Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Face of Climate Change: Insights from Recent Workshop

As the world continues to change at a rapid pace and with threats such as climate change at our doors, cultural practitioners have realised it is important that the cultural and social practices that have defined us as a people do not disappear.

This was the focus of a recently held two-day Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) workshop at the Courtyard by Marriott, delivered by the Pinelands Creative Workshop as part of its Cultural Heritage Identification and Preservation (CHIP) project which is funded through the ACP-EU Culture Programme (Caribbean) and implemented by the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States with the financial contribution of the EU, with local support from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Director of Cultural Policy and Research with the Culture Division in the Prime Minister’s Office, Donna Greene-Rusinghi pointed out that climate change can actually adversely affect efforts to maintain cultural heritage.

“One major natural disaster can destroy our intangible cultural heritage, in that it can displace the people with the knowledge as well as any documented information they may have. We cannot take for granted that what we have now will remain forever,” she said.

“For example, there are some hotels under construction now that may not be here in the next 30 years, and we have a tendency not to take care of what we have, or to document it, so we have to do that before they deteriorate so we can tell our uncensored stories to the world.”

Workshop facilitator and Chairman of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee in the Prime Minister’s Office (Culture), Rodney Grant, highlighted how some of that heritage can easily be lost.

“What we are looking at is not just what you see physically, like a dance routine, but the thought process that went into it and the knowledge and skills of the practitioners. The biggest threat we face is that, of course, some of the older practitioners may die and if we do not map the knowledge they have, it dies with them, and there is also the risk of giving away knowledge without compromising the intellectual property aspect of it.”

He noted that Barbados is planning to submit documents highlighting the history of road tennis and the Barbados Landship to UNESCO in 2024.

“UNESCO covers some 199 countries, so once these reports go in, that will potentially expose these uniquely Barbadian practices to people all over the world,” he noted.

Chief Executive Officer of the Pinelands Creative Workshop, Sophia Greaves-Broome said her organisation has been committed to documenting the region’s cultural heritage for several decades now.

“Our cultural retention journey did not begin with the CHIP Project, but began on October 14, 1988, some 35 years ago, through the formed Cultural Fusion which allowed for collaboration and retention of varied Caribbean folk forms. In 2015, through an initiative supported by the Human Resource Development Strategy, we started another venture in terms of conducting a national scan of community groups that produce indigenous cultural products and services. [We] were able to compile a directory of these entities as well as engage in interviews with varied knowledge bearers to document the folklore, norms, historical practices and cultural heritage that inform contemporary cultural performances. This research contributed to the production of the documentary Cultural Routes – Pathways to Creative Expression.

In response to a call for proposals by Creative Caribbean, the CHIP project was submitted on July 9, 2022. It has focused on Barbados, Tobago, and Grenada, because of the historical relationship between those three islands. Along with understanding that relationship, the CHIP project intends to utilise ICH as a tool for community enhancement, improved cultural products and related economic activity, and overall improved relations among key stakeholders and grassroots communities across the region.

“As an organisation, the [COVID-19] pandemic period gave us the time and space to reflect and plan a new strategy, which included a renewed commitment to research and development. Despite the negative impact of COVID-19, climate change and other disasters, we have seen a revival and renewed commitment to traditional folk festivals within communities and villages across the Caribbean, including Tobago and Grenada, which are important in terms of social and economic growth within those communities,” Greaves-Broome said.

Meanwhile, one of the participants of last week’s workshop, Ireka Jelani, a 40-year veteran in many aspects of Barbadian cultural heritage such as healing herbs and basket weaving, spoke about the importance of programmes such as these.

She said they “add value to people in our communities, stimulating awareness of cultural practices and norms that exist, and will help us to focus more on what we do, preserving it and enhancing our skills in such a way that we do not only maintain the traditions but see how we can adapt them to the ever-changing environment.” (PR/BT)