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CI Times Weekly | Current Issue 439|23 March 2012

Safeguarding our Cultural Heritage

The second day of the 2012 Sub-Regional Information and Network Meeting for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Safeguarding in the Pacific took place at Club Raro on Thursday.
Raising public awareness
An important area identified by participants was raising public awareness and knowledge of what ICH is. It was noted that one of the best ways of doing this is by using diverse sources of media to disseminate information to the public. Some of the suggested ways included print publications, photography exhibitions and documentary screenings. One of the reasons why public knowledge on the subject is vital is because documentation of ICH requires substantial community involvement and consultation, since the knowledge that is being preserved comes from individuals within the community anyway. The nature of ICH means that a long-term commitment is needed from those involved in the safeguarding of it and this commitment will need to continue for generations to come.
Regional strategic plan
Participants discussed the importance of developing a regional strategic plan, in parallel planning with the development of ICH information systems guidelines within each country. The process has been started on the development of a broad and comprehensive regional strategy for ICH Safeguarding, but it was noted that part of this will involve continuing to lobby other Pacific nations to ratify the 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of ICH and ensuring those countries that are in the process of ratifying the convention do so as soon as possible. Obligations of State Parties under the UNESCO ICH Convention will be used to form the regional strategy.
Safeguards
Weonmo Park, Chief of Information and Research Section for the International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP), made a presentation on the progress made in Korea in ICH safeguarding. The Korean government first began documenting ICH in 1964 and Park noted that in their approach the main guiding principle is ensuring preservation of elements of cultural heritage “in their original forms”. Park commented that when it comes to ICH, because often the elements only exist orally, they are “especially vulnerable and endangered in today’s quickly evolving, industrialised and urbanised society.” For this reason, in Korea the government distinguishes ICH into two main categories. The first is Important Intangible Cultural Heritage, which encompasses those elements that are of particular cultural significance and/or may be “more severely threatened than others by the changing environment”. The second is Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage. According to Park, in 2011 the number of items listed as Important Intangible Cultural Heritage was 114 and the number of items listed as Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage was 446. In 1964 the number of Important Intangible Cultural Heritage items was just seven, but it shows the time-consuming process involved when it is considered that it has taken nearly fifty years to document just over one hundred items. In Korea, the medium of film has been the predominant way of documenting many ICH elements. Park noted in his presentation that the UNESCO ICH Convention sets out broader definitions of ICH than the Korean Government’s current system. Korean authorities are now working with ICHCAP to use the convention to widen their documentation and preservation of ICH in the country. Park also remarked that it was “the will of the government” that was the most important factor in ensuring preservation of ICH.
The way forward
Pacific participants were encouraged to input ideas for the way forward for ICHCAP. This is to ensure that any information systems guidelines developed by ICHCAP can be tailored specifically to the Pacific Region. Sonny Williams noted that the Cook Islands has already been in the process of digitising ICH materials for future preservation, however it was acknowledged that a sound database system needs to be developed so that the ICH data collected can be easily accessed. Representatives from ICHCAP said that it was important for countries in the Pacific region to coordinate efforts on the development of information systems and encouraged participants to continue dialogue with each other on the experiences and challenges faced by each country.
The Fiji experience
Sipiriano Ranuku of Fiji presented a look at Fiji’s experience in strengthening their ICH Database. One aspect touched on by Ranuku was the collecting of ICH data within the community. He noted that those engaged in this fieldwork needed to be people who had extensive experience in working with communities and who could understand the sensitivities of those who were ‘keepers’ of the knowledge being documented. Funding sources in the building of ICH information systems in Fiji included UNESCO funding, assistance from ICHCAP as well as Global Environment Facility (GEF) funding.
Main activities of ICHAP
Dr. Seong-Yong Park, Assistant Director for ICHCAP, presented a summary of ICHCAP’s main activities. These activities include collecting information on ICH safeguarding, building ICH archives and developing cultural atlases, video documentation of ICH, assisting in the establishment of ICH Safeguarding systems and policies within each country and the restoration and digitisation of ICH related technologies. ICHCAP also continues its work in holding international conferences and expert meetings and it was recommended by some participants that ICHCAP provide assistance on technical training in developing online information systems for ICH. Dr. Park said there was definitely a possibility for some training to take place at the next networking meeting in Korea. In the long term it is hoped that future collaborative work will take place in the Pacific region, in the area of online-based information systems in ICH Safeguarding.
Presentation of gifts
The meeting concluded on a positive note and gifts were presented by the Ministry of Cultural Development to all international participants. The Director of ICHCAP, Dr. Samuel Lee, presented gifts to Sonny Williams in acknowledgement of not only his efforts in coordinating the meeting, but also in his ongoing efforts in the field of ICH Safeguarding in the Cook Islands and regionally.

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