The Culture Ministry is collaborating with the local UNESCO office and the UNESCO cluster office in Jamaica to host a National Stakeholders Consultative Workshop aimed at promoting national awareness about the creation of a local intangible cultural heritage (ICH) inventory.
In a press release, the ministry said the consultation set for February 12-13 at Umana Yana will also look at the decade-old Convention for Safeguarding Countries’ Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and has the primary inter-related objectives of advancing the process of ratification of the 2003 United Nations Convention.
The workshop will feature presentations exploring issues related to the UN Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention and its safeguarding concepts, preservation and conservation initiatives, ICH Lists and Nomination Processes and cultural policies, among other issues. The key facilitators and presenters will be Himalchuli Gurung, from the UNESCO Sub-Regional Office in Kingston, Jamaica and Dr Kris Rampersaud.
The session will also attract stakeholder invitees such as the local administrative regions, the Education, Culture, Amerindian Affairs ministries, University of Guyana, Indo-Afro and Chinese-Guyanese Associations, museums and libraries.
“A country’s intangible heritage includes its music, drama, skills, crafts and other elements of culture that may be recorded but cannot be touched and interacted with, without a vehicle for the culture,” the ministry said.
According to the release, the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) – or living heritage – is the mainspring of humanity’s cultural diversity and its maintenance a guarantee for continuing activity.
