The conference will be held Friday and Saturday, 16 & 17 May 2014, at the UCL Institute of Archaeology in Lecture Theatre G6 from 8:30 to 18:00. Conference posters will be on display all day Friday in room 612.
Naseer Arafat (Arafat Soap Factory,
Palestine)
Restoration in a crisis area: a
struggle towards development
Arafat discusses restoration works of Old Nablus in three periods of its
history: 1994-2000, under the management of the Municipality of Nablus;
2000-2008, when efforts were mainly focused on reconstruction and emergency
work to maintain historic buildings from falling; and 2008 to the present,
which coincides with the return of relative political stability and when
conservation management is focused on the needs of the local population and
empowerment of major stakeholders.
Jody Butterworth (British Library, UK)
The Endangered Archives Programme
(EAP): a global approach to saving vulnerable material
Butterworth discusses EAP’s aims to raise
awareness of vulnerable material and encourage initiatives that will combat
further loss and destruction. The project promotes a better understanding of
archival standards, particularly of cataloguing and preservation as well as
promoting scholarship and research of previously scarcely known archives. The
paper discusses and compares several past projects where true partnership and
training have taken place and produced successful outcomes for all parties
concerned, both locally and abroad.
Miriam Clavir (Museum of Anthropology,
University of British Columbia, Canada)
Conservation and collaboration
Clavir reviews changes in the last thirty years, using Canada as an
example, that have prompted conservation’s material-based field to incorporate
values related to the intangible attributes of objects in museum collections.
The following questions are then asked: today, are the conservation field’s own
self-image of what we do, the idea employers have of our competencies, and what
is taught in our conservation training programs, sufficiently addressing
concerns indigenous people have voiced in relation to the preservation of their
belongings? In addition, can we say that collaboration is now a
recognized conservation skill? She will illustrate three examples where
relationships are part of a project’s goal, not just conservation.
Chris
Collins (Natural History Museum, London, UK)
Building
Bridges between communities through Conservation, Anthropology and Natural
Sciences
This presentation will discuss conservation work
that engages a range of cultural groups from around the world with collections
of natural history research objects. The paper compares and contrasts the
influence of conservation and exhibition on these groups and the bridges that
are built through an understanding of the object and its values to a specific
community. The paper finally contrasts the differing expectations around
the world of cultures to Natural Science Collections and how interaction with
different communities has changed our conservation practice.
Anne-Marie Deisser (University of
Nairobi, Kenya)
Cultural and natural heritage conservation:
cross-disciplinary perspectives
Deisser discusses the ways in which conservators’ ideas
about culture and nature, and their potential partnership are mediated, shaped,
negotiated and contested through legal issues, ethics, local politics, and
respective ‘traditions’. Conservation is explored as a cultural practice, which
is conceived, debated, developed and performed in partnership, as a
cross-disciplinary response to international and local crisis of politics
and/or of socio-cultural values. In these contexts, conservators are concerned
with assessing, modifying, and/or integrating sustainable practices into their
particular settings and seek what partnerships between ‘culture’ and ‘nature’
can offer.
Dinah Eastop (National Archives, UK)
Learning from archives: integrating
preservation and access
Eastop introduces the
inter-disciplinary approach to conservation (understood as investigation,
preservation and presentation) adopted at The National Archives (UK) and links
it to the democratic mandate of the institution. The paper highlights the
underpinning conceptual and practical approaches used to make conservation
sustainable by integrating strategies for preservation and access. It
demonstrates the engagement of local groups in the development of archival
records, the democratic ethos of The National Archives, and how this ethos is
manifested in practice. The main conclusion is that the archive sector can
provide excellent models for managing cultural heritage in a way that is
sustainable in environmental, social and economic terms.
Pieta Greaves, Simon Cane, David
Symons, Cathy Shingler and Elizabeth Thatcher (Birmingham Museums and Art
Gallery, UK)
The Staffordshire Hoard Conservation
Programme and the Mercian Trail: reaffirming regional pride in our Anglo-Saxon
past
The authors explore the long-term impact of the Staffordshire Hoard on
the English Midlands region, and examine how the hoard conservation programme,
in collaboration with the Mercian Trail, is using the enthusiasm for the
Anglo-Saxon past generated by the hoard to create new opportunities for social
and economic development at a regional level. Central to this, the conservation
programme has developed new ways to share the conservation process with several
groups. The talk provides a glimpse into the way conservation can sit within a
project and help to illustrate different aspects of a project other than the
objects themselves.
Adam Guy (University College London,
UK)
Engaging the public with landscape
scale conservation
Adam Guy’s paper illustrates some misconceptions associated with
peri-urban spaces by considering the land along the Tidal Thames Estuary.
Territory, both terrestrial and marine, marked as empty on most maps, is
actually an intensively contested landscape under pressure from competing
claimants. In an economic and political climate where government
increasingly delegates conservation decisions to governance partnerships,
informing the public about longer-term policy options becomes crucial.
The Thames Estuary Partnership (TEP) approach is to take the public out
into the field to celebrate often-overlooked landscapes, and discuss concepts
and challenges in situ. The paper discusses emerging practices of
landscape-scale stewardship, and ways to involve the public in future planning
and development.
Dana Goodburn-Brown (CSI: Sittingbourne
Project, UK)
Conservation as a retail opportunity
Goodburn-Brown discusses the original motivations, operational logistics, and
issues of long term sustainability for the shopping mall conservation project,
CSI: Sittingbourne. This is an archaeological conservation partnership, which
originated following the unexpected discovery of a large high status 6th-7th
century Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Kent, England. The paper presents views on how
the project fits into a niche within the changing role of town centre shopping
precincts - providing an interesting, participatory, social and educational
venue for the community. It also discusses how the project partners worked
together to create an innovative exhibition and conservation facility to
conserve the 2,500 grave finds.
Jessica S. Johnson, Brian M. Lione, and
Kim Cullen Cobb (University of Delaware and Smithsonian Institution, USA)
The role of conservation education in reconciliation:
the example of the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of
Antiquities and Heritage
In recent years, many governments have been funding
cultural heritage preservation in the aftermath of conflict and other
disasters. This paper examines the Iraqi
Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil (Iraq), as
a case study in using cultural heritage education in support of reconciliation
and redevelopment. The authors discuss
the collaborative development of the project, review the evolution of the
educational programs over the last 5 years and the recursive approach to
curriculum review and development to support a renewed community of heritage
professionals in Iraq.
Catherine Magee (University
of Nevada, Reno, USA)
The Washoe People at Lake
Tahoe: the reciprocal relationship of tourism and cultural heritage
preservation
Magee highlights the tourist versus local tension expressed in the
actions of local and native populations to reclaim or reassert their authority
over their cultural heritage landscape from tourist use in Lake Tahoe,
California/Nevada, USA. The case study specifically focuses on the Washoe
Indian tribe, examining the transition of the Lake Tahoe landscape from a
Washoe summer gathering place to a shoreline occupied by tourist resorts and
summer home communities. It examines the reciprocal relationship of the
Washoe to tourist sites, and the cultural and ecological implications of this
relationship. The paper culminates with the link between Washoe cultural
practices and tourism at Lake Tahoe today.
Renata F Peters (University College
London, UK)
Conservation and engagement
Peters examines the ways in which
museums/heritage institutions and particularly conservators have been changing
their attitudes and approaches to use of objects in their care, against the
backdrop of an increasingly globalized world in which, counter-intuitively,
individual, community and local identity are increasingly emerging. The talk
explores whether conservators can take up a role of championing minorities’
aspirations without compromising conservation principles. The author argues that conservators can only fulfil
their potential when effectively engaged with key interest groups related to
the collections they work on.
Elizabeth Pye (University College
London, UK)
Objects and wellbeing
Pye explores the many ways in which people may value and enjoy objects,
and the various ways in which they are explored and appreciated. She also
discusses the effect of multiple values on conservation choices, and ways in
which conservators may make this enjoyment of objects more accessible to
others. She shows that objects may prompt stories – of the people who owned
them, or historical events – and how these stories may affect the conservation
process. The paper shows that objects should not be frozen into inactivity but
should be enabled to continue providing enjoyment on many different levels.
Flavia Ravaioli (University College
London, UK)
Selecting locally accessible materials
for use in preventive conservation
Employing adequate
materials is essential for the success and sustainability of conservation
strategies. This is particularly important when working in challenging
contexts, in which resources are very limited and specialised materials
unavailable. In such circumstances, the attempt to apply Western standards of
best practice may not be sustainable, and can disempower practitioners. This work
aims to identify the major issues linked to selecting locally accessible
conservation materials, and to discuss practical measures to overcome them.
Anna Teresa Ronchi (Politecnico de
Milano, Italy)
Community involvement in built heritage
conservation: a learning tool for local
development
Ronchi explores the topic of community involvement in built heritage
conservation, with the aim to identify the main success factors which can
emphasize mutual potentialities between conservation processes and local
sustainable development. A case study (the rehabilitation of the old town of
Birzeit, State of Palestine) is discussed, in which the role of local
communities was emphasized through various strategies, including
awareness-raising campaigns, public consultations during the planning phases
and direct engagement in the practice of conservation through voluntary work
and professional training. In the discussion, particular relevance is given to
the organisational set-up of the project, and effectiveness and sustainability
of preventive conservation are highlighted.
Manasa Sibanda (Great Zimbabwe
University, Zimbabwe)
Contesting power and knowledge in
conservation: a case of Sengwe in
Zimbabwe
Indigenous or
local knowledge is recognized to complement the so called modern knowledge in
conservation discourse. This paper looks at the Great Limpopo Transfrontier
Conservation Area (GLTFCA). It discusses ecological knowledge of the people
residing in the Sengwe wildlife corridor in Zimbabwe and outlines scientific or
modern approaches to conservation exercised by the GLTFCA. In so doing, it
illustrates how little has changed in conservation policy from the perspective
of the local people despite the paradigm shift from exclusionist approach of
the colonial era to participatory rhetoric and the advent of the so called
‘Peace parks’.
Craig Spence (Bishop Grosseteste
University, UK)
Open lab project: successfully
addressing the skills deficit of volunteer community archaeologists in
Lincolnshire
Spence discusses a programme of practical
support, skills training and awareness raising among local community
archaeology groups developed by a team of academics and archaeologists at
Bishop Grosseteste University (Lincoln, UK). The programme, known as the ‘Open Lab
Project’, successfully engaged five local groups from across the geographically
extensive rural county of Lincolnshire. The aim was to provide the volunteers
with the knowledge, skills and resources to work in an independent manner.
Equally important outcomes were an increased sense of self-worth and physical
and mental wellbeing amongst a number of the participants.
Dean Sully (University College London,
UK)
Creating conservation communities
Sully discusses conservation approaches
developed in partnership with communities, in order to reflect the aspirations
of the participants in the conservation project. His approach validates
conservation responses that seek to incorporate the multiple ways that people
care for, and use their own cultural heritage. This is discussed in relation to
the care of Hinemihi, the Maori meeting house at Clandon Park, a National Trust
Property in the UK. The increased participation of Maori in Hinemihi’s care has
resulted in a shift from a focus on the material authenticity of Hinemihi as a
historic building towards a Maori view of Hinemihi as a living being and an
active ceremonial meeting place.
Ephraim W. Wahome and B. Mugwima
(University of Nairobi, Kenya)
Conserving for whom? Sociological
impediments in heritage conservation in Kenya
Wahome and Mugwima examine the
challenges experienced in the conservation of cultural materials in Kenya since
independence and the contribution of communities in the systematic demise of
heritage in their custody throughout the country. The talk discusses the
potential causes of conflict in heritage conservation in Kenya today with
emphasis on public sensitization and poverty. The authors explore existing
national legal structures and their effectiveness in deterring deliberate
destruction of heritage. The paper also explores the benefits of conservation
for the custodians of heritage through an appreciation of the principles of
human rights as entrenched in the national Constitution and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
Gilbert K. Wafula (University of
Nairobi, Kenya)
Archaeological heritage and public
benefits: effectiveness of Kenya’s legal administrative and policy
framework
Members of the general public in many African countries share persistent
social and economic challenges including poverty, illiteracy and disease. Yet,
Africa possesses resources of diverse nature that could positively impact
people's livelihoods. Archaeological heritage is one of these resources. The
issue is who this heritage benefits and how. In a changing world where citizens
are increasingly recognizing and appreciating democracy and human rights, the
moral and legitimate rights of ordinary citizens in exploiting their heritage
cannot be taken for granted. This paper is aimed at specifically addressing the
effectiveness of Kenya's legal, administrative and policy framework in
addressing public interests and needs in the exploitation of archaeological and
related cultural heritage.
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