WHAT MAKES A HERITAGE PLACE?

Recently, Extent Heritage was a major sponsor of the 21st Global ICOMOS General Assembly in Sydney. Among the dozens of talks, scientific symposiums sessions, lectures and conversations across the week, a select group of Extent Heritage’s leadership team found themselves considering just what makes a heritage place. Hosted by our Director, Andrew Sneddon at the Extent Heritage Knowledge Cafe, Andrew questions what 'People Centred Heritage' means and how that is key to our business and project outcomes.

Extent Heritage Director Jim Wheeler has many years experience working on Country and undertaking research in partnership with Traditional Owners and Knowledge Holders. He says that there’s no simple answer. “Often the most important things to Aboriginal communities are intangible values, [such as] nostalgic places associated with people and times. The systems that we’ve built aren’t adequate for that. It’s a struggle, because technical things are easy to measure—it’s easy to put things on a list if they meet certain criteria. But social values are a little bit more amorphous. Extent Heritage are looking to be at the forefront of people-centred approaches to heritage.”

For Associate Director Leo Martin, engaging communities is key. “We are better at listening to community voices and we are getting better at taking feedback from communities. We’re trying to leave something behind, trying to leave some of our knowledge and our skills with them, so they can take their own knowledge forward… It’s a story, rather than just a list.”

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#intangibleculturalheritage #communityengagement #culturalheritage #socialvalues #heritage