Municipalities at the Forefront: Protecting Intangible Cultural Heritage

The Conseil québécois du patrimoine vivant (CQPV) and the Quebec Ministère de la Culture et des Communications (MCC), with the support of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, have just released an English version of their guide for municipalities looking to protect intangible cultural heritage.

Intangible cultural heritage encompasses everything from oral histories and foods to songs and healing practices. It plays an important role in connecting us with our past and providing pathways to culturally driven sustainable development.

But it is increasingly coming under threat. The world is getting smaller; and cultures and societies are more intertwined than ever before. As a result, elements of our living heritage are at risk of being forgotten if we don’t take concrete steps to protect them.

That’s where UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage comes in. It’s also where local actors can make a big impact.

Safeguarding living heritage around the world

Since the convention was established in 2003, UNESCO has been working to foster living heritage around the world by providing a framework to identify, promote and revitalize intangible cultural heritage. To date, some 178 countries have signed on to the convention.

Although Canada is one of the few countries that has not yet ratified the convention, Quebec’s Cultural Heritage Act includes clauses that are inspired by it, making Quebec the first Canadian province to recognize intangible cultural heritage at the legislative level. And recently, the CQPV and the MCC released a guide, now available in English thanks to the support of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, to help municipalities and band councils better understand intangible heritage and take decisive steps to safeguard and support it. It offers some concrete strategies to help municipalities in Quebec and elsewhere make better use of those tools in order to help nurture our cultural legacy in the years to come.

Why municipalities?

Communities, groups or individuals should play the primary role in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Municipalities are well placed to engage directly with local practitioners, knowledge keepers, and memory and cultural institutions to accompany and support these local actors in their efforts to safeguard their intangible cultural heritage.

The guide for municipalities provides examples of concrete initiatives and policies that can help enhance intangible cultural heritage—whether it’s through arts, crafts, construction, agriculture, health, sports or leisure. The guide can serve as a model for other provinces and municipalities across the country.

Creating policies to develop living heritage

Although some municipalities may not necessarily use the term “intangible cultural heritage,” taking it into account when creating policy is critical in supporting the bearers of these practices and traditions.

Municipalities can also make sure that tradition bearers and practitioners are equipped to play a central role in keeping elements of intangible culture alive. To do this, they can provide resources, including financial support, to organizations or groups that bring local traditions to life. Municipal staff can also develop initiatives internally, such as organizing festivals or offering office space to groups engaged in promoting intangible cultural heritage.

Intangible culture is a critical part of how we experience our heritage—connecting us to our past, our present and our future. Ultimately, municipalities possess the tools to make living heritage an ongoing part of their communities.

Taking action at the municipal level

Municipalities can also support intangible culture heritage locally by:

• Investing in artisans who use traditional techniques
• Promoting activities that demonstrate traditional knowledge and skills
• Working with schools to build awareness
• Creating an inventory that identifies, describes and catalogues local traditional cultural practices
• Providing bursaries or prizes to people or groups devoted to living heritage
• Supporting community events linked to oral traditions, traditional dances and culinary traditions
• Offering traditional music classes

In Quebec, municipalities also have the power to give legal status to aspects of intangible cultural heritage as a way to increase awareness of their importance as well as highlight, safeguard and pass them on to future generations.