heritage, legacy and leadership: ideas and interventions The Cultural Leadership Programme and the Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian Heritage were delighted to present Heritage, Legacy and Leadership: Ideas and Interventions on 22 February 2008. This international symposium was conceived as a cutting-edge intervention to stimulate analysis and debate that would enrich leadership development within the heritage sector. The event brought together an eclectic and stunning mix of senior managers, practitioners, academics, policy makers, advisers and experts. This gathering of influential stakeholders produced a rich synergy as they explored the thinking, experiences and practices needed to develop bold, creative and progressive heritage leadership. By placing the challenges facing the sector within an international context, the symposium provided a rare trans-national forum. The exchange between renowned speakers and the heritage sector at large produced a stimulating dialogue, marking priorities and igniting possibilities for a dynamic and diverse twenty-first century heritage leadership. The Heritage, Legacy and Leadership symposium featured a range of engaging and sometimes provocative presentations, some of which are represented in this report. The key message emerging from the symposium was that cultural leadership is a collective responsibility and that we as individuals must strive to create, support and contribute to the leadership paradigm we envision. ‘We are the ones we have been waiting for’ was the phrase that resonated most powerfully throughout the proceedings. Doudou Diène’s thought-provoking keynote address is featured, along with a selection of the inspirational and at times challenging presentations that have been revised for this publication. Three complementary papers provide a commentary on the symposium’s value and legacy for the sector. Taken as whole this report bears witness to the aspirations and issues facing the leadership of the cultural sector in the UK and further afield. We invite you to fully engage in the symposium through this report, adding your voice and visions to the call for transformative cultural leadership.
Dame Jocelyn Barrow Chair, Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian Heritage Dr Hilary S Carty Director, Cultural Leadership Programme A key and energising message from the thought-provoking symposium, Heritage, Legacy and Leadership: Ideas and Interventions, was that change demands action. Successive speakers from the podium and the floor movingly and graphically described the vivid and inspiring opportunities that lie within our grasp. Many expressed frustration that progress has been hesitant and patchy. I agree with them. We need to be even more determined to take up the cause and work together towards improvement, excellence and engagement with all people. In a time of economic uncertainty, people and communities can derive strength, purpose and reassurance from experiences involving culture, the arts, learning and the celebration of heritage and identity. But in a modern age we simply must apply these ideas to all people – people of all backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, genders, orientations and means. Creativity and imagination can help us to see ways to remove barriers to understanding; to deploy the widest possible array of media; to see that the legacy of heritage can be understood and appreciated through a stimulating blend of music, performance, art, dance, display, study and reflection. Collections, references, information and materials belong to us all. These resources can be presented, interpreted and applied for everyone but more emphasis is needed on the approaches to making it so. The built environment is part of the story. Buildings can speak but they have to be arranged in ways that convey a welcome. Open spaces are vital too, and we need to use them dynamically as part of the expression of a truly embracing and broad-based narrative. Stresses and strains in our cities, towns and villages will not be healed by politicians or by ‘someone else’. The only people who can help fix the issues, bridge the gaps, improve lives, make things happen and realise the potential of the rich diversity in our midst, are those who read this foreword. You and me. Enjoy the report. Read it well. Then let’s act together for the sake of all people.
Roy Clare, CBE Chief Executive, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
03 contents
1 I Prologue Nima Poovaya-Smith 06
2 I Heritage and identity Doudou Diène – keynote address 10 Samuel Jones – response 20
3 I Leadership, national identity and inclusion Roshi Naidoo 24 Lonnie G Bunch III 29
4 I Leadership and change in the twenty-first century James Early 34 Patricia Glinton-Meicholas 41
5 I Transforming heritage leadership: challenges and goals Temi Odumosu 46
6 I Circles of interaction, dialogue and exchange Janice Cheddie 60
7 I Appendix: symposium programme 66
Acknowledgements 69
05 1 prologue Nima Poovaya-Smith
Nima Poovaya-Smith is founding director of Alchemy, a cultural enterprise company with a particular interest in the confluences of different cultures. Alchemy is undertaking a number of major cultural programmes in partnership with cultural, academic and public sectors. She currently serves on the Council of the University of Leeds and is a Trustee of the Beecroft Bequest. She set up the Transcultural Gallery at Cartwright Hall and previously held senior positions at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford Art Galleries and Museums, and Yorkshire Arts.
06 Three defining events have taken place transatlantic slave trade resulted in a wealth of between the staging of the Heritage, Legacy buildings, monuments and prison forts from and Leadership symposium in February 2008 Africa to the Western hemisphere. The recorded and the writing of this prologue. Barack histories of these structures, however, almost Obama, in the most thrilling presidential race invariably make no mention of the enslaved in recent history, was elected as leader of Africans who built them. arguably the most powerful nation on earth. Diène cannot fail to impress as he addresses the Lewis Hamilton greatly added to the gaiety conference without notes, speaking with here in Britain by becoming the youngest ever enviable lucidity in English, effectively his third Grand Prix world champion. And the language. He provides compelling examples of inimitable Ken Livingstone was replaced as what I label ‘victor heritage’, where the Mayor of London by the equally distinctive and dominant communities are the memorialists or flamboyant Boris Johnson. gatekeepers of heritage and the dominated Looking back on the symposium it surfaces as a communities are characterised by invisibility and series of surprisingly vivid snapshots. The soaring silence. I shiver in the bright winter sunshine. architecture of City Hall matches the imposing There is something chilling about vast swathes of conference title, rich in abstract nouns: Heritage, heritage being deliberately suppressed or Legacy and Leadership. There is something both unrecorded, a kind of cultural genocide. Even uplifting and surreal about sitting in a light-filled though it was the cultural resistance to slavery, as atrium in the heart of London, listening to Diène reminds us, that ultimately destroyed the speakers from all around the world. Local slave system. However, as Samuel Jones from governments, I remind myself, have often been Demos points out in his response to Diène, even agents for transformational change, particularly a large country like China, with its growing in Victorian and Edwardian times, and were not economic clout, is not able to impose cultural bashful about asserting their prosperity and leadership easily. Millions of Chinese read success through some rather spectacular civic contemporary Chinese literature yet those architecture. outside of China would be hard-pressed to name a single Chinese-language, best-selling writer. In fact, the keynote speaker, Doudou Diène, the Languages such as English therefore continue United Nations Special Rapporteur on their dominant hold on heritage, legacy and contemporary forms of racism, racial leadership through the supremacy purchased by discrimination, xenophobia and related their colonial histories. intolerance, alludes to architecture and its ability to retrace or deny hidden heritage. The
07 The symposium’s joint presenters include the In almost all the presentations, including those relatively new but increasingly influential from our transatlantic and European colleagues, Cultural Leadership Programme, deftly led by there is a sense of tapping into an increasingly Hilary Carty, working in close tandem with the powerful twenty-first century zeitgeist. There is a Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian noticeable emphasis on the creation of a new Heritage. It is well supported by a wide range of paradigm for diversity and minority heritage cultural agencies. As is my style with events such discourses are firmly shifted from their ‘other’ as this, I listen attentively but in a state of mild status. Academic and writer Roshi Naidoo points reverie as presentations and discussions ping out the connection between the failure to create pong slightly mystifyingly but always more diverse cultural leadership in this country interestingly from global issues such as racism and the way we conceive so-called minority and xenophobia to the importance of histories and the nature of their incorporation diversifying governing bodies of British cultural into largely unchallenged heritage narratives. institutions – a point made with particular Baroness Lola Young draws attention to the passion by Roy Clare, Chief Executive of the danger that the 2007 Programme relating to the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. In fact, Bicentenary of the Parliamentary Abolition of the Clare issues a challenge and an invitation: the Slave Trade could result in a narrowing down of Council is seeking a Chair and he wants as many issues or ‘treating enslavement as a single linear people present at the conference as possible to narrative’. Sandy Nairne, Director of the National apply for it. I ponder about the wisdom of this Portrait Gallery, points out that ‘the challenge is clarion call - will this raising of expectations lead not in 2007, the challenge is beyond that as to to even greater disillusionment and cynicism? where we shift the interpretation’. The appointment is not, it has to be said, in Roy In one of those rare confluences, the worlds of Clare’s gift. The current Poet Laureate, Andrew commerce, marketing, politics, culture, human Motion, has since been appointed to the post rights, arts and academia came together on that and I understand that there were an day. The concerted and orchestrated demand for unprecedented number of applications from fundamental change in how we perceive people who would not have otherwise thought heritage, invest in securing its legacy and ensure of applying. While I am still ambivalent about a more diverse and sophisticated leadership, has Clare’s strategy, there is no denying his was a strengthened my view that something different bold intention to engineer a genuine culture and important was happening at the symposium shift. and it was. A landmark event.
08 Barack Obama typified leadership at its most inspirational by demonstrating how the heritage of disenfranchised communities of people can become a mainstream message of hope for an entire nation, its legacy the opportunity to start afresh with new narratives and discourses emerging from the margins into the mainstream. Big historic events such as Obama’s election to the US Presidency are built on smaller historic moments such as this symposium. On this wave of collective energy and optimism, we have the opportunity to make seismic cultural shifts.
09 2 heritage and identity Doudou Diène keynote address
Dr Doudou Diène gave the keynote address at the symposium, taking heritage and identity as his theme. He explored two key dimensions of heritage: the ultimate expression of cultural interactions and the way that it has been instrumental through history in legalising domination and exploitation. Doudou Diène has recently completed his tenure as Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance for the United Nations Commission for Human Rights. He is a Vice-President of the International Council of Social Sciences and Philosophy, a member of the International Council of Auroville and the Niwano Peace Prize Committee, and a professor of Intercultural Tourism in France. In his previous role as a Director of UNESCO he led various projects on intercultural dialogue. He was awarded the Concours General in Philosophy in Senegal in 1962.
10 I suggest that we forget about the concept of a is central to building and preserving identity. This keynote speech. Keynote is such a big word is a critical issue particularly in the so-called global and suggests that I have something context. enlightening to share with you. I don’t have What precisely is a world marked by diversity? anything enlightening to deliver or any final This issue came up even as I arrived in London solution to such a complex issue as heritage from Paris yesterday. I switched on my television and identity. I just have questions and and saw your Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, reflections that I’d like to share with you. delivering a speech on the issue of granting The first thing I would like to share is that I am nationality to migrants. The comments the press Senegalese. In my country, heritage is at the heart made about the Prime Minister’s new policies of culture and we value both in a very creative concerned the concept of Britishness, its values, way. content and the role of history in its determination. This confirmed how important I have been working for the United Nations heritage is in the definition of national identity. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for around 30 years, in charge of Another example that demonstrates the intercultural and inter-religious projects such as complexity and ambiguity of this burning issue The Integral Study of The Silk Road: Roads of involves an incident that took place before the Dialogue, The Slave Route Project and Roads of Afghan war started: the destruction of the huge Faith. I was appointed in 2002 as United Nations statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan (UN) Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms Valley. of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. My mandate is to investigate racism worldwide and to report to the Human The construction of identity Rights Council and General Assembly. The most In September 2007, when I submitted my report important part of my mandate is to investigate on racism worldwide to the Human Rights racism in the UN member states and reach out to Council, I highlighted the fact that the issue of victims thus breaking their silence and invisibility. identity lies at the heart of racial discrimination So far I have investigated around twenty and xenophobia. Identity is not something that countries. My reports can be found on the UN comes from the cosmos, it is a construction. One Human Rights website1. of the challenges I shared with the Council One thing that has arisen from these experiences members was the idea that even geographical is the fact that discrimination, racism and names are ambiguous and carry prejudices. Take intolerance threatens and denies heritage, which Latin America, for example. Using this term is
1 www.un.org/rights/ 11 akin to calling Africa ‘Catholic Africa’ or Migrants must step out of any kind of ‘Norwegian Africa’ or ‘Latin Africa’. ‘Latin America’ ❛cultural, religious and, if possible, even ethnic means that the identity of that part of the world is specificity and leave it behind in order to Latin. What about the Indian Americans, the become accepted and integrated into the indigenous people? What about the African country they are entering. enslaved people who arrived later? The indigenous and the African roots of the Northern hemisphere’s ❜ identity are ignored, hidden and denied by the In the concept of Britishness, the notion of seemingly innocent geographical term Latin integration is based on the idea that those America. The people invisible in this naming are coming from outside Britain or its immediate precisely the two communities historically neighbours are coming from nowhere. It implies dominated and discriminated against in the they have nothing. They arrive naked, without Northern hemisphere. This renaming is a telling cultural or spiritual values. They have nothing to example of the role of memory, history and contribute to the country they are coming to. consequently heritage in the construction of Political leaders’ statements on integration require identity. The national heritage promoted until something very basic: that those coming from the recently in most South American countries through outside – migrants or asylum seekers, for instance their national celebrations, the naming of – learn the language of the receiving country. countries, cities, streets and squares is This is normal. But more and more countries, overwhelmingly that of the Spanish or Portuguese especially in Europe, are adding integration conquistadores. Heritage, instrumentalised in this programmes that require the foreigners or way, is the expression of the ideological newcomers to answer questions on the country’s reconstruction of memory and history in the history and values. Newcomers have to engage process of domination and discrimination. and be familiar with the broader heritage of the We need to revisit the notion of national heritage. country they are moving to and then pledge to Different groups and peoples reinterpret it accept it. The implication is that newcomers have differently. In Europe, for example, the current no values to share with, or contribute to, the dominant policies and statements on so-called receiving society. A fundamental criterion of their integration and assimilation comprise what I call integration is the full, non-critical acceptance of ‘stripped-down integration’. This is because - and the values, memory, history and therefore the here again we come back to heritage - those heritage of the receiving country. coming from outside Europe, the migrants, asylum Two profound manifestations of discrimination seekers and so on, have to literally undress at the underline this concept of integration: the border of European countries. silencing of the newcomer’s memory and heritage
12 and the invisibility of their identity. Paradoxically been legitimised by the media and scholars. This this approach to integration is the strongest redefined national identity includes not only indictment of colonialism as an enterprise of language but also undefined national values and enlightenment and civilisation because the the knowledge and acceptance of history and newcomers, most of whom come from former recognition of national heritage. One of the colonies, are considered to have nothing worth causes of the rise in racism and xenophobia is the contributing to the receiving country, which is fact that the more diverse and multicultural a often the former coloniser. society becomes, the more political leaders and scholars are tempted to introduce legislative or So we return to the idea that heritage is central intellectual barriers to differentiate between to the issue of identity. In my work at the UN those inside and those outside. over the past six years I have realised that one of the key causes of the increase in racism and The more diverse the people on the streets, the xenophobia worldwide, and particularly here in more you see this as central to the speeches of Europe, is what I call the ‘identity crisis’. European political leaders and scholars who have been countries are going through a profound identity defending national security since 9/11. These two crisis because their national identities were, concepts, identity and security, are sources of the understandably, shaped a long time ago. A increase in racism and xenophobia. country or group has to define its identity. But the prevalent notion of national identity is that which reflects the ideology of the nation state. Memory and values This is often defined by a mix of ethnic, religious The two key challenges of any multicultural and cultural components and has been the society are those involving memory and values. bedrock of nationalism and the cause of most of Memory brings me back to my first point about the bloodiest wars and conflicts in Europe. integration and the associated question of The concept of national identity is now clashing heritage. What is heritage? Where does our with the multicultural dynamic of modern society. heritage come from? Who defines it, shapes it, The challenge of diversity, particularly as it is preserves it and why? Here we touch on the expressed through non-European immigration, is critical ambiguities of the concept. considered a threat to the national identity Let me give you two examples based on my work redefined in terms such as Britishness. The in UNESCO. I launched The Silk Road Programme defence of national identity against around 15 years ago. The idea was to study, multiculturalism is the new ideology used by research, document and understand the dynamics political leaders in electoral platforms and has of interactions between the so-called East and
13 West. Africa had been forgotten in this equation. bodhisattvas’ physical features and dress, asking But it so happened that, as an African, I ran that him to examine them closely. He said, ‘Look programme. That was ideal. When we launched carefully at their features, look at their dress - it, one of the key and most original ideas was to they are Persian.’ The point was that heritage had organise international expeditions in the field, been used to legitimise national identity but it rather than simply debating in meeting rooms more profoundly expressed the interactions and the story between the so-called East and West. multicultural contacts between peoples. The expedition, which included academics, Another interesting example of heritage as an archaeologists, historians and poets among expression of intercultural dialogue is the others, retraced the route of the so-called Silk massive, beautiful and rich Angkor Wat temple Road to document more holistically the breadth complex in Cambodia. The complex is the of intercultural exchanges involving people, national emblem of Cambodia and is depicted on language, music, food, architecture, religion and the flags of various political parties and more. We studied what happened in the original communities. But following our multidisciplinary landmass we call Eurasia. We organised seminars discussions we realised that Cambodia cannot along the way with academics from the different consider Angkor Wat as a symbol of national countries we were visiting. identity as it is a Buddhist structure. The spiritual tradition from which Angkor Wat incarnated One thing we quickly realised was how Buddhism came from the place now called Nepal ❛heritage has been used throughout history to in North India. Angkor Wat is ultimately the end shape and legitimise national identity: the result of the trail of Buddhism from India to identity of one community or group was used Cambodia. It has been transformed and enriched as a model to be accepted by other groups. along the way both in its spiritual content and in its artistic expression. So Angkor Wat is the final ❜ expression of that long journey of intercultural For example, we visited Dunghuang, an oasis in exchanges between a great number of peoples the Sinkiang region on the west side of China and civilisations. where there are 400 Buddhist caves. As we The idea here is that, whatever national heritage entered one an eminent Chinese academic monument you encounter, you should consider showed us a statue of a seated Buddha heritage as the ultimate expression of a surrounded by bodhisattvas. The Chinese scholar multicultural dynamic and interaction. This point told us this was an example of their national is essential because it is the only way to challenge identity. Then one of my colleagues, a brilliant the dangerous practice of nationalising heritage, Iranian scholar, drew our guide’s attention to the using it both to marginalise communities and to
14 promote the view and identity of a given Hidden heritage community, religion or culture. We all know how Now I want to look in more detail at the way important and urgent it is to consider the heritage has played a role in something that dynamic of a ‘ghetto identity’, the ultimate Britain is very familiar with: the transatlantic slave source of stigmatisation, discrimination, racism, trade. In my work with UNESCO on intercultural and xenophobia. programmes I have identified the two features When the Balkan wars started in the early 1990s, that dominate the process of capturing and you may remember that one of the first acts of nationalising heritage: the invisibility and the destruction was the bombing of the Bridge of silence of the dominated communities. Invisibility Mostar. It was hundreds of years old and the Serb and silence - these two notions are at the heart military leaders destroyed it because they of racism. The dominated community is made considered it to be a symbol of the identity of the invisible socially, economically and politically. That communities they were trying to slaughter. Acts community’s own history and its historic of genocide are often accompanied by the contribution to its adopted country are silenced destruction of symbols of the victims’ national in the writing and teaching of history but more heritage. This is why it is critical that we challenge profoundly in the definition and celebration of a and revisit this notion of heritage and give it a national heritage. more complex meaning as a dynamic process of Two key issues in the transatlantic slave trade are encounter, interaction, exchange and dialogue closely linked to heritage. One is the fact that the between people. all-powerful trade – from Africa to the Northern This deeper understanding of heritage is critical hemisphere – can be architecturally retraced. in the promotion of tourism as a fundamental There are buildings, monuments and forts in and unique tool of intercultural dialogue - not which enslaved Africans were kept on the coast of just as an economic exercise, the way it is Africa. For example, the Cape Coast and Elmina practised today. I have been teaching this concept forts in Ghana and forts on the Island of Gorée in in a French University for the last three years. In Senegal. There are forts along the coast of South cooperation with the World Tourism Organisation America and the Caribbean. There are huge cities I strongly promote this reading of tourism, such as Santiago de Cuba, Cartagena de Indias in underlining the common heritage of the Colombia and Salvador da Bahia in Brazil. All countries of Central Asia, for example, where these are architectural expressions of the slave governments are tempted for nationalist and trade. But when you read the history of those economic reasons to infuse the notion of ‘ghetto structures, those monuments, there is no trace, no identity’ into their national heritage. mention of the enslaved Africans who built them.
15 Important places have also been hidden. When African feudal lords; on the way to the coast; in you walk through Havana, Kingston or any big the forts where they were kept before the Caribbean city, especially in this era of mass ‘middle passage’; across the Atlantic Ocean, inside tourism, what is highlighted is the sun, sand and the ships where they lay in chains; to their arrival sea. Tourists speed through in their cars but they in the Americas and the Caribbean – they were do not realise that the places they are crossing fighting back. Physically fighting back. Physical were built on violence and oppression, killing and resistance. suffering, because the traces of that suffering A fundamental dimension of resistance to slavery have been hidden. Where are the slave markets? that has not, in my view, been clearly grasped or They exist but the identity of the cemeteries and even studied and documented by historians is the mass graves, even some of the forts which are cultural resistance. In the context of the UNESCO beautiful architectural structures, are hidden. Slave Route project I have called this the ‘maroon A key point I want to emphasise with regard to culture’ – where culture was used as a powerful the slave trade is that heritage has been used to weapon to escape enslavement. I think it is perpetuate the silence and invisibility of what important because the cultural resistance to one of the key French historians of slavery, Jean- slavery was the most powerful resistance and it Michel Deveau, called ‘the biggest tragedy of ultimately destroyed the slave system. mankind’ because of its centuries-long duration What is cultural resistance? Let’s look first at the and for the number of victims - millions, tens of fact that, from the beginning, the enslaved millions. I think is important to highlight the way Africans realised that the position of their so- the physical heritage of the enslaved Africans has called masters was weak in the long-term because been reinterpreted to hide the tragedy. they were blinded by their prejudices. The masters saw the enslaved as merely a physical workforce. Muscle. Bodies strong enough to work Cultural resistance in the new lands. They selected them by touching Even more telling, I think, is another part of the their muscles, checking their teeth etc. The basic trade that has a bearing on heritage: the whole ideology of slavery, the essence of racism, the issue of the cultural resistance to slavery. We all concept that enslaved Africans were humanly and know that, despite what historians have said, culturally inferior, was the root and pillar of the from the first day of their capture until the end masters’ mindset. The enslaved realised that the of slavery, the enslaved fought. They kept masters did not see them as human beings. fighting. From the villages where they were Throughout the history of slavery the enslaved, captured in the African countryside, often by like all dominated people, kept watching the
16 masters, watching them very closely, because darkness and violent oppression. It is one of the their survival was conditional on knowing how most incredible stories of cultural creativity and the master moved, what he liked, what he did, resistance; one of the most important and how he ate, what he ate, what made him angry ignored historical episodes in the context of or happy. They kept watching in order to survive. modern human rights. The full story has not yet This is when the cultural resistance started and been told. I will give you some examples of this here I am touching on the dimension of heritage intangible heritage concerning people and that has been neglected – the intangible communities from this history. heritage. What was their cultural strategy? The enslaved could not say no or refuse anything the master If we have to revisit heritage we have to demanded. He demanded that the enslaved ❛revisit it in two dimensions. The physical or worship Mary and Christ because as you know tangible is the dimension you can see and the central institution of Christianity, the Pope, touch, such as monuments. The intangible gave his blessing to this enterprise from the dimension – the one the masters were beginning, as long as the masters converted the blinded to by their prejudice – is the one the enslaved to Christianity. Obeisance to the master enslaved relied on to survive. was deemed and defined in writing as a Christian virtue that could lead people to paradise. When ❜ the enslaved were required to worship Christ they Slavery may have been one of the most terrible could not refuse. They said ‘Yes, master.’ But – tragedies of humankind as the enslaved were and this is the most fascinating aspect of the defined by the ‘black codes’ as goods to be used, cultural resistance – they used Christ by giving killed or maimed. They had no rights because him a new identity, that of their gods from their they were not considered human beings and homelands – Orisha, for example. They renamed these conditions lasted for over four centuries. Christ. They integrated him in their cosmogony But the enslaved quickly realised that the master and their spiritual world. While apparently did not see their intangible heritage, their inner worshipping Christ, they were worshipping their richness and their inner life force. They started to own god. Their master did not see what had rely on their intangible heritage to survive: their happened. The Saint-Domingue revolution of gods, their rituals and their beliefs. Africans had August 1791, the historic combat that profoundly been taken from their lands, their villages and shook the slave system and established Haiti as a their culture but they took their intangible free republic, was itself sparked by a Vodou heritage with them into four centuries of religious service.
17 Another example concerns one of the key rules of and values to survive through cultural resistance. that period. The enslaved were forbidden to use In the slave ships they lay tightly packed side by any modes of physical resistance. In Brazil, they side. In order to survive they had to communicate invented Capoeira, which is both dance and with each other, to check whether the person aesthetic movement and also a form of martial next to them was alive, for example, or where art. But the master saw only the dance they came from. In order to connect through dimension. The enslaved used it and kept words and sounds in these awful conditions they inventing, every day, every minute, a means to invented a new language on board the ships. survive. They found a way to communicate by putting Wolof, Yoruba and other African languages Food provides another example. Cultural together to try to understand each other. Afro- resistance nourished every dimension of daily life. American slang is still full of words from these Forty per cent of the enslaved Africans landed in languages. Brazil. When their masters ordered the slaves to kill a pig on feast days the masters kept the flesh From the beginning they put in practice their and gave the enslaved the bones, thinking that traditional values of compassion and solidarity in was all they deserved. We now know that the order to survive - values denied to them by the slaves used those bones, mixed them with prejudices of the slave traders. They practiced seafood, fruit and herbs to invent a dish called their values in conditions of extreme suffering. Feijoada. This is now a main dish in Brazil. Here One of the key values that emerged from the again is a construction. transatlantic slave trade, which still profoundly permeates post-slavery societies of the Americas and the Caribbean, is the value of family. When The enslaved subverted, transformed, the enslaved left the cotton fields or the mines in ❛changed and recuperated in an incredible and the evening and returned to their quarters it was creative process of reconstruction; inventing their time for recharging emotionally at family from different elements, putting together, gatherings. Women played a central role in assembling, and giving new sense, meaning preserving and strengthening family bonds in and purpose to their daily obligations and these settings, which is why the notion of family impositions. is so strong, so important in the societies and ❜ communities descended from slavery. The ethical dimension of this cultural resistance Another key dimension that remains has also been overlooked. I have said that the undocumented is the role of women as central enslaved used their intelligence, emotions, beliefs figures in resistance, physical and cultural, to
18 slavery. Women not only worked in the cotton silent and invisible those communities that are fields and in the mines like the men; but in some dominated and discriminated against. But places, such as the island of Reunion, women heritage was, and still is, a powerful force for used herbs to end their pregnancies so their resistance and building equal, democratic and babies would not be born into slavery. Herbs interactive multicultural societies. were also used by maroons to kill the dogs the masters sent to track them down when they were hiding in the mountains. Heritage is both physical and intangible; ❛material and spiritual. The most profound Another example of creative cultural resistance is aspect of heritage is the inner heritage of the way the enslaved Africans and their beliefs, values and emotions that define our descendants invented festivals and carnivals not humanity by linking the ethical and aesthetic simply as opportunities to break their isolation dimensions of culture. and get together; but also as opportunities to exchange information, preserve cultural traditions ❜ and expressions – and organise revolts and resistance. Cultural resistance was the lifeblood of the enslaved. It permeated all dimensions of life through the centuries of darkness and total oppression. Slowly and painfully cultural resistance enabled them to recapture the humanity denied to them by the slave system’s ideology of racism. The powerful dynamics of cultural resistance, exemplified by maroon cultures, are still alive in the communities of African descendants in the Americas and in Europe. These cultures represent a profound link between ethics and aesthetics and demonstrate the multicultural dynamics of preserving cultural identities while promoting universal values. Heritage in this light is a central challenge to multiculturalism. Heritage has been instrumentalised historically as a tool to render
19 Samuel Jones response to keynote address
Samuel Jones responded to Doudou Diène’s speech by reflecting on the role that cultural presentation has to play in providing opportunities for us to think about the past and its legacies in different ways. Samuel Jones is a researcher at Demos, the think tank for ‘everyday democracy’. His work covers a range of subjects including culture and the arts, museums and galleries, creativity and the communication of ideas and knowledge through the cultural sector. In particular, he is interested in cross-cultural communications and the role of culture in international relations. He is co-author of ‘Cultural Diplomacy’ and ‘Knowledge and Inspiration’, which looked at the contribution of museums, libraries and archives to the cultural and social life of the UK. He sits on the UK Executive Board of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
20 There are two points in Doudou’s thought- year. Contemporary fiction is hugely popular, with provoking introduction that I’d particularly like around 200,000 titles published annually. People to explore. The first is the way that Doudou queue outside bookstores before they open in located heritage as both a result and the morning. The choices made by this huge manifestation of cultural interactions. In other readership reflect what life in contemporary words, it is the DNA of our identity. China is like. Yet how many people in the City of London, who are trying to do business with The second point is the idea of culture as a China, can even name a contemporary Chinese space where we encounter and voice different author? Furthermore, what do they know about attitudes, ideas, opinions and outlooks – the the cultures that all those authors represent? place where all our identities meet. Online and What does this say about our understanding of in the streets we encounter a more diverse the people we are trying to do business with? range of cultures now than we have ever done in the past. Mass immigration, the permanent Culture has always been a crucial part of how we settlement of disparate communities and global relate to each other but in recent years its media have brought lots of different cultures importance has been intensified. Socio-economic together into greater proximity. It is through developments and technology have magnified culture that we have a vital means of coming the importance of cultural encounters. A to grips with the world around us. significant step forward in our thinking would be to consider how we accommodate all the I am just as likely now to find out about China different cultures that we engage with. This is from watching films like ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden where cultural provision can play a very Dragon’ as I am by reading the leader columns of important role. the Financial Times or The Economist. That is not to say that any of these has greater truth than There are encouraging signs that this is already the other but rather it underlines the importance happening. We recently saw a commitment to of culture and how we relate to each other. We culture in international relations here in the UK need to think about what this means and in in 2007, when the Commission for Cohesion and particular think about the structures, leadership Integration1 flagged up the potential role for and policies that are appropriate within this culture: ‘It [culture] has moved from being seen context. as an optional extra to acting as a fundamental reference point for the personal and social lives Just to illustrate this, a few weeks ago I read an and the well-being of communities.’ article that really made me think. China has by far the most productive publishing industry in the Policy has begun to respond to the very different world: about six billion units are published each stories that culture and heritage can tell.
1 The Commission for Cohesion and Integration was a fixed-term advisory body set up in 2006 to consider how local areas can make the most of the benefits delivered by increasing diversity. 21 Picking up on Doudou’s comments about slavery, I about the past and its legacies in these different was reminded of an exhibition about the life of ways. It is an area where policy makers and Olaudah Equiano that I saw at the Birmingham cultural providers must continue to collaborate. Museum and Art Gallery. The curators had used I would like to take this one step further in Equiano’s story to present a very different context reference to Doudou’s thoughts on heritage as an of the city’s sense of its own heritage and expression of human interaction. It strikes me identity. The exhibition chronicled Equiano’s life that during my schooldays we understood the and journey as he was first taken from his home past by looking at cultural forms, everything from in Africa, forced into slavery in the Caribbean and pots to shoes; from documents to paintings. finally his struggle for freedom and his However, we are not taught to do this now. emergence as a prominent figure in eighteenth- Culture impacts on every aspect of our lives century London. Visitors to the exhibition were through attitudes, lifestyles, clothes, food and so presented with a very different way of thinking on and it is bound up in society as a whole, and about their own attitudes to the past. through all the cultural forms that we encounter. Much of the industrial success of modern-day We need to approach these cultural encounters as Birmingham is built upon trades that depended a form of conversation. Cultural institutions are upon slavery and exploitation. For example, many important in providing the skills by which we can of the slave ships were equipped with weapons interpret the different cultures around us. They and objects that were made in Birmingham’s own can provide the context for these conversations. foundries. So, the industrial artefacts displayed in Reading, as Doudou puts it, the intangible in the the same museum – and celebrated as a source of tangible. pride and regional identity – were at the same This is far from saying that everybody has to time presented as being intertwined in the know everything. However, it is important that terrible networks associated with slavery. cultural institutions enable and participate in The Equiano exhibition provided a public space conversations that respond to the different within which Birmingham’s black community cultural forms we encounter. This is where new could represent their own thoughts on heritage opportunities for collaboration between cultural and history. Furthermore, it allowed visitors to providers and people who present our heritage, become aware of new and varied perspectives of including policymakers and those in education, British heritage, which is of course essential to can come in. Cultural institutions have a role, not good relations within our communities. just as guardians and presenters of our heritage, but also as places where we can learn to think I think ‘cultural presentation’ has a crucial role to anew about our past and therefore the present. play as it provides opportunities for us to think
22 3 leadership, national identity and inclusion Roshi Naidoo
Dr Roshi Naidoo was one of the panel members exploring the challenges and ethical issues concerning the role of heritage institutions as custodians of history and their responsibility as mediators for shifting notions of cultural diversity and national identities. Roshi Naidoo is a research consultant specialising in cultural politics in the heritage sector. She is co-editor of ‘The Politics of Heritage: the Legacies of Race’ and she researched and wrote Exploring Archives for Museums, Libraries and Archives. In 2007 she was a member of the advisory board for the Victoria & Albert Museum’s African Diaspora Research Project, and the advisory board to discuss the Government’s response to the commemoration of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade.
24 The main question I want to address is whether Asian descent are at the centre of the county’s there is a connection between the failings in heritage – in the histories of its stately homes, the creating a more diverse cultural leadership in economies of its industries and in every aspect of this country and the ways in which we its culture. conceive so-called minority histories within the I made what I thought at the time to be the cultural and political life of the nation as a wholly non-contentious claim that Britain is made whole. I think there still is a desire to up of waves of migration and diaspora and that accommodate and incorporate difference into the legacies of colonialism – domestically and largely unchallenged heritage narratives. This internationally – require closer scrutiny and add-on approach to such histories mitigates the representation in the heritage sector. However, the development of an inclusive leadership within implication that we are all in some sense migrants the cultural sector. and, to borrow a phrase, a ‘mongrel nation’ was a The best way of explaining what I mean is by troubling idea for most people. citing a few examples from my own experience. The objections that I met from many corners - I recently worked on a cultural diversity project in although not all - were based on some complex the heritage sector in a home county. I declined issues. the invitation to work with children of African descent and talk to them about African animals at a local natural history museum - I kid you not, Proving our comfort with difference you can’t make some of this stuff up. I also The fear of addressing Britain’s diverse history in showed minimal enthusiasm for various this way seemed to be based on the worry that it multicultural festivals that were suggested. would be too diffuse to rewrite heritage narratives The parts of the project that recorded migration to locate this nation as always having been shaped stories, particularly those of Travellers and by migration. This approach would not be as easy Gypsies, were more interesting to me. But only, I as organising a multicultural event that would said, if they were placed in the bigger context of visibly illustrate one’s commitment to diversity. the county’s everyday history rather than treated How would people know that it was a diversity as an exotic add-on. project and that the museum sector was now being more inclusive if this approach were taken? I made the point that I think many of us in this room have made over and over again. Namely, It became clear in this case, and in other we should stop tinkering around the edges and experiences I’ve had in the heritage sector, that think about the ways in which, for example, the there was a preference for projects where visible histories of people of Caribbean, African and differences could be marked – for example, by
25 brown faces on websites, different dress – A genuinely inclusive approach to heritage providing the kind of evidence that allows you to ❛would mean accepting the fact that we are all tick the ethnic boxes. Without these visual caught up in the same historical and signposts how would heritage institutions geographical momentum, rather than indicate that they are comfortable with desperately trying to shoehorn different difference? Everyone is familiar with the policy histories into the same old historical document that always has a small black child frameworks. engaged in some kind of learning activity on the front! ❜ These shifts may not lead to immediate visible To be critical of this can be seen as churlish and it changes. They may not necessarily result in a lot is difficult to air some of these grievances. of minorities instantly turning up at your Audience figures for museums and archives show museum. They may not help in your institution’s that there is still an under-representation of funding application for a community project. certain groups. Therefore it is only right that However, by taking this approach you make a special attention is made to bring them in. There long-term commitment to shifting views of what needs to be a specific appeal to difference. our national heritage really is. But we also have to ask in whose interests is it to In his book After Empire1 Paul Gilroy talks about mark certain differences, and how does this work British culture being characterised as one of to secure a view of the institution as somehow national melancholia, punctuated by moments of ethnically neutral, magnanimous, inclusive and manic celebration, such as when there is a therefore universal? Is the primary focus of these sporting victory. When I was reading this I initiatives the welfare and inclusion of so-called thought immediately of a woman working on the minority communities, as they so often have us project I mentioned earlier, who seemed to believe? Or is it just as much for heritage sector occupy that place between a melancholia for a institutions themselves? past England and a pragmatic awareness of the I would be less cynical if this strategy of the need for a new voice of multiculturalism. pursuit of visible differences went hand in hand For example, she talked of the first anti-racist bus with changing the narratives around the colonial boycotts in England. But this was coupled with objects in museums. Such an approach would an acute sense of loss for simpler times, show a more profound commitment to ethnic something acted out in her participation in World minority audiences and demonstrate a clear shift War II and medieval re-enactments. For people towards new ways of framing how we all who understand British history within the binary understand our collective national heritage.
26 1 Paul Gilroy, After Empire – Melancholia or Convivial Culture? Routledge, Abingdon, Oxford, 2004 of a white past/multicultural present, it is not Englishness. To make a migrant connection with difference in its present guise that poses a threat figures such as these is in fact a very important but the fact that it was always so. step in shifting our understanding of Britishness. In many parts of the local heritage sector World What does this mean for leadership in the War II is by far the most visited of all historical heritage sector and for those of us who work as moments. And here there is space for some consultants within it? acceptance of difference. For example, while there is much talk of the ‘contribution’ of military personnel of Caribbean, African and Asian The effect of the add-on approach in terms of descent in the war, the notion of ‘contribution’ ❛people’s professional lives is this: if so-called keeps these figures at a distance from all those minority histories are the extra bits, the other heroic war figures. What if such soldiers people who do this work are perennially the and sailors didn’t simply ‘contribute’ to the war extra add-on staff. but won it? Does this interfere too much with our ❜ national myths? How do you bring these people We mostly do the short-term work; come in for back into the main narrative? the one-off projects; the special events; the talk So, our shared mongrel identity must make us for Black History Month; the temporary exhibition shift how we think of heritage. and the online exhibition. We do the work loaded at the service-delivery end, such as projects to do with perennially new audiences, Add-on histories; add-on staff communities and learning. We are seldom asked Noting and accommodating difference might not about acquisitions, for example. currently be the most radical move. It might be We are phoned up at short notice and asked to that heritage narratives which embrace a radical throw something together for a project with very sameness are more enlightening or challenging little acknowledgement given to the fact that we than those which only foreground difference. For have a field of expertise. This is most clearly example, a recent series of the BBC family history captured in meetings when it is mooted that we programme Who Do You Think You Are? located should ask communities what they would like to a migrant background not just for British Asian see within our heritage institutions. This is film director Gurinder Chadha, but also for different from consultation and dialogue with a comedian Julian Clary, actor and impressionist community. This is implying that while an Alistair McGowan, and Stephen Fry, a figure who exhibition on, for example, the Surrealists is a is widely seen as representing quintessential specialised field that requires expertise, anything
27 to do with, say, Caribbean histories and cultures comes from essentialised community knowledge. This leads us to the idea that consultation and specialist input should be provided free of charge because either the consultants are just expounding some essentialist folk knowledge, or they should wish to do things for the community as a piece of voluntary social work rather than as career development. There is also very little interest in the other things we know. I have been lucky in the last few years to work with some culturally diverse people who have broad knowledge. Some of us actually also know about European art, Hollywood films and the history of punk rock etc. But we become fragmented within the sector, our racial identities either over-determined or dangerously ignored. Stonewall is running a great anti-bullying campaign at the moment which says, ‘Some people are gay – get over it’. I think it is a sentiment we can borrow. We really need to get over the fact that some Brits are not white or of English descent. It really is time to move on.
28 leadership, national identity and inclusion Lonnie G Bunch III
Dr Lonnie Bunch was one of the panel members speaking at the session on leadership, national identity and inclusion. He addressed the challenges that affect the way American museums address questions of race and diversity and the implications that they may have for the heritage sector. Lonnie Bunch is a renowned historian, author, curator and educator. In 2005 he became the founding Director of the National Museum of African- American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. He previously worked at the Smithsonian Institute in senior curatorial and management roles and developed for the Smithsonian ‘America’, an exhibition which explored the history, culture and diversity of the United States. He also served as the President of the Chicago Historical Society where he launched a major outreach initiative for diverse communities.
29 Let me begin by quoting a letter that I received great power. While remembering really does recently. It began, ‘Dear Left-Wing Historian.’ In reveal great hurt, it also opens the possibility of the States that means you are in trouble! What healing. It seems to me we are only made better the letter writer asked me was, ‘What when we remember. Even more importantly, I am happened to the Smithsonian I love? What struck by the words of one of my favourite happened to that museum that used to authors, the wonderful James Baldwin, writing in celebrate America, that reminded us of how the 1960s in his great novel The Fire Next Time. good we were?’ He wanted to know why we He says something that I really think captures needed a museum that explores questions of what it is we need to remember. He says: race and African-American culture. Then he said something that I think is so important: ‘After all, America’s greatest strength is its ability to History does not refer merely or even forget’. He then went on to say things like: ❛principally to the past. On the contrary, the ‘…God I hope you do not get this building great force of history comes from the fact built. I hope you go away. I want the museum that we carry it within us. That we are to disappear. I want historians like you to unconsciously controlled by it and that disappear.’ He threw me off because he then history is literally present in all that we do. signed the letter, ‘Best wishes for your ❜ continued success!’ I love America, I really do. I want to take a moment and share with you some of the challenges that I think affect the way The importance of remembering American museums wrestle with questions of race and diversity, and the implications that they may The crucial point is what do we remember and have for the work that you are doing here in the what do we forget? Often we know that what is UK. forgotten in America are the questions of diversity - African-American culture as well as I would argue that no one can deny that during issues around race. I would argue that despite the last 15 or 20 years in museums all over what the author of that letter wanted America, America, the question that they have tried to or indeed any country, is better off when it answer is ‘What do you do about (and you can fill remembers. By that I mean when it remembers in the gap) African-Americans or Asian-Americans the great challenges that the country has – what do you do about them?’ experienced. What you see in these museums are literally The importance of remembering is simple. While hundreds of exhibitions that have been crafted remembering can cause great pain, it also brings during the last 15 years. While no one can deny
30 that museums have changed dramatically, I would The prism of optimism put it to you that change is on the surface. It’s I would argue that the first challenge that true to say that African-American history and museums face when they wrestle with race is issues of race are no longer on the fringe of the their failure to transcend the rosy glow of the museum profession in America. But I would past. To quote a poem by one of my favourite suggest to you that the rhetoric of change really authors, Langston Hughes: ‘Life for me ain’t been does not match what needs to happen to no crystal stair, it is full of tacks and rips and museums. uneven steps.’ This poem suggests that the path While there have been great changes in ‘who’ we to equality is not linear nor is it without setbacks interpret and what stories we tell, my major and defeats. Yet, when one looks at museums concern is simple: most of the museums in that explore race in America, what you see is the America that wrestle with race do it on a past through a prism of optimism. A prism that superficial level. Their notion is to say, ‘We want suggests that progress and equality were to explore the fact that African-Americans were somehow inevitable. A prism that says obstacles here too.’ But, as many of the symposium such as discrimination were simply challenges - speakers have already said, they are still left on hurdles to overcome - and people did that with the outside or on the fringes. Rather than some effort. That people did it because that was exploring the complexities, interactions and the going to happen in the great history of America. difficulties of race in America, in essence what I feel what is lacking here is a commitment to these museums want to do today is simply shine a explore the full range of the African-American light and say: ‘There were black people in experience. Too few museums tackle the harsh America.’ They are creating exhibitions that in realities of black life. They fail to mention the some ways would have been better 50 years ago, depths of violence in America. Too few mention because people needed to realise that there were the arbitrary abuses of power, the horrible effects people of colour in America. But rather than of lynching, the devastating effects of creating exhibitions and programmes that reflect generations of poverty and discrimination. While the clashes, compromises and the broken there are a few museums that have explored alliances, they have failed the expectations of lynching and violence, most are silent. Likewise today’s audiences. I would suggest to you that there are museums that look at the urban unrest there are primarily four challenges that really of the 1960s but again most remain silent. limit the ability of these museums to do effective work. I am not calling for museums to victimise people of colour. Neither am I saying that we should explore the negative. My point is that museums,
31 in their desire to placate criticism, have created In some ways, the challenge for American exhibitions that obscure as much as they museums is to realise that the complexity that they illuminate. In doing so the exhibitions fail to explore in other communities is the same provide audiences with a richly nuanced history complexity that needs to be brought to the that is replete with joy and success but is also ripe African-American experience. with difficulty, challenge and struggle.
Embracing ambiguity From monolith to mosaic I would argue that the third challenge is really The second challenge that I believe shaped that of ambiguity. American museums fulfil a need American museums is the inability of resisting in America. Americans love simple answers to monolithic depictions of the past. One is struck by complex questions. Museums in America do that a richness in the mosaic of African-American life all the time with great aplomb. Too few American when one reads African-American literature, museums go beyond simple celebration. whether it’s by an urban poet like Langston Frequently these museums have created Hughes or in the work of playwright August exhibitions to satisfy this American need, this Wilson or when one taps one’s toes to Aretha human desire for celebration, comfort and closure. Franklin, Sam Cook or even LL Cool J. In this Our goal should be to provide opportunities for music and literature one is introduced to a black audiences to embrace ambiguity. By helping our world that abounds with differences based on audiences find nuance and agency we help them class, gender, colour and region. Yet very few understand that ambiguity is a better lens through exhibitions in America explore this complexity. which to understand life rather than as simple What’s presented is a striving middle class as an victors. I would suggest that one of the signs of a example of what the black community was, is and successful museum, exhibition or programme is if will always be. the audience over time becomes more comfortable with ambiguity and complexity. I think that American museums fail miserably when By rushing to this monolithic depiction of the it comes to that. ❛past, I would argue American museums fail to help visitors understand the conflicts, negotiations and the shifting coalitions that have comprised the African-American community and other communities of colour.❜
32 A new integration failed in our museums to even begin to present interactions among African-Americans and non- Lastly, and perhaps the biggest challenge, is the African-Americans. need for American museums to find a new integration that re-centres the African-American One of my favourite museums is a large state experience and the experience of people of museum in the south of America. It has a huge colour. One of the things that is so interesting in exhibition on slavery and there is no mention of America is that in 1954 the Supreme Court any non-African-American. It is almost as if slaves declared that segregation should be outlawed. said, ‘Oh, I think I like being on this plantation in However, I would argue that segregation is alive the middle of Alabama by myself.’ It seems to me and well in American museums. Far too frequently that, while change has occurred, race is vitally African-American culture is segregated and important when you are wrestling with these remains in the dark corners of the museum. Either questions of how to re-centre African-American African-American culture is interpreted as an culture. I would suggest to you that while there interesting and occasionally educational episode has been great change in America, we are that has limited meaning for non-African- nowhere near the promised land. American visitors, or it is trumpeted as a special Let me close with a quotation from an enslaved attraction that is more exotic than instructive. African who was asked in an interview in 1937: ‘Now that slavery is over and most people who were slaves are gone, what should we What is missing is the new integration that remember?’ This man, Cornelius Holme, said: encourages visitors to recognise that the key ❛ ‘Though the slavery question is settled, its impact to understanding American identity is to is not. The question is with us always. It is in our understand the questions of race. politics, it is in our courts, it is on our highways, it ❜ is in our manners, it is in our thoughts, all the day, every day.’ That museums have failed to centralise this story so far is the essence of what people have missed Think about what a gift museums could give if when going to American museums. They have they could only help their visitors understand that missed the opportunity to use the richest of they are shaped, touched and informed by African-American culture as a wonderful lens to diversity, by race and by complexity, all the day, help us understand what it means to be an every day. American. We have missed that and I think that is one of the great challenges. In essence, we have
33 4 leadership and change in the twenty-first century James Early
James Early was one of the panel members speaking at the session on leadership and change in the twenty- first century. The session took a reflective look at the issues and ideas needed for bold innovative heritage leadership to advance cultural democracy and inclusion. James Early is Director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC. He has worked at the Smithsonian Institute since 1984 and prior to that was a humanist administrator at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington DC. He has lectured and written extensively on the politics of culture and cultural policy. He is a board member of a number of national and international organisations.
34 If you look around the room today what you all its complex manifestations. We are the only are looking at is history on the one hand and culture-producing species on this planet that we twenty-first century leadership on the other. are aware of. In that light, the artists and the arts Earlier today, someone quoted a line from the occupy a unique dimension of culture so as to be late African-American poet June Jordan: ‘We subjects of special attention, which includes cultural are the ones that we have been waiting for’. identity, democratic participation, cultural policy, and more recently economic development. The point is that there is no one else who will come to lead. We are the ones we have been waiting for! Our discussions are often about how The use and misuse of culture we are going to follow the leadership that controls heritage institutions. We are clearly Yet we talk about culture as the soft side of life or dissatisfied with this leadership. Whether it is as a soft power, as it is referred to in the foreign here in Britain, Brazil or in Nigeria the same policy departments of Britain and the United questions pertain. But in some cases the problem States. This is to imply that economics and military is not about white male or Euro-centric might are the more serious issues of life, after dominance of leadership. In countries such as which the less serious or soft dimensions of life are Nigeria the issue is often about ethnic-specific dealt with. One of the previous symposium dominance, because different indigenous ways of speakers reminded us that our deliberations are knowing and doing - the anthropological sense about governance. Governance is one reflection of of culture - are not being presented as points of culture. Governance does not descend from some view and skill sets to fashion the public space in place on high beyond the imaginative, creative which we all have to live and to be governed in. expressions of culture makers. There are rituals of governance. There are imaginative creative ways – Different aesthetic, imaginative, creative and integral to arts making – in which governance is performance traditions in the arts are often conceptualised, organised and implemented. The conflated in discussions about culture and cultural topic of this symposium, Heritage, Legacy and policy. When speaking about the rubric of culture Leadership: Ideas and Interventions, is about the many of us are often really talking about the arts power of definition in the first instance. But it is because we work directly in the arts or with also about how we, cultural professionals, will artists. We are more immediately attracted organise ourselves. If we do not organise ourselves visually and emotionally to the arts and thus there are bureaucrats, often not trained or artists. We have not thought deeply enough experienced professionally in culture – foreign about articulation of the more complex nature of policy specialists, political appointees, or market- culture and the special, distinctive role of artists oriented lawyers, for example – who are already and the arts within culture. We embody culture in
35 seeking to define what constitutes heritage, legacy deeper entrée and context for the pivotal issues of and national identity. To use Doudou Diène’s the twenty-first century, including immigration, terminology: ‘They are instrumentalists’. They talk national identity, foreign policy, economic about our disciplinary fields and professional skill prosperity, war and a just peace. sets within culture and the arts in the narrow or functionalist terms of cultural diplomacy. For example, sending the great African-American jazz Culture and identity musician Dizzy Gillespie around the world to foster Doudou Diène alluded to the fact that all of the US national interests, while Dizzy played his music major conflicts in the world today are centred in to sincerely engage the aesthetic interests and culture: ways of knowing and doing, ways of humanity of people from other nations and worshiping, praying, and languages for example. cultures. This kind of functionalist diplomacy or He also noted that in this global moment in which, policy gives practical and utilitarian concerns yes, we do have national identities, we also have priority over aesthetic, artistic or intellectual trans-national identities. And all of our countries concerns. are facing a major crisis of national identity, The use of culture to further economic or military particularly the major imperial powers of the West. dominance is born anew in the United States What is this crisis? The substance of the Government. US Army General David Petraeus, immigration crisis, for example, in all of our who is organising the so-called war against countries has to do with national identity: who is a terrorism in Iraq, has a plan, not just for me as an Brit today? What are the implications of the American cultural professional, but for all of you. It answers to what accrues to whom as heritage, is called ‘embedding anthropologists’ into our legacy, and socio-cultural, economic and political domain – the cultural arena. Anthropology is one validation? A UK government minister, talking of the humanistic disciplines that underpins the about immigration in the United Kingdom, says it more encompassing context or meanings of is not just a question of the quantity of the culture. Will poets and dancers and artists be far immigrants admitted into the country; it is the behind? I think they will not be far behind in my quality of the person who is admitted. People in country or your countries, in being recruited and governance or policy makers are being very directed towards narrow instrumentalist goals, explicit. If you are black or you are brown, then which have little to do with the intrinsic you are going to be targeted in addition to race dimensions of the arts and culture. So we must and ethnicity for a cultural evaluation of fitness to take ourselves seriously, not as a sector separate be accepted within the country’s national identity from the serious dimensions of life, but as and its past and future heritage. If you are Eastern professionals whose disciplines of work provide European with natural blond hair and green or
36 blue eyes but you are not wearing a certain kind of we come from or represent. These perspectives dress, they will seek to find out about you stop short of addressing the issue of national culturally. The decisive cultural question in that identity, which is a rubric under which we,and all example is based on your clothing: are you others in our diversity are characterised. For Muslim? example, I am an African-American, the descendant of enslaved Africans in the United States. That is all I can tell you. Even if I do the The policy crisis around national identity is DNA test it would not be a qualitative cultural ❛centred on the attempt by those who are in marker or answer because I still would not have power to hold on to static, essentialist the historically evolved emotional connections, historical perspectives of what culture and that inner spirit that Doudou Diène was talking legacy are about. about. I may know the geographical location of historical origin of my family but race and cultural ❜ identity are more than mere geographical On the opposite side of this power equation – and designations of family origins. They are elements I want to be really frank with you about my of a larger complex of interior feelings and feelings – we, of immigrant communities, are very meaning, of an intangible quality evolved through prosaic and eloquent in our ability to complain history making, coalescing over time, in what we about the problems and failures with respect to refer to as heritage, legacy and cultural identity. diversity being implemented in our professional Culture is about that imaginative and creative cultural arenas. I generally agree with the perspective informed by, if not directly rooted in, complaints but I have not heard many of them prior developments that we are direct inheritors accompanied by transformative perspectives about of. It allows us to understand the possibility of new what we want national identity to become worlds because we – our cultures – have created tomorrow and in the future. I have heard almost old worlds. nothing about the progress we have made over the generations despite continued obstacles, or So that, as an African-American, I must be about the progress still to be made. Without an concerned that in this room there are Europeans or appreciation of what has been accomplished we Americans from various cultural backgrounds. I see too have distorted views and understanding about the colour of your skin but I want to know what capacities we have to build upon to advance whether you are a Catholic or Protestant, a beyond today’s problems and to take full practitioner of traditional African or Asian advantage of today’s opportunities. religions, what your rituals are and what your cultural background is. I see my black brothers and I have heard many cultural-centric and ahistorical sisters from the African Diaspora but it does not perspectives about the particular cultural groups mean that I feel like you. I was not born in Jamaica
37 or reared in Trinidad. Essentialist notions about In addressing our local and national cultural policy racial identity that suggest that somehow we as issues we must not lose sight of the global individual groups in our multicultural nations can movement that influences those distinct but alone deal with the question of national power – connected realities. In this regard, consider the in this instance cultural power and policies – must UNESCO construct of culture as a transversal factor. be reconsidered. If national identity is to be truly It connects and runs across everything. That is why representative of the parts that comprise the the General perpetrating this vicious war in Iraq is official whole we, the multicultural sectors of the embedding anthropologists, because he nation, must take full ownership of the whole understands the transversal and the contextual national enterprise. We must inform and fashion a nature of the arenas in which we work. That is vibrant national identity and not accept or be why the issue of cultural diplomacy is being talked comfortable with individualised attention, policies, about in the United States today, because many in pots of money, special initiatives and the like, the world – including Western Europeans and albeit that they are important circumscribed people of colour - hate the policies of the United instruments to prime progress. States.
Culture and democracy We have to take ourselves a lot more ❛seriously and be more proactive about taking Moving onto transformative perspectives, we the leading roles in culture, the arts and society multicultural and multiracial professionals in the and not be inserted under the narrow scope symposium (including gender and sexual of functional objectives plotted by policy orientation) have to take very seriously the makers. resources of values, histories, heritages, legacies, and plural identities we possess. We must seriously ❜ value the work areas we have studied very hard to So, this last forum is focusing on cultural prepare ourselves in and not accept or relegate democracy and what it means. As a black ourselves as some sidebar ethnic, cultural, or American who is a cultural leader, if I occupy a artistic sector in relationship to the mainstream. position I must be concerned with every We, all of us who are progressive, who are expression of culture, obviously first with my own, committed to culture as living and not static; those but simultaneously with every person’s and of us committed to identity as vibrant not simply group’s culture. That is not the discourse I have inherited and certainly not inherited from one heard today. Our discussion has been far too much historically dominant group – we must become the about our individual group and not about how mainstream! we, the marginalised and often discriminated
38 against, can provide leadership for ourselves and period. His name was A Philip Randolph and he for all. We have been aggrieved and we must be said: ‘At the banquet table of nature, there are no concerned about ourselves. However, the young reserved seats. You get what you can take, and you man who spoke from the Department for Culture keep what you can hold. If you can’t take has to work laterally with everyone’s interests in anything, you won’t get anything, and if you can’t mind as well as work to move up, to engage hold anything, you won’t keep anything. And you everyone. He cannot just focus on his individual or can’t take anything without organisation.’ group issues and goals if he is going to provide transformative leadership. In his leadership position he must represent the different European In the cultural arena if we want to change strands at this conference, the Southeast Asian ❛things, be transformative not just critically strands, the gay and lesbian cultural issues, and all reactive, we have to organise ourselves. We people who are here. This is about the power or have to be strategic. authority to decide. This is about politics giving ❜ value and organisation to the state of cultural and We have to deliberately plan and calculate the culturally related affairs of national, not just local ways forward, articulating who we are and what or group-specific, interests. This is not about a our roles are transversally, and intersect all aspects single social or cultural sector or training young of cultural and public policy. I am trying to urge people in the techniques of leadership. Yes, those you to think of yourselves as more than a sector. issues are important. But only if they lead us to Other people understand how to isolate and use understanding that we are on the verge of a new us as a sector, but we do not understand who we long march for the transformation of our nations are and what our relationship is to the whole of and our national identities. If not, then we are society. going to be sophisticated but marginalised people, on the outside of real governance and decision- We have to be engaged in the major cultural making about heritage, legacy, innovation and policy determinations throughout society. The leadership. police are talking about culture; the healthcare system is talking about culture. Dances are being organised to help resolve conflicts. Poets are being Doing it for ourselves brought in for peace sessions. They are not simply I want to share an instructive quote from a trade instrumentalists. They understand that they are unionist who, in his lifetime, was considered the part of the imaginative and creative communities most dangerous Negro in the United States of whose visions and expressions are critical to America – this was the term used during that spiritual and material well-being. That is what
39 makes our work as cultural and arts professionals was the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and so distinguished and crucial. That is why we Fredrick Douglass. Black History Month is now highlight the arts in the broader more complex celebrated all over the world. arena of culture, because the artist is so inspiring Every group here has a similar story about how and provocative in every nation in the history of their heritage and legacies have come to be humankind. I do not think we sufficiently believe celebrated, often against tremendous historical in ourselves and in the creative people and odds. The particular historical experience from imaginative artists with whom we work. That is which Black History Month emerged is a universal why we are always looking for what politicians lesson of the tasks and possibilities still ahead of and business people are going to do for us, rather us to envision and to create new nations and than what are we going to do to advance and identities. That story, in its wider application, transform the national identity of our nations represents the power of us stepping forward on through our special lenses, talents, and the issue of cultural democracy. It is the right and productions along with other leadership sectors in the obligation for each of us to say who we are society. in the language and the religion that we come Let me close on this last point – a personal point of from, to enter the public space and build a fluid complaint because we do not historicise. We have national identity that does not see itself in been victims, everyone in this room, though not opposition to other identities or to a shared, equally so. Someone complained, ‘We are given negotiated, national identity. Too often we leave February, the shortest month, as Black History the public arena to the so-called mainstream, Month.’ That is completely untrue and indicative settling for set-aside and particularised of a reactive, negative-cultural behaviour that institutions on the margin. avoids taking leadership. This view avoids taking We, the multicultural minorities, are the crucible. responsibility for the historical work and legacy of History has put us here as the test cases of what transformation left by the 20 year old Carter G the public sphere can and must be. Slavery, Woodson in the United States, whose parents had colonialism, rape and pillage have now brought been enslaved. He entered high school at age 20 the former colonial people to the home of the and strategically organised himself despite the former colonisers and we are not going anywhere complex problems he encountered as a result of except towards full citizenship. We are citizens, the legacy of slavery and the racism that he faced. not just immigrants. We are their descendents in He finished high school in two years and then many instances. So, go forth and become went to the prestigious Harvard University where instruments of transformative leadership. Do not he earned a PhD. In February 1926 he organised wait for anyone else to bring leadership to you. Negro History Week, which later became Black We are the ones that we have been waiting for! History Month. Woodson chose February because it
40 leadership and change in the twenty-first century Patricia Glinton-Meicholas
Patricia Glinton-Meicholas was one of the panel members speaking at the session on leadership and change in the twenty-first century. She gave a Bahamian perspective on the challenges facing the heritage sector and the need for bold and transformational leadership. Patricia Glinton-Meicholas is an author and broadcaster and President of The Bahamas Association for Cultural Studies. She has written extensively on Bahamian history, art and culture and is the author of volumes of short stories, poetry, and several works of satire. She has written, produced and directed six historical documentaries for Bahamas National Trust’s series A Proud and Singular Heritage. She was the first woman to present the Sir Lynden Pindling Memorial Lecture, the first winner of The Bahamas Cacique Award for Writing, and a recipient of a Silver Jubilee of Independence Medal for Literature.
41 The challenges of the twenty-first century are consequence Atlantic slavery has devised a drawing heritage and culture leaders centre convoluted mess of prejudices and identity issues stage. Issues of identity and disaffection, race that pose a constant threat to self-imaging and and ethnic discrimination, and attempts to self-esteem within the African Diaspora. impose political and cultural hegemony are In The Bahamas self-imaging has further been fragmenting the world. Many countries have distorted by an all-pervasive tourism industry. For actually reached the point of combustion, with the sake of the industry history, heritage and ethnic conflict supplying kindling and culture have been reinterpreted for more demagogues happily providing accelerants. palatable consumption by tourists and, until Interventions begin with understanding. We recently, distanced in meaning from the people. are the ones who know enough of the My country also suffers the effects of US underlying causes to promote understanding. dominance and increasing cultural hegemony. We are the ones who know that many of today’s Beaming directly to a majority black nation by challenges were conceived in rampant cable and satellite transmissions, US media do not imperialism, which has fractioned and factioned favour positive images of non-whites. In fact, we the world. The arbitrary division of the globe in are overdosed on the powerful imagery of the pursuit of economic and political pre-eminence thug lifestyle. More and more young men are has forced into unstable polities aggregations of offering violence to their peers, strongly disparate ethnicities with frequently adversarial influenced by the harmful construct of manhood beliefs and ambitions. Colonisation and cultural that this antisocial way of life has engendered. domination have given birth to notions of We understand the challenge of ethnic issues intrinsic inferiority of subjugated lands, peoples emanating from what Michael Hechter, Professor and cultures. Is not the impact of forced national of Sociology at the University of Washington, constructs exemplified in the destruction wrought terms ‘internal colonialism’, focusing on the in Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq and Kenya? relationship between a core English culture and Heritage and culture leaders understand that the peripheral ethnicities he calls the Celtic fringe . A transatlantic slave trade bequeathed its own variant can be observed in the relationship pernicious legacies. The slave system not only between the British of European origin and non- snatched a potpourri of ethnic groups from their white immigrants from former British colonies. native milieus, but also attempted to curtail the The same drama attaches to intra-Caribbean self-determination of the enslaved in the New migration. While acculturation is expected, World. African heritage came to be equated with members of the core culture tend to place invalidity or, at best, limited potential. As a restrictive terms on access with automatic
42 implications of inequality. They will not entertain A new and responsible leadership the ‘foreignness’ they view as societal and Heritage and culture leaders are being offered cultural pollutants. the unique privilege not only to play a part in Newcomers are expected to leave heritage and defusing the explosive potential of this age but cultural identity at their homeport like unscanned also to reveal the spectacular good it is and suspect baggage. They share the complaint incubating. Are we equal to the task or is it time of Francis I of France: ‘The sun shines for me as for reinvention? Effective leadership cannot for others. I should very much like to see the sequester itself in an ivory tower of exclusivity clause in Adam’s will that excludes me from a and esoteric scholarship while the world devolves share of the world.’ Conflict arises because into atavism. Too much scholarship is a high-wire humanity resists non-entity and the engulfment act that draws gasps of wonder from the of those values and customs that define audience but sends audiences home empty- individual or group identity. handed. Rather, heritage scholarship and leadership should be dedicated to bringing meaning and solving problems. To do so requires The fringe is more than kilts, reggae, boldly engaging journeys on roads less travelled; Bollywood, carnival, creoles and fried rice. ❛ journeys of fresh discovery, of learning, of The fringe demands to be recognised as mutuality and of change. It requires eschewing having equal rights and, what is more, politically expedient solutions that privilege one talents, ideas and energy to contribute much ethnicity over another and rhetoric that promotes needed renewal to our societies. resentment in the name of protecting heritage. It ❜ bodes ill to lend wings to those who are but a half day’s journey from demagoguery, itself just a Diverse cultures are hardly fungible but can goosestep away from ethnic cleansing. co-exist in peace and mutual benefit. It requires, however, that a sense of validity be promoted for There are no easy solutions but a certainty upon all cultures but not posited as a ‘gift’ from a self- which we can rest our hopes. Human solidarity ordained superior culture or derived from the does exist at the level of basic needs and the declension of another. It starts with mutual desire for survival. Many believe that the success intelligibility. of our initiatives depends on serving up our souls on silver platters to powerbrokers. It is quite the opposite. In this age the attainment of our goals and the sustainability of our programmes will depend on the buy-in not of the few, but of the
43 many ordinary men, women and youth. The Inclusion is the vital element in Junkanoo’s challenge is that many of them now view persistence and pervasiveness. The soul of heritage and culture professionals as purveyors of Junkanoo lies in jerrybuilt design and dust, precocity and irrelevance. We need to construction centres called shacks located at the connect what we do more closely to our people’s heart of working-class communities. Collective sense of self, self-worth and survival. We must preparation and performance promote convince them of ownership, from which lack of extraordinary bonds across lines of gender, age high social or economic status cannot separate and social status. Junkanoo craft is now practised them. The passion with which Bahamians espouse in our schools. Our musicians have developed Junkanoo, our masquerade tradition, is unique Junkanoo rhythms and our artists a instructive. Junkanoo palette. This amalgam of art forms presents a vehicle for a society-uniting language. Junkanoo offers a lesson for twenty-first century The lessons of Junkanoo heritage and culture leaders. Our work must Junkanoo began as an amalgam of African rituals always be transformative, with the development that the enslaved practised in secret. It was and inclusion of people as a first concern. prohibited by law, for fear that gatherings of blacks might threaten white rule. With the rise of tourism the ruling oligarchy began to encourage Even the cold stones of our museums and the masquerade, recognising its potential as ❛galleries must take on a consciousness that tourist-attracting exotica. A tradition-affirming speaks of life and progress. We must convert change came when black Bahamians began to go the artefacts of heritage and culture into abroad in numbers for university studies. They education, positive outlets for energy and returned with a new vision of heritage and strategies for understanding. culture, seeking out uniqueness as key elements in defining Bahamian identity. Junkanoo fitted ❜ the bill. They resisted positioning the masquerade There is much to be gained in turning away from as a Caribbean carnival, promoting it instead as the penury of factional thought and prejudice part of Bahamian spirituality and a precious, that fears and springs to oppose difference and unbroken link with the African past. Most change. Symposia such as this can encourage us important, it was offered as impeccable evidence to cooperate and draw from the cornucopia of of the intelligence, creativity and validity of an diversity new products and methods of approach often-discounted element of society. for the classroom, entrepreneurship and improved human relations.
44 Heritage and culture leaders need to become forensic anthropologists, taking responsibility not only for raising long-buried bones of heritage, but also for recovering and privileging the links that connect us, as the DNA for unity. But knowledge is not enough. If the salvation of our world and the realisation of its potential lie in the promotion of humankind’s common heritage and shared future, we must first believe. If we cannot achieve a semblance of unity among us, how can we promote it to others? We must embrace all elucidation of heritage and culture as discoveries of new facets of ourselves as members of the human family. We need a rallying cry for the twenty-first century. When Junkanoos go to the shacks to collect their costumes, they declare, ‘I come to get me’, a visceral utterance, pregnant with heritage identification. The renewed heritage leader must similarly cry out ‘I come to get me; I come to get us!’ Anything less makes us unfit for this great work of reconciliation in which we are now called to engage.
45 5 transforming heritage leadership: challenges and goals Temi Odumosu
Temi Odumosu has provided a commentary on the symposium’s value and legacy for the sector. She is an arts and heritage consultant and educator, who has worked with mainstream heritage organisations including English Heritage, the National Maritime Museum, the Science Museum, National Gallery and Tate Modern. Since 2003 she has been a project consultant and writer for the Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian Heritage. In 2007 Temi curated A Visible Difference: Skin, Race and Identity 1720-1820 for the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. She is researching her PhD at the University of Cambridge on the representation of African people in eighteenth and early nineteenth century English satirical prints.
46 At the core of the Heritage, Legacy and ‘...And who will join this Leadership symposium was the understanding standing up that effective, dynamic and innovative cultural leadership must be informed by principles of and the ones who stood equality, cultural inclusion, creative diversity without sweet company and respect for difference. Consequently the presentations and dialogue that took place will sing and sing sought to address how cultural democracy and back into the mountains cultural enfranchisement would be embedded as central values for a twenty-first century and heritage sector. if necessary This was not a formulaic discussion on policies or models of leadership but rather an exploration of even under the sea: the ideas, issues, thinking and values needed to support and inform the future of heritage and we are the ones we have cultural leadership. been waiting for.’ Throughout the symposium discussions national and international heritage leaders and June Jordan (1936–2002) practitioners talked about the similarities between the delicate and complex issues and ideas that they were grappling with. The dialogue raised a number of organisational management issues but what also emerged was a more complex awareness of the wider social, political and cultural landscape within which heritage is being conceived and transformed. Ultimately the presentations and discussions approached the critical notion that heritage is intrinsic to the individual and collective human experience. In this context, many thoughts and ideas were shared with an overarching sense of urgency, reflecting an understanding of the grave responsibilities and the cultural privilege with which heritage leaders have been endowed.
47 However, rather than presenting a daunting London and the 2012 Olympics challenge, the inspirational exchange that took place seemed to transmute the staid leadership London is a labyrinth, half of stone and half criticisms of the past into an encouraging appeal of flesh. It cannot be conceived in its entirety for self-belief and transformation of heritage ❛ but can be experienced only as a wilderness concepts for the benefit of society at large. The of alleys and passages, courts and key message that emerged from the proceedings thoroughfares, in which even the most was a call for committed, sustained and experienced citizen may lose the way; it is principled efforts to move cultural leadership curious, too, that this labyrinth is in a forward. This was best articulated by several continual state of change and expansion.3 speakers who quoted the memorable line from the African-American poet June Jordan,1 ‘We are Peter Ackroyd ❜ the ones we have been waiting for.’ The following narrative outlines a number of It is only fitting that the story starts with London, recurring themes and conclusions emerging from its global role, its cultural responsibilities and its the symposium proceedings.2 It is not an aspirations to deliver the Olympic and Paralympic exhaustive analysis but rather an attempt to re- Games rich with the diversity and inclusiveness on signal key priorities noted by speakers and which the city won its 2012 bid. Although London respondents in keynote presentations, themed was not the focus of the symposium discussions it panel papers and discussions. In synthesising this was certainly the cultural and political backdrop. rich body of evidence four areas stood out as Its role, particularly in relation to the Olympics, was fundamental leadership priorities for the journeys a critical context for a dialogue around change ahead: London and the 2012 Olympics; heritage options for the leadership of the heritage sector. and cultural democracy; collaboration and It is often said that London has been shaped by its cultural ownership; and governance and creative diversity. The city’s energy and excitement, its engagement. smells, sights and sounds, are natural products of its intercultural exchange. The sheer range of communities resident in London is visibly evident. Diversity policy documents continue to remind us that 40% of Londoners are from an ethnic minority group and over 300 languages are spoken. Commonplace slogans such as ‘the world in one city’ centre on the idea that ‘every race, colour, nation and religion on earth’4 live here.
1 June Jordan, ‘Poem for South African Women’ in Passion: New Poems, 1977–80, Beacon Press, 1980, pp. 42-43 2 Quotations in this text are taken from the original symposium transcript. 48 3 Peter Ackroyd, London: The Biography, Vintage, 2001, p2 Hence the relatively peaceful co-existence and Within London’s intricately woven history and cooperation between London’s continually heritage are the stories, contributions, births, burgeoning multi-faith and multi-ethnic marriages and deaths of a whole range of communities, is often cited as an example of citizens. It cannot be overstressed that this city British tolerance, acceptance and inclusiveness. can be seen to ‘harbour the secrets of the human world.’5 Some commentators have argued that the encouragement of multicultural values - that is the As London prepares to welcome the world in propagation of Britain as an eclectic melting pot of 2012, heritage organisations are forced to rethink multiple communities - comes at the expense of a approaches to cultural diversity as a necessity for cohesive set of national values based on Britishness delivering the Olympic aims of inclusion, rather than difference. This view has been used to participation and empowerment, as well as bolster the claims that multiculturalism has fuelled creating a sustainable cultural legacy. separatism and extremism between migrant and Symposium discussions surrounding the Olympics British-born minority communities. Similarly, it is reflected key questions that present challenges to deemed to have prompted white British people to heritage leaders. These include: call for a return to the Old England. • How can London’s heritage and cultural Yet others perceive Britain’s multiculturalism as a institutions begin to meaningfully engage positive mechanism for social change and as the with the complexity and diversity of the city vital element needed for the development of and its many communities? shared national values that are informed by diversity rather than inhibited by it. • How can they reinterpret their collections within wider, more nuanced social and cultural Such complex intercultural dynamics are deeply frameworks? embedded in the long and tumultuous history of British imperialism. Centuries of British exploration, • How can the sector explore and/or construct trade, war and conquest around the world, in national heritage narratives that are informed addition to waves of forced and voluntary by the nation’s intercultural dynamics and migration to metropolitan centres in particular, histories? have consolidated Britain’s intrinsic connections to • At what point does the sector take a more the rest of the world. London’s role within these proactive stance to change its internal histories and debates – as the political, economic monocultures so that heritage professionals and cultural heart of Britain – is therefore (from the ground up to leadership) reflect the significant. culturally diverse and eclectic face of the nation’s cities?
4 See: Leo Benedictus, ‘Every race, colour, nation on earth’ published on www.theguardian.co.uk, Friday 21 January 2005 5 Peter Ackroyd, London: The Biography, Vintage, 2001, p3 49 Roy Clare, Chief Executive of the Museums, Ultimately the development of these new paths Libraries and Archives Council, reminded us that: and approaches further highlights the necessity ‘we cannot underestimate the real opportunity this for London’s heritage sector to make its represents.’ collections and buildings welcoming places for the city’s communities. Engaging with young The Cultural Olympiad is the key aspect of the people and their unique experiences and modes games linked specifically to the work of the of cultural expression, will be a vital part of this heritage sector. Keith Khan, then Head of Culture initiative. for London 2012, outlined its ambition to inspire and involve the widest range of communities in This dynamic and youth-focused Cultural London, particularly young people. In addition he Olympiad may provide the leadership of the reinforced 2012’s aim to encourage Londoners to heritage sector with the much-needed impetus to participate in sports and cultural activities – within push the boundaries. their local communities as well as on a national platform. Heritage and cultural democracy Within this strategic framework Khan argued for broader concepts of culture that enable London communities to engage with their heritage All notions that are the basis of identity through commercial as well as traditional means. ❛construction have to be revisited, and He illustrated his point saying: ‘If you look at heritage is one of them. Nigerian women in Dalston who make spectacular Doudou Diène outfits for their daughters or how digital ❜ companies operate in very small studios in Shoreditch, there are a whole heap of different Central to the discussions around change for the connections to culture that can be made.’ cultural sector was a call to revisit established notions of heritage in an effort to encourage Within this Olympic context the word culture has new frameworks that situate cultural diversity become synonymous with all creative and cultural and cultural pluralism at its foundations. The activities - embracing carnival, theatre, fashion, adoption of more inclusive and humanist science, food, architecture etc. Giving culture such frameworks would ultimately enable people to a broad application enables the public and value themselves and each other. Furthermore, it voluntary sector, as well as private enterprise, to be would contribute to a better understanding of included and engaged. These creative economies our individual and collective histories and can therefore be seen as vital mechanisms for heritage, encouraging broader participation with social and economic regeneration. In this context the sector. This process of cultural empowerment, culture is everywhere.
50 conceived within the wider-ranging cultural impact on the general perception of heritage and democracy agenda, was offered as a critical aim for culture as the preserve of the white, educated twenty-first century heritage leadership. middle-classes. Yet the holistic vision of heritage as a rich and In the face of changing demographics concerted multi-layered/multi-ethnic/multi-faith cultural efforts to redress imbalanced perspectives within interaction seems to be at odds with recent the traditional discourse have revealed hidden political priorities in Britain. Immigration control histories. These ‘secrets’ include the presence, has been high on the UK’s political agenda for contributions and agency of African, Asian and several years now. The expansion of the European Caribbean descent communities buried within over Union, the swelling of UK towns and cities as 500 years of British history. The question of how locations for asylum seekers, as well as the this knowledge can be integrated into mainstream heightened focus on national security as a result of heritage narratives has only seriously begun to be anti-terrorism measures, are all issues that have addressed within the sector during the last ten sparked new debates on the age-old question: years. What does it mean to be British? In spite of their critical roles as custodians of British It has been continually acknowledged that in and world cultures, the UK’s museums, archives, Britain notions of heritage have always been historic libraries and the historic environment were limited and that heritage has been predominantly significantly challenged by their responsibilities to used as a mechanism for maintaining a model engage with histories and heritage concepts identity of Britishness - for the acceptance of outside of the traditional framework. society at large. Rosy cheeks, country farms, green Consequently the heritage sector’s reaction to its pastures and stately homes are heritage new responsibilities has been to present these stereotypes that dominate the traditional view of hidden histories as add-ons to the main narrative. Britain’s history and culture. This static view of This type of response is also evident in the sector’s Britain’s identity fails to reflect its inter- sporadic and frequently inequitable engagement connectedness to the rest of the world and hence with culturally diverse communities and grass-roots unwittingly supports a populist discourse that organisations. seeks to bolster the false notion of a homogenous The sectoral shift needed to embrace and reflect Britain. Symposium presenter Patricia Glinton- the cultural dynamism that a broader perspective Meicholas noted: ‘Newcomers are expected to on history and heritage would engender never leave heritage at the home port like un-scanned really happened. In its place were side steps in the and suspect baggage.’ form of one-off projects, initiatives and cultural The conflation of heritage and national identity as celebrations that were advocated as a make-do being one and the same, has naturally had an alternative. This had minimal impact on heritage
51 day-to-day practice or organisational ethos. forms of intangible heritage that encompass Symposium presenter Roshi Naidoo noted that the spirituality, belief systems and methods of cultural recent drive to diversify heritage has been subtly empowerment and appropriation that are often punctuated by ‘an acute sense of loss for those immeasurable and undocumented. Such notions of simpler times where you did not have to be heritage cannot be perceived exclusively through a politically correct or talk about diversity.’ As a closed institutional lens that fails to engage with result, the whole project of revisiting British history respective communities or honour their expertise. is permeated by the idea that there was somehow Thus, the negotiation of intangible heritage ‘a white past and a multicultural present.’ necessitates a community-focused dialogue, driven by inclusive cultural leadership. Symposium presenter Lonnie Bunch reinforced this view by referring to a similar kind of Several respondents were moved by this concept marginalisation that takes place in American since it offered an alternative cultural approach to museums. He said ‘Far too frequently African- the long-standing negative mythologies American culture is segregated still in the dark surrounding African history and culture in corners of the museum. Either African-American particular. Many felt that these myths had been culture is interpreted as an interesting and influenced by the ethnographic distortions of occasionally educational episode that has limited Africa and African history that still abound in meaning for non-African-American visitors, or it is museum and archive collections, and in the media trumpeted as a special attraction that is more at large. This colonisation of African culture is one exotic than instructive.’ of the thorny issues that sits uncomfortably on the agenda of heritage leaders who advocate for What became clear over the course of the change in the sector. symposium was that the UK’s heritage sector would be not be able to make a radical shift Dr Atul Shahis, a respondent from the organisation towards meaningful inclusion without strong Diverse Ethics, offered an example of how heritage vision and clear direction from its leadership, who concepts from his own faith community could be should be informed by more nuanced concepts of used in a mainstream context. He noted that the heritage and identity. Jain religion and culture had the ethos of sustainability at its root, yet no connections had In his keynote speech Doudou Diène been made between that heritage and conceptualised heritage as ‘the ultimate expression contemporary debates around global warming and of a multicultural, dynamic interaction’, in which the environment – in which sustainability is a key memory, identity and enfranchisement are the issue. He argued that the Jain culture might offer focus of a collective reclaiming of history and its important environmental solutions that have been various social, cultural and ethical values. Within overlooked due to narrow and Christianised this vision Diène called for a re-engagement with conceptions of heritage and culture.
52 The recognition and integration of multicultural Collaboration and cultural ownership perspectives and expertise into a mainstream societal context was noted by presenter Patricia We have a history of struggling against one Glinton-Meicholas. She urged: ‘The fringe – that is another. We certainly have histories where us – is more than kilts, reggae, Bollywood, carnival, ❛ others have struggled against us. We have to Creoles and fried rice. The fringe demands to be develop, as part of the culture of leadership, a recognised as having equal rights, and what is culture of struggling for one another. more, talents, ideas and energy to contribute much-needed renewal to your societies.’ James Early ❜ Presenter Roshi Naidoo spoke of the continuing frustrations of African, Asian and Caribbean The Heritage, Legacy and Leadership symposium, heritage professionals who are only ever consulted itself a critical means of principled knowledge with regard to initiatives related to their respective transfer between cultural practitioners, represented communities. She noted, ‘our racial identity is a prime example of collaboration and cultural either over determined or dangerously ignored.’ ownership in practice. The need to develop ways in Naidoo added: ‘Some of us actually also know which local, national and international dialogues about European art, Hollywood films and the and interactions could take place, in order to history of punk rock. But we have become support and empower diverse practitioners and fragmented within the sector.’ wider cultural communities, was therefore proposed as a necessary aspect of leadership and Fundamentally the symposium dialogues around legacy development. heritage and cultural democracy sought to illustrate the fact that heritage cannot be fixed or The symposium consensus was that drawing on uniform but rather it is the product of multi- international experience and expertise could be a layered processes of human interaction. Several support mechanism for globalising cultural efforts. speakers referred to these processes as ‘circles of Knowledge transfer and the unification of cultural identification’ that celebrate our differences and expertise were perceived as vital components in the highlight our ‘radical sameness’. Such an approach enrichment of heritage practice and the to heritage in the twenty-first century must also development of new professional networks. engage with newer forms of identity construction Patricia Glinton-Meicholas said: ‘symposia such as that take on board the recent role of technology this can encourage us to cooperate and draw from and the environment on our individual and the cornucopia of new diversity products and collective value systems. In so doing, heritage and methods of approach for the classroom, for culture become positively embedded in our sense entrepreneurship and for improved human of place, identity, value and collective agency. relations.’
53 Connections, interaction, dialogue and exchange popular cultural forms can engender a more were pervasive ideas that recurred throughout the dynamic engagement with heritage. He said: symposium, highlighting the ways that diversity ‘culture impacts on every aspect of our lives enriches and connects all of us in unique ways. A through attitudes, lifestyles, clothes, food and so respondent from the question-and-answer session on....we need to approach these cultural encounters spoke about this in the context of her own as a form of conversation. Cultural institutions are experiences. She said: ‘As someone who was born important in providing the skills by which we can in Trinidad and Tobago, and speaking to the interpret the different cultures around us. They can complexity of identity, I grew up next door to provide the context for these conversations. Indians, where we used to watch Bollywood films Reading the intangible in the tangible.’ after dinner. As a person of African decent I would Ralph Adams, a symposium respondent, pointed hear Hindi songs and when I hear these songs out that ‘Libraries are repositories of culture’, and now, straight away I am drawn back to fond that their role is central to heritage and cultural memories of my heritage.’ debate. The important work and approaches of Her perspective confirmed how identity public libraries in community cohesion and construction and cultural ownership are often partnership were identified as a model for future informed by continual dialogue and exchange with change efforts. Roy Clare concurred: ‘[Libraries] are other cultures. fundamentally the closest to local democracy of any of our organisations or institutions. They are Moving towards a practical application of cultural funded locally, decisions about how to grow them collaboration as a means of achieving cultural are made locally, they respond to local community ownership and empowerment, Glinton-Meicholas needs.’ spoke further about the need to engage with creative economies outside of institutional A broad spectrum of symposium practitioners were structures. She advocated leadership approaches eager to encourage collaboration between policy that bind entrepreneurship to culture, stating that: makers and cultural providers in order to fashion a ‘We need to connect what we do more nearly to more relevant and reflective framework for our people’s sense of self, self-worth and survival heritage and cultural provision. This, it was felt, was … We must tie what we do to people’s lives and, the area in which a fluid relationship was still at the most basic, their survival, their mental difficult to achieve. Symposium presenter Sandy health. We must convince them all of ownership, Nairne called for a dialogue between the leadership from which lack of social or economic status of the heritage sector and mainstream government, cannot separate them.’ particularly in relation to the newly established Equality and Human Rights Commission. He said Samuel Jones from Demos, responding to Doudou ‘we have got to engage across government in a Diène’s keynote speech, reiterated the idea that much more powerful way.’
54 The concept of broadening engagement and The rich dialogue that emerged from the advocacy for culture was also linked to pertinent symposium proceedings offered a number of issues concerning young people. One of the dynamic approaches to heritage, legacy and participants, photographer Jennie Baptiste, leadership development for a twenty-first century reminded practitioners of the need to engage heritage sector. But as Roy Clare urged: ‘None of more closely with the young people they hope to this architecture that we are talking about will reach out to. She said: ‘Young people have a voice, change until we shift governance.’ and when we are talking about issues that concern Governance, and its relationship to cultural them at these conferences sometimes I think you diversity and cultural democracy, remains one of need to actually go around to the London the most difficult challenges for the heritage boroughs and get a youth representative to come sector. Symposium speaker Jude Woodward said: along and get feedback from them.’ ‘The boards of our major cultural institutions An important conclusion that emerged from the across London do not in the slightest degree symposium was the need for consultative dialogue reflect the real character of the population of this that develops into principled collaboration. There city.’ The predominance of white, male and was a sense of urgency to move beyond the privileged board members on almost all of obligatory talking shop, to sharing power, London’s mainstream heritage organisations has responsibility and ‘pride of place’. Clearly, the only served to strengthen the view that any dynamics required for this significant shift call for a change reported by the sector is still on the focused and equitable strategy of engagement to surface. achieve positive and sustainable outcomes. This Beyond the cultural diversity imperative, can only be achieved through proactive and practitioners within heritage organisations have determined leadership. observed that, even with goodwill, the lack of leadership support and direction often mitigates innovation and risk-taking beyond tried and Governance and Creative Engagement tested boundaries. This institutional inertia has been foregrounded as a reason for the limited Our work must always be transformative, with and slow rate of change within heritage ❛the development and inclusion of people as a organisational culture. Such concerns were first concern. Even the cold stones of our punctuated by pertinent questions from museums and galleries must take on a symposium speakers and participants, for which consciousness that speaks of life and progress. there still appear to be to be no answers: Patricia Glinton-Meicholas ❜
55 • ‘Exactly who is leading what, and to culture. He went on to discuss how narrow where?’ asked Colin Prescod, symposium notions of heritage and culture had implicitly chair. restricted the means though which the sector perceived itself – suggesting that not only are we • ‘When will the sector move from hand- ‘more than just a sector’ but also that culture wringing to action?’ asked Clara Arokiasamy, itself is the fundamental basis from which all symposium workshop presenter. elements of public and private life are expressed • ‘What is heritage? From where are we and conceived. Early reasoned: ‘The police are inheriting what we proclaim to be heritage? talking about culture. The healthcare system is Who is to define heritage? Who is to shape talking about culture. Dances are being organised it, preserve it, conserve it and for what to help resolve questions of conflicts. Poets are reason, for what purpose?’ asked Doudou being brought in for peace sessions. They are not Diène, symposium keynote speaker. simply instrumentalists; they understand that they • ‘How would people know that the museum are part of the imaginative and creative sector was being more inclusive if we didn’t communities whose visions and expressions are have multicultural festivals or projects?’ critical to material and spiritual well being. That is asked Roshi Naidoo, symposium presenter. what makes our work so distinguished and crucial.’ • ‘This notion of Africa as an uncivilised space, as a dark continent, still exists. So what are This call for renewed self-belief, and the location our custodians and gatekeepers going to do of culture within a wider societal context, seemed about it? And what are we all going to do to to offer an antidote to the ‘inertia’, ‘challenges’ help them out of the morass into which we and ‘acute sense of loss’ expressed in critiques of seem to have fallen – on that particular issue the UK heritage sector. However, the sector and a number of other issues – over the continues to impede its own development years?’ asked Baroness Lola Young, through an antagonistic relationship with its symposium panel chair. cultural responsibilities. Patricia Glinton-Meicholas warned: ‘Effective leadership cannot sequester itself in an ivory tower of exclusivity and esoteric James Early, speaking frankly about the cultural scholarship while the world devolves to atavism. shifts needed to effect change within heritage Too much scholarship is a high-wire act that and cultural leadership, advocated a renewed self- draws gasps of wonder from the audience but belief within culture, for a reassessment of sends them away empty-handed.’ leadership, and for an exploration into its Looking ahead, the symposium explored how transformative potential in the governance of future leadership strategies can negotiate the
56 ways that a society engages with culture and sense of looking much more broadly.’ heritage. In a sense, to venture ‘beyond the One speaker from the sector reminded participants museum’ in order to enrich and support the how important it is to ‘simply apply’ when board institution’s critical role in developing research, appointments are advertised. However, this context, security, preservation and cohesion for sentiment without internal change evades the collections and their histories. pressing concerns surrounding the core Sandy Nairne concluded that accountability and institutional barriers inhibiting the development of creativity stood out as the two key aspects of the a more culturally and intellectually diverse sector leadership change process. ‘The point is about workforce and its governing bodies. taking responsibility yourselves’, he urged. The sector was called upon to break the inbred Nairne supported this with a quote by an circles of influence and career progression that Australian indigenous artist, saying: ‘We make a perpetuate its workforce demographics – not only mistake if we think that we, any of us, own our in terms of ethnic background but also in terms of own culture. What we do know is that we can initial and graduate education. It was agreed that exchange our culture better if we learn how to in order to enable experienced practitioners from share the authority and the power.’ more diverse cultural and professional The concept of sharing authority and power backgrounds to move ‘from small time to big resonated throughout the discussions on time’, the sector had to redress and expand upon diversifying the heritage workforce and its its notions of inclusion. David Kershaw highlighted governing bodies and in the repeated calls for that: ‘We are missing out on a huge pool of new voices and interpretations of heritage. creative leadership talent and what is more, as our audiences become ever more global in reach, we During the symposium proceedings the are in danger of failing to connect with them Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) because of the narrowness of our own leadership – the recruiter of board members for the UK’s supply side.’ national heritage institutions – was presented with a key challenge: to re-evaluate the exclusive It has been clearly outlined that the heritage criteria for board appointments within the sector, thus far, has been challenged to rise up to heritage sector. Baroness Lola Young urged: ‘The its cultural and ethical responsibilities by building a DCMS have to think about the kind of criteria more inclusive, vibrant and multicultural ethos and they use to appoint people. If you want working environment. Ultimately some of the first somebody who is tenacious and clever and all the changes that need to take place have to be from rest of it, those kinds of qualities do not come within – a change in attitude, perception and from having sat in one particular kind of position. intention towards the global heritage and culture I think there really does need to be a shift, in the effort. Roy Clare succinctly addressed the critical
57 shift needed in a leadership approach: ‘Unless • Work in collaboration with policy makers and governance engages with the issues that we have cultural practitioners to implement cohesive discussed today - and I mean engages, not change within the heritage sector. oversees, not manages - engages with the issues, • Challenge institutional inertia in order to we will not move forward.’ welcome new and culturally diverse talent and ideas into heritage and cultural organisations. Conclusions: a leadership mantra • Reposition heritage and culture as core aspects of identity construction, social empowerment Through an exploration of the themes discussed and twenty-first century education. in this paper, a number of conclusions emerge as potential actions and/or recommendations for future leadership development - to strengthen Afterthoughts and re-vision organisational culture and approaches to heritage practice. They echo Roy In his advice to an aspiring writer who sought Clare’s advice for leaders to engage with the guidance on his new poetry and on the large issues that continue to challenge and shape the questions and human challenges that affected his heritage sector. Leaders were therefore urged to: work, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote: • Ensure that museums engage with the ebb ‘Have patience with everything that remains and flow of life, adopting a humanist unresolved in your heart. Try to love the questions approach to heritage practice – putting people themselves as if they were locked rooms and like and their communities at the centre of their books written in a foreign language. Do not look priorities. now for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a • Resist monolithic depictions of the past and question of experiencing everything. At present engage with the complexity and ambiguity of you need to live the question. Perhaps you will the human experience. gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself • Build on and wholly represent the UK’s experiencing the answer....’6 commitment to protect the diversity of Through ten letters, Rilke mentored the young cultural expressions. Franz Krappus at the start of his creative journey. • Challenge the homogenising impact of narrow His advice on the value and necessity of experience, ‘nationalist’ narratives by engaging with now philosophical inspiration for all creative dynamic and complex forms of heritage and practitioners, shows how mentoring can provide a identification. necessary roadmap and springboard for the blossoming of young talent.
58 6 RM Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, Foreword by K Nerburn, translated by JM Burnham, New World Library, 2000, p35 Young people are the legacies of our social and This clearly demonstrated how heritage cultural frameworks and interactions. Leadership collections were unable to curate or exhibit a tidy and legacy are inextricably linked. Across UK picture of the past. Collections were sometimes cultural policy, aspirations to inspire young limited and documentary evidence fragmented people, build for the future and create a and often biased. There were gaps in knowledge meaningful legacy are commonplace. But it seems and narratives that could have explored that these ideals now need to be more than a interesting critical problems (or simply questions) rallying call and become the fundamental basis for visitors to engage with; instead perpetuating that informs an intercultural and inter- the conventional constructions of ‘villains’, generational conversation, from which change ‘victims’ and ‘heroes’. Much of the reason for this within the sector should be conceived. traditional approach lay in the predominantly Eurocentric curation of 2007 exhibitions in Rilke’s advice to the young writer was not only to mainstream institutions. seek answers but to also love the questions and this advice is central to discussions about how The need to re-address the intellectual discourse creative and dynamic cultural leadership can be shaping heritage narratives, particularly in a developed. As repositories of knowledge and as curatorial context, was an issue raised by session educational institutions, museums, archives and respondent and emerging leader Machel Bogues. libraries have been traditionally perceived as His concerns and the views of other symposium places to get answers. It is true that heritage speakers and participants offer another critical collections provide some of the ‘proof’ of history. question: ‘When will young academics and It is also true that history (visual, material or curators from culturally diverse backgrounds be literary) is never objective, particularly when recognised as a critical component to the survival documented by the human hand. The historian and development of the sector’s discourses?’ Marc Bloch wrote that history is ‘in its essentials, Heritage leaders are urged therefore to the science of change’. acknowledge that, in addition to power, Heritage institutions, however, have done little to knowledge production and the development of shift the perception that they offer all the mainstream heritage discourses are processes that answers – or at least the definitive answer. The must also be shared. national commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in 2007 illustrates how the sector was profoundly challenged by the unanswered questions, complexities and ambiguities of the slave trade and its legacies.
59 6 circles of interaction, dialogue and exchange Janice Cheddie
Dr Janice Cheddie has provided a commentary which reflects on the symposium and the issues it raised about the relationship between culture and heritage and between diversity, leadership and creativity. Janice Cheddie is a researcher and writer on visual culture, cultural democracy and ethics. She has worked as a development consultant for the Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian Heritage and the Heritage Diversity Task Force since 2005. She was an Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London from 2000 to 2005. She has recently taken up a position as senior lecturer in art history and art education at the University of the West Indies, Cavehill Campus, Cavehill, Barbados.
60 Sometimes at an event, a phrase or an idea and create the circumstances, conditions and seems to capture the synergy and excitement of leadership necessary for cultural change. In this the moment in an elegant and exhilarating way. sense, ‘We are the ones we have been waiting It was thus with June Jordan’s Poem for South for’ can be taken as a clarion call to those of us African Women, originally delivered by the tasked with the role of making, shaping and African-American poet to the UN assembly on participating in culture. 9 August 1978, to commemorate the twentieth Furthermore, Jordan’s poem speaks to one of the anniversary of a demonstration by black South central themes of the symposium, namely the African women against the injustice of the question of cultural democracy. By invoking the apartheid regime in Johannesburg. concept of ‘we’, the poem locates leadership as The spirit of Jordan’s poetic line ‘We are the ones part of a collective democratic process that needs we have been waiting for waiting for’ resonated to be embedded within the leadership of throughout the Heritage, Legacy and Leadership London’s cultural institutions. symposium, capturing the ethos of this groundbreaking initiative. Cultural memory and memoralisation This poem’s last line managed to encapsulate the aims and ambitions of the Cultural Leadership It is significant that, in addressing politicians, Programme and The Mayor’s Commission on policy makers and government officials at the UN, African and Asian Heritage to widen the talent Jordan’s work further highlights the relationship pool of Britain’s cultural leadership. How was it between mainstream culture, heritage and that, some 30 years after its original delivery, memory. Her poem bears witness to an event that Jordan’s poem struck a chord echoing the was not highlighted within world history – but aspirations and challenges facing many of the of through the mobilisation of her cultural memory the heritage practitioners, policy makers, senior and her poetic voice, Jordan utilises the power of managers and heritage stakeholders attending memory to place unrecorded histories into the the symposium? The simplicity of Jordan’s poetic public sphere as an act of memoralisation. utterance reminded the participants that the role Doudou Diène, in his keynote speech, recognised of leadership lies not outside the gathered the role of cultural memory and memoralisation individuals – waiting for a mythical leader who within the development of heritage. He also will bring change – but within each individual. signalled the central role of women in preserving Jordan’s sparse poetry urges cultural workers to and transmitting cultural memory and tradition stop waiting for change to emerge, calling for through intangible heritage. He asserts that, those involved in cultural processes to seek out whilst heritage professionals and institutions play
61 an important role in preserving and protecting The use of intangible heritage humanises and the past as custodians for the future, there must ❛brings into living history, artefacts and also be a recognition of the role intangible documents, re-enacting the presence and heritage plays as an intrinsic aspect of human memory of the enslaved. culture. ❜ Both Doudou Diène and Lonnie Bunch cited the This process of humanising history helps to power of cultural memory as an act of embed the contributions of enslaved Africans into memoralisation, locating its use as a significant institutional and national consciousness. These aspect of a culture’s democratic and ethical cultural interventions remind us of the impulse. Furthermore, both speakers asserted importance of intangible heritage in preserving that these values are intricately linked to our the cultural traditions and humanity of the understanding and development of heritage and enslaved, maintaining the link between cultural culture. memory, heritage and acts of memoralisation. The seminal role intangible heritage plays within our understanding of the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade was further explored in The power of definition the symposium workshops. The year 2007 saw an Exploring the process of intercultural dialogue unprecedented number of commemorative and reciprocity as a key part of heritage, Diène events staged within Britain’s heritage institutions drew upon his own experience as Project to mark the parliamentary abolition of the British Manager for UNESCO’s Integral Study of the Silk slave trade in 1807. Britain’s heritage institutions Roads: Roads of Dialogue. As part of the have predominately held the histories and records development of this project he and a group of of the slave owners and the traders, while the colleagues were taken on a site visit to Buddhist memory of enslaved Africans, ‘the ghost of other sculptures in China. These ancient sculptures are stories’, is often missing. In order to address this located by Chinese officials as premiere examples gap many cultural institutions turned to of Chinese heritage and tradition. However, as intangible heritage in order to revive and honour one of Diène’s colleagues pointed out, these the humanity of the enslaved and their sculptures bore significant hallmarks of cultural descendents through music, dance, poetry and reciprocity and exchange between China and the oral traditions. rest of Asia. Though not immediately recognisable, the signs could be seen in the sculptures’ dress and physical features.
62 Through the use of this example Doudou Diène Culture, heritage and the public reminded us that the power to define through sphere ‘naming’ – a sense of place, space, belonging and the authorising of who has the power to speak – The central point of the exchange and debate is a socio-economic and political process. Thus the that took place throughout the symposium was power of definition can have multiple faces: it the relationship between culture and heritage. can be used by heritage institutions and national Speakers from mainstream institutions had governments to empower and enhance tended to position heritage – collections, artefacts intercultural dialogue and exchange, but also as a and documents etc – within institutions. This led mechanism to close down meaning and to lay to a discussion in the morning session about the claim to monocultural exclusivity. opening up of mainstream institutions to new models of governance, ownership and Diène’s remarks remind us of the importance of accountability, and how these models could be an inclusive power of definition in opening up embedded within institutional structures and the multiple narratives within London’s practices. collections. The afternoon session included a series of themed workshops that focused on the themes of: 2007 These multiple intercultural histories and Commemoration, Global Interventions and ❛dialogues can only be accessed and made Exchanges, Change Agents, Campaigns and known through collaborative research and Advocacy, and Developing Heritage Leaders. investigation between heritage professionals, These workshops allowed participants to look at academics and community-based individuals specific case studies to explore how a new culture and organisations. of leadership could be fostered amongst mainstream and diverse heritage stakeholders. ❜ The workshops also sought to examine how more This serves as a timely reminder as London’s equitable partnerships between mainstream and heritage institutions, academics and stakeholders diverse communities could be developed in order seek to re-examine the multiple points of origin to widen the pool of heritage expertise and and the deep cultural, aesthetic, material and intelligence and to explore the links between social entanglements present in the artefacts, Britain’s heritage and the rest of the world. documents and stories of London’s heritage. Another workshop sought to explore how to utilise London’s position as a world city to facilitate international exchange and cultural cooperation.
63 As the delegates returned from the workshops have at their centre a shared notion of humanity the symposium took a new direction, exploring that values and respects difference across race, the ethical dimension of heritage, legacy and class, gender, ethnicity, faith and sexuality, and a leadership. Many of the afternoon speeches democratic impulse to make sure that all cultures extended and highlighted some of the themes in are valued, shared and preserved equally. the morning discussions, taking forward the Early asserted that this inter-relationship between notion of intercultural dialogue and exchange to individuals and communities can be achieved only circles of interaction and inter-relationship through the creation of a ‘radical sameness’. This between human cultures. call for ‘radical sameness’ is not a return to Two of the symposium presenters, James Early concepts that privilege the view of the western and Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, sought to place male subject’s denial of difference, but rather an culture outside the institutional frame into a appeal for ‘radical sameness’ as an ethical wider anthropological and social context. relationship that holds, within its non-hierarchical Mobilising this concept of culture they both structure, cultural exchanges and openness to placed culture at the centre of individuals’ and explore what we have in common - a shared communities’ lives and interactions. culture and heritage. Reiterating Diène, Early and Glinton-Meicholas Broadening the notion of culture as asserted the importance of globalisation in the ❛transformative, democratic and ethical, Early production of trans-national identities which and Glinton-Meicholas returned to Jordan’s create the need for greater intercultural sentiment – cultural leadership is not about dialogues and exchanges. Thus Early and Glinton- institutions but about understanding each Meicholas critiqued the holding on to essentialist individual’s role in creating, modernising and notions of identity. Extending this concept further democratising culture. Diène, Early, Naidoo and Glinton-Meicholas later argued for recognition of our fluid identities that ❜ reflect our intercultural pasts and our globalised Furthermore, Early and Glinton-Meicholas argued futures. that individuals and communities – the ‘we’ of Presenter Sandy Nairne supported these views by Jordan’s poem – have an ethical responsibility in producing an analysis that synthesised the sharing, transforming and being accountable for relationship between diversity, leadership and what is produced, consumed and circulated creativity. Nairne’s analysis sought to present within cultural processes. It is in this sense, most diversity as a key factor in the drive for creativity, forcibly argued by Early, that human cultures excellence and innovation.
64 If ‘We are the ones we have been waiting for’ ❛is to be taken seriously as a call to action, culture and cultural leadership cannot be simply about institutions but more precisely about the power of individuals, communities and institutions to shape, manage, inform and deliver a shared heritage.❜
65 7 appendix
symposium programme Custodians or gatekeepers: leadership, national identity and inclusion City Hall, London 22 February 2008 Panel Chair: ♦ Baroness Lola Young OBE, arts and heritage consultant Welcome remarks Panel members: ♦ Colin Prescod, Symposium Chair; Chair, ♦ Roy Clare CBE, Chief Executive, Museums, Institute of Race Relations; Commissioner, Libraries and Archives Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian Heritage; and Heritage Task Force Member ♦ Dr Roshi Naidoo, co-editor of ‘The Politics of Heritage: the Legacies of Race’ ♦ Dr Hilary S Carty, Director, Cultural Leadership Programme ♦ Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery ♦ Jude Woodward, Senior Policy Advisor Cultural Strategy, Mayor’s Office ♦ Dr Lonnie G Bunch III, Director, National Museum of African-American History and ♦ David Kershaw, Chair, Cultural Leadership Culture, Smithsonian Institute Programme The panel explored the challenges and ethical ♦ Dame Jocelyn Barrow, Chair, Mayor’s issues concerning the role of heritage institutions Commission on African and Asian Heritage as custodians of history beyond a monocultural framework and their responsibility as mediators Keynote address for shifting notions of cultural diversity and national identities. ♦ Dr Doudou Diène, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related Workshops intolerance for the United Nations Commission for Human Rights The abolition 2007 commemoration, representation and ownership case ♦ Samuel Jones, Researcher, Demos, respondent study to the keynote address Workshop Chair: ♦ Caroline Bressey, Lecturer in Geography, University College London; Director, Equiano Centre
66 Panel members: ♦ Keith Tinker, Director, National Museums, The ♦ Richard Benjamin, Head of International Bahamas Museum of Slavery, Liverpool ♦ Chantal Girondin, Former Cultural Attachée ♦ Helen Weinstein, Director, Institute for the for France, South Pacific; film programmer and Public Understanding of the Past promoter ♦ Hakim Adi, Chair, Black and Asian Studies ♦ Clara Arokiasamy, Chair, Heritage Diversity Association; Reader in History, Middlesex Task Force; independent consultant and University advisor ♦ Martine Miel, Joint Co-ordinator, Rendezvous ♦ David Spence, Director, Museum in Docklands of Victory This workshop explored how international ♦ John W Franklin, Director of Partnerships and partnerships and exchange can enhance cultural International Programs, National Museum of pluralism in the heritage sector. African-American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institute Change agents, campaigns and The UK 2007 Commemoration of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807 brought into sharp focus advocacy ongoing issues related to representation and Workshop Chair: ownership linked to programming, consultation ♦ Esther Stanford, Jurisconsult, Grassroots Rising and equitable partnerships. Panellists explored Panel members: the lessons learned from 2007, while engaging in ♦ Lassell Hylton, Chair, Black History Foundation; a dynamic exchange around the way forward for international business strategist the commemoration of legacies. ♦ Izzy Mohammed, Community Outreach and Education Officer, Birmingham City Archives Global interventions and exchange ♦ Oku Ekpenyon, Chair, Memorial 2007; Workshop Chair: educational consultant and historian ♦ Prakash Daswani, London Committee, ♦ Marika Sherwood, Vice-Chair, Black and Asian Heritage Lottery Fund Studies Association; research fellow, Institute Panel members: of Commonwealth Studies ♦ Nima Poovaya-Smith, Director, Alchemy ♦ SuAndi, Cultural Director, Black Arts Alliance; Cultural Enterprise performance artist
67 The role of the change agent is critical in their perspectives on ways forward to ensure that highlighting and lobbying for solutions to combat Black, Asian and minority ethnic leaders are being cultural exclusivity, professional inequalities and identified, nurtured and integrated into the disenfranchisement. The workshop explored heritage sector. experiences and approaches to Black, Asian and minority ethnic advocacy reflecting on how lessons learned can inform the principles and Leadership and change in the twenty- professional practice of heritage leadership. first century Panel Chair: ♦ Developing heritage leaders Tao Wang, Chair, Centre of Chinese Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies Workshop Chair: Panel members: ♦ Naseem Khan OBE, writer, researcher and ♦ James Early, Director, Cultural Heritage Policy, policy advisor Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Panel members: Smithsonian Institute ♦ Margot Rodway-Brown, Training and ♦ Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, author and Development Officer, Victoria & Albert President, Bahamas Association for Cultural Museum; Director, Adornment Studies ♦ Errol Francis, Inspire Programme Manager, Arts ♦ Keith Khan, Head of Culture, London 2012 Council England The panel reflected on the issues and ideas ♦ Sue Hoyle, Deputy Director, The Clore needed for bold and innovative twenty-first Leadership Programme century leadership to advance cultural democracy ♦ Joanna Tong, Director, Bright-i Training and inclusion. Consultancy ♦ Caitlin Griffith, Head of Professional Issues, Museums Associations Closing remarks ♦ Exploring key professional and leadership Makeda Coaston, Greater London Authority development schemes, this workshop shared Senior Cultural Strategy Officer and Project approaches, challenges and outcomes and Manager, Mayor’s Commission on African and reflected on the implications for embedding the Asian Heritage legacies of these programmes. Panellists shared
68 acknowledgements
Heritage, Legacy and Leadership: Ideas and Intervention was conceived and developed by Makeda Coaston, Senior Strategy Officer at the Greater London Authority and Project Manager for the Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian Heritage (MCAAH). The initiative forms an important strand of the work of the MCAAH, which was established to build on the commitment to promote the heritage and histories of African and Asian Communities in the capital and to more broadly facilitate increased access to London’s shared heritage for all Londoners. The Heritage, Legacy and Leadership symposium represents the Cultural Leadership Programme’s and the MCAAH’s continuing commitment to working in partnership with the heritage sector to foster effective and inclusive leadership. The symposium was made possible by the support of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Renaissance London, The Museums Association, The British Council, and English Heritage. We would like to thank these organisations for their generosity. We would also like to extend warm thanks to the many individuals who helped shape the concept, content and thoughts represented in the symposium and this report. The symposium’s Chair, Colin Prescod, expertly steered the dialogue, finding links and sparks of divergence among perspectives from the UK, the USA, Europe and the Caribbean. We also owe a strong vote of thanks to all the plenary and workshop presenters, who set the framework for our discussions. Heritage, Legacy and Leadership was made possible through the skilful event management of Beverley Mason and the Medar Psyden team, whose meticulous planning and delivery underpinned the smooth- running of this international event. Thanks also to Johanna Thompson and Linda Kiff from the Greater London Authority for their production support. We are grateful to a number of individuals who have supported the editing and production of the Heritage, Legacy and Leadership report, particularly Mariam Agbaje, Diane Pengelly and Janice Cheddie for the Greater London Authority and Kim Evans and Becky Allen for the Cultural Leadership Programme. Special thanks must go to the symposium curator and animateur Makeda Coaston whose vision, creativity and energy inspired this event.
69 Heritage, Legacy and Leadership: Ideas and Interventions was an international symposium presented by the Cultural Leadership Programme and the Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian Heritage. It took place on 22 February 2008 at City Hall, London.
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