`More people should understand value of heritage`

KARACHI, March 27: To highlight issues related to the conservation of heritage sites, a symposium titled `Conservation: heritage issues` was organised by the Endowment Fund Trust for the Conservation of the Cultural Heritage of Sindh in collaboration with the Sindh Department of Antiquities and the Heritage Cell, NEDUET, at the Mohatta Palace Museum on Sunday. Brian Goodey (Prof Emeritus of Urban Landscape Design, Oxford Brookes University) and Alfredo Conti (vice-president of ICOMOS) were the eminent speakers on the occasion. Prof Goodey`s presentation was on the topic of `Issues in heritage management: heritage interpretation`. He began by emphasising that `effort` in interpreting cultural heritage was important. He said interpretation added value to the experience of place and touched upon the touristic aspect of it. In the new equation of interpretation, he said, pleasure, learning and earning were important. Tracing the history of interpretation, he told the gathering that initially it was done through literature (pamphlets etc) and subsequently through audio-visual techniques and black box experiences. He said diverse audiences and what each group would benefit from such activities should also be kept in mind. Age was increasingly becoming a factor as older people knew more about heritage because they`d been around for a long period, and younger people got to learn things through the media. He remarked that gender was also a factor as men and women saw things differently. He said ways must be devised to get more people understand the value of heritage. He said since the local population had stories to tell (which may or may not be myths), it was important to explain the site to them in a subtle way so that the formal matters could enhance their understanding of it. Prof Brian Goodey referred to a mosque in the Indian city of Bijapur which was built in 1650 and compared it to a cathedral in London constructed around the same time. He wondered how ideas moved around which made comparisons between continents significant. Talking about the experiential and learning through books, he said visual learning was better than books. He said dressing up had to be done to heritage sites, events must be emphasised, recreation of certain activities should be organised, there should be maps, and tactile models must be built at the entrance of the site. It was essential to recognise stonemasons; they should be engaged in stonework, he said. Alfredo Conti`s presentation was on `Protection of cultural property: public/private partnership`. He started off by suggesting that the concept of heritage went through an evolutionary process which was why there were now new approaches to conservation. He said cultural heritage did not just include tangible aspects but also contained intangible factors such as music and dance. He said there was a time when heritage was useful only for the educated but today it had become a resource for (integral) development of communities. In that regard he cited examples from Latin America which was once administered by Spain and Portugal and where in the 1930s nationalistic tendencies in politics took root. He said in that region, despite some problems, there was a balance between the state and private enterprises. In Argentina national monuments were protected by the state. He talked about the historic city of Cartagena in Columbia in relation to private-public partnership. Alfredo Conti`s presentation reached an interesting stage when he discussed Quebrada de Humahuaca, a narrow mountain valley in Argentina, which had been used for communication between countries for 10,000 years. Using beautiful images of the valley and its people, he discussed its natural and cultural heritage, and its tangible and intangible components. He said the protection of sites in the region commenced in isolated ways and then religious buildings were protected by the government whereas some actions were carried out by the public. In 1994 it had 7,000 visitors and in 2006 the number increased to 100,000. He said the policies of the government were aimed at high-income visitors because of which tourism products were being developed. He also pointed out a few problems, including the fact that the local population had not been taken into account the way it deserved. Dawn Each presentation was preceded by Media Group CEO Hameed Haroon`s introduction of the distinguished speaker. He also made a comment that Karachi had now become a surrealistic nightmare and we seemed to have lost our visual and cultural identity. Mohatta Palace Museum Director Nasreen Askari also spoke.