People often think of culture in the form of museums or historic monuments, but in reality the survival of heritage depends on far more than just these institutions. Communities also protect the traditions, sites, and customs that make up a people’s cultural heritage. Without community involvement, many parts of cultural heritage would be lost as they are no longer needed or useful.
Increasingly, heritage managers are acknowledging that the survival of a particular site is dependent not only on heritage professionals but also on the local community.
Heritage depends on the community
While historical buildings and objects are important, cultural heritage is also defined by intangible traditions, beliefs, languages, skills, and events passed down through the generations. In this form, heritage survives only because local communities value, use and share these cultural elements.
When communities begin to lose interest in traditional customs, the survival of that part of their cultural heritage can become threatened, and can disappear as soon as a whole generation has lost contact with that knowledge. Heritage projects often aim to help communities to continue to preserve cultural heritage by encouraging the younger generations to take an interest in the area’s cultural heritage, often through education and public outreach programs.
Through festivals, workshops, and educational programs, heritage management has found that these programs allow the community to not just be informed about its history, but become involved in preserving the elements that constitute that history.
Building Partnerships for Preservation
A common method of preserving heritage today is to work with the people living in the area that the heritage project is located in. Many heritage projects today involve partnerships with local heritage, government bodies and organizations. Local people can share their knowledge of the heritage, provide local stories and knowledge not necessarily recorded in the official records and archives and contribute to the process of preserving the cultural heritage.
By incorporating local knowledge and views, heritage managers are able to make sure that local heritage management is both accurate and also reflects the priorities of the local population. Local community involvement may also encourage the wider public to be involved in preserving their cultural heritage, making securing funding and long-term preservation efforts much more feasible.
In addition to preserving the elements of cultural heritage that constitute cultural identity, by incorporating the local community as partners in heritage management instead of passive observers, heritage managers are also able to ensure the long-term relevance of their projects.
Preservation and Community Needs
The main challenge in heritage management is in finding the right balance between preserving cultural heritage and supporting the economic, environmental and development needs of the region. Growing urbanisation, the tourism industry, and infrastructure development can all put strain on cultural heritage as it is the most vulnerable in any given region and heritage sites may often end up neglected.
However, by working with local communities to find the needs of the area heritage professionals are able to create a situation where the preservation of heritage is a priority for the community as it is for the heritage professionals. Sustainable tourism, heritage tourism, and adaptive use have all become common solutions to cultural preservation in recent times.
When communities are more involved in the preservation of their cultural heritage, it is much more likely that the project will have the long-term support of the community.
Heritage Management as an Ever-Evolving Profession
As the role of communities in the preservation of cultural heritage has developed, the skills required of heritage managers has also changed. Today, heritage managers must be able to communicate with communities, manage projects, and engage with stakeholders. Educational programs are becoming increasingly focused on how to create a heritage plan that is socially and economically sustainable, while still protecting heritage. Understanding community needs and the relationships with heritage are now considered to be key skills in the cultural heritage sector.
Conclusion
Cultural heritage belongs to us all, yet without local communities to preserve these traditions or to look after cultural heritage, there is no way of protecting heritage. Cultural heritage has the potential to be an effective tool for education, but it also provides an opportunity to be preserved. As heritage managers work with local communities to ensure their cultural resources survive to help future generations connect with their past, we too can benefit from the preservation of cultural heritage.