International Workshop on Traditional Knowledge Systems Museums & Intangible Natural Heritage in South Asia. Bringing people and their Heritage together Edited by Prof. Amareswar Galla Hyderabad, India 3-7 February, 2008 International Workshop on Traditional Knowledge Systems 2 Museums & Intangible Natural Heritage in South Asia. Executive summary ICOM’s Strategic Plan states that it is the international significance was at the same time displaced (in the environment organization of museums and museum professionals that is of global shock that then existed) as well as reinforced, by committed to the conservation, continuity, and communication demonstrating the compelling need for an articulate and to society of the world’s diverse natural and cultural heritage, rational vision for global collective action and shared values, present and future, tangible and intangible. The collection rather than reactive violence and oppositional politics. aspects of museums are the tangible elements whereas the interpretation aspects are the intangible elements. These In summary, the UDCD argues for a new understanding of the two aspects of museums are equally important for effective value of human difference. It is designed to protect and enhance interpretation of the heritage available in museums. the international intellectual, economic, spiritual and moral value of cultural diversity. The Declaration affirms this diversity Intangible Heritage is understood as “peoples’ learned as the vital resource to protect cultural rights, biodiversity, processes along with the knowledge, skills and creativity individual self-value, social harmony, cross-cultural that inform and are developed by them, the products they communication and to “humanise globalisation.” create, and the resources, spaces and other aspects of social and natural context necessary to their sustainability; these As an international policy framework, the UDCD can be adapted processes provide living communities with a sense of continuity to national purposes to help transform civil society. It has the with previous generations and are important to cultural identity, potential to improve our community harmony, our relationship as well as to the safeguarding of cultural diversity and creativity with the environment and the way we develop economies of humanity”. through a new understanding of the physical and human world. ICOM is concerned that the majority of discussions on heritage It is within this context that the ICOM South Asia Workshop involve heritage as comprising of cultural aspects only. As we explored the core themes of cultural diversity, tangible and further the intercultural dialogue on sustainable development, it intangible heritage, and sustainable development. Themes is becoming increasingly imperative to question the established and priority issues that have emerged are associated with the notion of intangible heritage and to develop a plurality of launching of the UDCD Action Plan at the Johannesburg World perspectives. In particular, given the commitment of ICOM Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, the adoption of the to sustainable development, there is an increasing demand United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from museologists and heritage experts in Asia for heritage to in 2007, the UNESCO Conventions, notably the 2003 Convention include both cultural and natural aspects. for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the The ultimate goal of the ICOM South Asia Workshop was to shift Diversity of Cultural Expressions. All of these momentous the understanding and practice of safeguarding of Intangible documents recognize the pivotal role of cultural diversity and Heritage within the context of sustainable development. The biodiversity, embodied in the cultural and natural heritage. Workshop explored how the integration of cultural diversity and biodiversity could be addressed in museums through policy, The plenary sessions were delivered by some of the most planning and programs, whether this happens at local, national influential and knowledgeable speakers in Asia on intangible or global levels. This ICOM South Asia Workshop initiative is so heritage, cultural diversity, biodiversity and sustainable important that the delegates are keen to see the momentum of development. The Workshop encompassed a unique series of the event continue and an action plan develop. collaborative intimate discussions that engaged community leaders, government, bureaucrats, academics, the media and Part of the agenda of the convening of the ICOM South Asia human service planners, spanning the local to national level in Workshop was to recognise, in a post-industrial, globalised South Asia. world environment, that human development must be understood as a process that occurs both locally, and within Roundtables and discussions were conducted on site in various a total environment. Planning for museum development is institutions dealing with intangible natural heritage. The final not just a function of economics, social or political change, two days witnessed the first ever museum and community well-being, human and cultural rights or sustainable physical engagement workshop and meetings in the tribal heartland of environments. Rather, it is achieved within and through India in Araku valley. interplay of all these functions. Intangible Heritage is the human The ICOM South Asia Workshop identified concrete face of globalization. recommendations for future actions at national and regional These processes, inter-related, iterative, and necessarily levels in order to protect cultural and natural heritage in South achieved through collaborative and simultaneous endeavours, Asia and these are being scoped. have been recognised for many years. They were first comprehensively yet succinctly described in the document that distilled much of the earlier thinking: the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, November 2001 (UDCD). The UDCD came into being in a “post- September 11” world – its Amareswar Galla International Workshop on Traditional Knowledge Systems 3 Museums & Intangible Natural Heritage in South Asia. Introduction Introduction by Pr. Amareswar Galla The participants in the Seventh Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly Amongst these recommendations were: of the International Council of Museums, on ‘Museums, Intangible Heritage and Globalisation’ (Shanghai, 2002) affirmed • the need to raise the capacity of institutions to document in their Charter the ‘significance of creativity, adaptability and heritage; the distinctiveness of peoples, places and communities as the • museums as facilitators for sharing intangible heritage framework in which the voices, values, traditions, languages, with the communities; oral history, folk life and so on are recognised and promoted in all museological and heritage practices’, and recommended • the need for integrated approaches – at government, policy museums as facilitators of constructive partnerships in the and planning levels – in the creation of cultural policies; safeguarding of humanity’s heritage. Indeed, the Shanghai Charter sets down activities to be implemented in attaining • museums as spaces for education on intangible heritage these goals, and stresses the importance of input from for youth; professional bodies in the preparation of an international convention for safeguarding intangible heritage. • museums that take a leading role in involving the participation of practitioners and communities, and On 17 October 2003, following the Second Proclamation of in encouraging cultural industries whereby the local Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, communities directly benefit… the General Conference of UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage which came In the wake of all these initiatives, today, in 2009, the time has into force in April 2006. With this Convention, intangible heritage come to launch a fully-fledged, holistic programme for the joins the ranks of natural, underwater and immovable cultural protection of intangible cultural and natural heritage. heritage in receiving protection through UNESCO’s normative instruments. In April 2004, considering the key role of museums in safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO held an Expert Meeting on the issue, the conclusion of which was: “ In view of the increased appreciation of intangible cultural heritage and its importance, museums will have to reconsider not only their approaches to objects, collections and their uses, but also to enter into new partnerships within and outside their walls, including partnerships with communities which are the bearers and transmitters of that heritage.” Thus, in 2004, during ICOM’s General Conference on the theme “Museums and Intangible Heritage” held in Seoul, South Korea, it was decided to launch a Programme to facilitate the role of museums and their relationships with the communities in the protection of cultural and natural heritage. Indeed, throughout the Conference, intangible natural heritage was stressed alongside intangible cultural heritage. In view of the urgency of providing a focus on the documentation of Traditional Knowledge associated with natural heritage, a capacity-building workshop on the Documentation of Traditional Knowledge: Museums and Intangible Natural Heritage was held in Hyderabad and the Araku Valley, India, in February 2008. There,