Special Seminar on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention and for the occasion of the 5th International Conference on the Inclusive Museums, the special Seminar: "Living with Our Heritage: Legacy, Communities and World Heritage" will take place in Bridgetown, Barbados, on the 31st of July 2012.

The event will discuss how communities which are descendants of past hegemonic practices take ownership for the safeguarding of OUVs for which their localities are inscribed on the World Heritage List. Also, it will study the processes which enable empowerment of communities through the guardianship and interpretation of their World Heritage property.

This seminar is organized in the specific context where Barbados's first site was inscribed on the World Heritage List in June 2011 for Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison. It was indeed a momentous occasion for the Small Island Developing State of Barbados, which although a long and active State Party to the World Heritage Convention, continues to experience challenges in ensuring the protection and preservation of the island's colonial and post-colonial cultural heritage. At the community level, heritage development has in the past been stymied by several factors, but the central problem remains one of 'identity'. How do heritage practitioners help Barbadians come to terms with the historical legacies of slavery and colonialism, while forging an 'independent' identity?