Events and meetings on intangible cultural heritage (co-)organized by UNESCO

The workshop, organized by UNESCO Maputo following the similar workshop organized by UNESCO Dar es Salaam in Antananarivo, aimed at designing practical tools for inventorying ICH in Portuguese speaking countries in Africa. It also included the discussion concerning the safeguarding of ICH.

The workshop consisted of the following three main activities:

1. Presentation and discussion of conceptual and methodological issues regarding ICH, such as:
   • UNESCO’s 2003 Convention;
   • Relevant aspects of anthropological theory,
   • General methodological guidelines for cultural inventories.
   • Problems of ethics and of social responsibility in inventory making.
2. Presentation and discussion of the “state of the arts” regarding the context(s) for which the inventory is being planned.
3. Designing inventory tools for pre-test and delineation of basic aspects of the inventory project. The work implied taking specific project decisions concerning the following items:
   • Elaboration of a preliminary list of ICH elements, on the basis of the participants’ previous knowledge of their country’s (or region’s) cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity;
   • Identification of the domains covered by the inventory, as well as types and categories of ICH elements if applicable, which implies a critical appreciation and possible widening of the above mentioned preliminary list;
   • Delimitation of the area where the pre-test and future inventory will be undertaken,
   • A basic planning of the pre-test.

The workshop was attended by 25 participants from 4 countries: Angola (1), Cape Verde (1), Sao Tomé e Principe (1), and Mozambique (22), Dr. Antonio Augusto Arantes Neto (anthropologiest), and staff of UNESCO Maputo.

• List of participants: Portuguese
• Report: Portuguese

The workshop, organized by UNESCO Dar es Salaam in cooperation with the Direction de l’Identité, des Traditions et de l’Innovation, aimed at designing practical tools for inventorying ICH in Madagascar. It also included the discussion concerning the safeguarding of ICH.

The workshop consisted of the following three main activities:

1. Presentation and discussion of conceptual and methodological issues regarding ICH, such as:
   • UNESCO’s 2003 Convention;
   • Relevant aspects of anthropological theory,
   • General methodological guidelines for cultural inventories.
   • Problems of ethics and of social responsibility in inventory making.
2. Presentation and discussion of the “state of the arts” regarding the context(s) for which the inventory is being planned: cultural formation of the country (or region), existing heritage legislation and preservation practices, lists and present condition of safeguarded heritage, main programs and projects that are being developed in this field and perspectives for the safeguarding of ICH in near future, particularly in terms of inventory making.
3. Designing inventory tools for pre-test and delineation of basic aspects of the inventory project. Besides the production of inventory observation tools, these activities were a pedagogical exercise aiming at the development of the participants’ awareness of the complexity of ICH, its deeper symbolic meaning for their fellow countrymen and its importance in terms of their social, political and economic realities. This aspect of the work implied taking specific project decisions concerning the following items:
   • Elaboration of a preliminary list of ICH elements, on the basis of the participants’ previous knowledge of their country’s (or region’s) cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity;
   • Identification of the domains covered by the inventory, as well as types and categories of ICH elements if applicable, which implies a critical appreciation and possible widening of the above mentioned preliminary list;
   • Deli

In view of the complicated nature of the process of inventory making, the somewhat contradictory practices carried out so far and the profound impact that this process eventually implies on local, national, and international level, and bearing in mind that the best practices of international cooperation involve meetings of deliberation by equal parties, we convened the current regional seminar to analyse, exchange experience and debate on the issues of inventory making. This meeting brought together experts representing different regions of Europe, largely combining the expertise and practices of Eastern and Western Europe. The rather limited regional scope is simultaneously covering relatively similar, yet also distinctly diverse historical experience that would hopefully provide a good basis for fruitful discussion.

• Background paper, agenda and provisional list of participants (English)
• Presentations
  • Introductory presentation by Kristin Kuutma: Making Inventories: A Constraint or an Asset? (English)
  • Irina Balotescu: Inventory Making in Romania (English)
  • Dace Bula, Signe Pujate : ICH inventory in Latvia: experience reconsidered (English)
  • Christian Hottin : Inventories of Intangible Cultural Heritage in France (English)
  • Valdimar Tr. Hafstein : Recognizing Intangible Cultural Heritage in Iceland (English)
  • Agnes Kovacs Biro: Inventory Making in Hungary (English)
  • Vida Šatkauskiene: Lithuanian National ICH Inventory (English)
  • Magnure Velure : Outline for a solution in Norway (English)
  • Ulrike Kammerhofer-Aggermann, presented by Maria Walcher: Inventory Making in Austria (English)
  • Alla Stashkevich: Belarus (Russian)
• Summary report, by Magne Velure (English)
  

Organized by the Estonian National Commission for UNESCO - Contact: Margit Siim

The meeting’s purpose was to invite experts to discuss a number of matters of fundamental importance related to the two lists to be established under the 2003 Convention, as well as examine and debate draft inscription criteria for those lists. Of the 30 experts, most were nationals of States Parties to the Convention, and 13 came from States Members of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The debates and results of the India meeting were intended to assist the Secretariat and the Committee in their work on the elaboration of criteria for inscription of ICH elements on the two lists of the Convention, sharpening arguments in favour of and opposed to several options concerning the nature of the lists and the relation between them. The experts were asked to discuss alternatives and to present the strongest possible arguments in favour of opposite positions in order to facilitate preparation of draft documents by the Secretariat for presentation to the Committee at its coming sessions in China and Japan. The draft documents that the Committee will consider have been improved substantially as a result of the lively debates and productive suggestions of the experts.

The meeting was made possible with the generous support of the Government of India, supplemented by a contribution from the Norwegian FIT for ICH that permitted funding of travel of participants from developing countries. The meeting also benefitted from the logistical support and facilitation of the Ministry of Culture of India and UNESCO’s New Delhi Office.

• Agenda (English|French)
• Background paper (English|French)
• Working document : Possible Criteria for the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding ( in preparation - in preparation - in preparation - in preparation|English|French)
• List of participants (English)
• Report of the meeting (English|French)

The Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development (UAE) and the UNESCO Intangible Heritage Section, a Regional Meeting for Arab States was organized on the ‘Implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: Inventory-making’ in Abu in Abu Dhabi from 31 March to 4 April 2007. The objectives were to:

• examine different questions relating to the implementation of the 2003 convention;
• exchange of experiences in the field of methodologies for the establishment of national inventories
• discuss of safeguarding approaches of intangible cultural heritage: legal, administrative and safeguarding mechanisms of ICH in the Region

Representatives and experts from the 18 Arab countries took part in the meeting, in addition to UNESCO representatives, and regional organizations: ALECSO (Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization) and ISESCO (Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and three international participants from Japan, Mali and Vietnam.

A Photo Exhibition of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was held at the same dates that the Abu Dhabi Book Fair. The meeting and the exhibition were organized under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al-Nahyan, the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH).

• Agenda (English)
• Recommendations (English)
• Presentations
  • Mr Nguyen Kim Dung: Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding System (English) and inventory making in Viet Nam (English)
  • Mr Abdoulaye Sanogo: Malian Experience in Inventory Making and the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (French)
  • Mr Satoru Hyoki: Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Japan - Systems, Schemes and Activities (English)

At this meeting specialists and community members shared and discussed concrete practical experiences and insights into how educational efforts can be deployed to strengthen the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.

The meeting focused on two areas: K-12 (basic and secondary) and non-formal education for the continued or renewed transmission of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in communities, and educational awareness-raising about ICH among young people.

The meeting intended to make contributions to the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and placed particular emphasis on education, awareness-raising and capacity-building as safeguarding measures.

Finally, the participants formulated a set of recommendations on strategies and priorities for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage through education.

• Final recommandations (English)
• Experts’ Reports:
  • Ms. Olivia CADAVAL Borderlands: A Case Study (Texas, USA)
  • Mr. Jorge ISHIZAWA Iskay yachay / paya yatiwi (two kind of knowledge in the rural schools of the Central Andes of Peru
  • Mr. Jacobs A case: Un-touchable (Belgium)
  • Ms. Anyango Okwach CHAKRUOK Centre for His Story in Art and Development, Kenya
  • Ms. Anita PUNAMAE Heritage communities in South-Estonia: Võro-Seto
  • Ms. Tran Thi Thu THUY Transmitting Skills and Strengthening Traditions: Experience of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
• To download Experts’ Reports, please consult the page maintained by ACCU:
  http://www.accu.or.jp/ich/en/reports/reports1.html

The second meeting organized in the framework of the “Capacity-building for safeguarding languages and oral traditions and expressions in sub-Saharan Africa” project brought together thirty experts from twenty-one African countries and representatives from university departments and national research institutions specialized in African languages.

The meeting focussed on concrete cases, examples and lessons encountered by African experts involved in recent activities relating to the safeguarding of endangered languages.

At the end of the session, a series of concrete recommendations for a future strategy for the safeguarding of endangered languages in Africa were drawn up. These recommendations will also contribute to UNESCO’s ongoing efforts to compile a Register of Good Practices in Language Preservation.

The project is funded by the Government of Norway.

• Detailed agenda (English)
• List of participants (English)
• Final report (English)

Related programmes: Endangered languages

Sub-regional meeting for West Africa to promote the 2003 Convention. Its objectives were to:

• inform participants about the preparation of the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the international level;
• discuss ways in which the Convention may be implemented at the national level, focussing on inventory-making and other safeguarding activities;
• share information and experiences.
  

The sub-regional meeting was organized by the UNESCO Office in Dakar and the Culture Sector’s Intangible Heritage Section.

• Agenda: English|French

The meeting, co-organized by the UNESCO Office in Yaoundé and the Culture Sector’s Intangible Heritage Section, was attended by twenty participants. Its objectives were to:

• inform participants about the preparation of the implementation of the Convention on the international level;
• discuss ways in which the 2003 Convention may be implemented on the national level, focussing on inventory-making and other safeguarding activities ;
• share information and experiences.

List of participants (French)

This meeting, organized by the UNESCO Office in Dar es Salaam and the Culture Sector’s Intangible Heritage Section, was attended by 35-40 participants from 23 African countries. Its objectives were to:

• inform participants about the preparation of the implementation of the Convention on the international level;
• discuss ways in which the 2003 Convention may be implemented on the national level, focussing on inventory-making and other safeguarding activities;
• share information and experiences.

Documents:

• Agenda (English|French)
• List of participants (English)
• Opening notes by Cheikh Tidiane SY, Director of the UNESCO Dar es Salaam Cluster Office (English)
• Speech of Hon. Muhammed Seif Khatib, Minister of Information, Culture and Sports of the United Republic of Tanzania (English)
• Presentation of Harriet Deacon: Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003 Convention and Legal, administrative and financial measures (English)
• Presentation by Dr. Ndagala: ”Transboundary cooperation and forms of assistance’ (English)
• Meeting report (English)

Contact: T. Curtis, UNESCO Dar es Salaam Office