCO. Ms Ayzhan Bekkulova, President of the Craftsmen Union, presented recent activities of artisans and informed the forthcoming annual national Sheber contest. Representatives of UNESCO Almaty Office and the UNESCO-ICHCAP Center in Seoul shared the examples of support and cultural heritage promotion activities within the framework of global and regional projects in school and informal education and modern information technologies.
The forum compiled of more than about 70 artisans, directors of the local historic and ethnographic museums, ICH researchers and experts. It reviewed the issues of development and support of the Kazakhstan craftsmen, related trends of the local museums’ activities and the dimensions of a new UNESCO-ICHCAP project ‘Festivals on the Great Silk Way’.