#CulturalHeritage #LivingHeritage #UNESCO #CulturalDiversity: "Nielsen travelled from the Greenlandic capital of Nuuk to the concrete block in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower that houses Unesco, the United Nations agency responsible for promoting international co-operation through education, the arts, science and culture. She’s banking that this vast bureaucratic organisation might be able to help save her cherished tradition from oblivion.
Most people are aware of Unesco because of the World Heritage sites it designates. Yet it also recognises what it calls “intangible cultural heritage” or, in a newer term, “living heritage”. These might be dances, songs, crafts, festivals or culinary practices associated with specific communities. Unesco keeps a list of living heritage to be celebrated and protected. As well as fostering pride in a tradition, inclusion on the list can bring economic benefits associated with having a higher profile, such as tourism and local funding. Greenlandic drum dancing and singing has been listed since 2021.
This project is an enormously complex undertaking with a single, lofty, unfashionably idealistic principle at its heart: the belief that culture can truly, tangibly make the world a better place. It demands a series of dizzying balancing acts to create a programme flexible enough to encompass practices as different as beekeeping, dry stone walling, midwifery and throat singing. To corral nearly 200 states, many with competing interests, to agree on a shared set of values governing cultural work. To contend with the upheavals brought about by wars, regime changes and natural disasters. To somehow convince a roomful of representatives from 194 countries that the survival of Greenlandic drum dancing is a matter of vital international concern."
https://www.ft.com/content/a376843f-c5d9-4ef6-9785-9928722ebeb0
to all!
looking for kind souls who are:
