World heritage designation needs to be extended beyond the traditional definition of material structures, and also cover more temporary structures that hold heritage value in many cultures, according to a built heritage researcher speaking at Carleton Nov. 26.
“Authenticity depends on cultural content, and the immaterial attributes are just as important as material ones,” said Christina Cameron, the Canada Research Chair on Built Heritage.
Now in its 40th year, the progress and direction of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Convention was evaluated at the Herb Stovel Memorial Lecture by Cameron.
“The concept of heritage value has expanded beyond having a focus on the physical place to include intangible and socio-cultural processes,” she said.
“Although the text of the [World Heritage Convention] remains constant, its application has broadened with the evolving understanding of heritage.”
Broadening the definition of heritage is important for cultures that emphasize rebuilding, like aboriginal culture, said fourth-year architecture student Nikki Zhang.
A totem pole will not fit into a definition of heritage that includes only static things, like buildings, she said, because it will rot and be rebuilt.
She said the World Heritage Convention’s changing definition of heritage accepts dynamic things like totem poles, or Chinese and Japanese architecture, which are meant to be rebuilt and not last thousands of years.
“These kinds of things used to not qualify for designation,” she said, “but now they may.”
Cameron said that while diverse cultures have broadened the definition of heritage, participation in the convention remains Euro-centric.
“It came about as a response to the unparalleled destruction of heritage in the two world wars, and the ensuing period of industrialization and urban development,” she said, acknowledging the convention’s European roots.
She said the continuing pattern of Euro-centric participation is a “perpetual irritant within the World Heritage system.”
There are 962 World Heritage Sites (462 in Europe and North America) located in 157 countries, according to the UNESCO website.
Canada has 16 sites, including the Rideau Canal.
The lecture was hosted by the School of Canadian Studies and sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Herb Stovel, who passed away in March 2012, managed heritage conservation at Carleton’s School of Canadian Studies, and held numerous influential heritage conservation positions in Canada and internationally.
He wrote seven books and over 800 conservation reports and articles, according to the International Council on Monuments and Sites. UNESCO said he was “one of the world’s most renowned experts in heritage conservation.”
