Defining cultural heritage in Tonga: from local concerns to global policies Featured
Dr. Helu, Dr. Aurelie Condevaux, Dr. Viliami Latu and students of Tonga International Academy (Moana Unitech) after Dr. Aurelie Condevaux's Lecture
27 July, 2016. “Cultural heritage” - tangible as well as intangible - has become a major concern in Tonga as well as in many other countries worldwide was the topic of Dr. Aurelie Condevaux talk at Tonga International Academy yesterday evening.
Dr. Aurelie Condevaux is here in Tonga to conduct research on the development of heritage policies in Pacific countries goes hand in hand with the expression of concerns about intellectual property and commercial misuses of cultural practices. Condevaux works at the Institute for Research and Studies in Tourism at Paris, 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in France.
One of the responses to these concerns has been to set up new legislations, under the advice of regional and/or international organisations. This has resulted in the implementation of new legislations and/or public action oriented towards heritage conservation, on national as well as international levels.
On the international level, UNESCO policies are probably the best known, in particular the World Heritage Convention from 1972 and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage from 2003.
Social sciences have paid much attention to this phenomenon in the past decades. Social scientists' concern is not so much to define what is heritage, or how it should be safeguarded, but rather to understand why it has become a matter of such importance for peoples and governements.
The anthropological approach to heritage is based on the analysis that, among all the cultural practices that are passed on from generation to generation, only some of them are labelled as “heritage”.
The recognition of Tongan lakalaka as a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage of Humanity in 2003 by UNESCO and then its inscription on the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008 is one example of this process of selection.
Among the ten or so existing faiva fakatonga, lakalaka is the one that has been chosen for an inscription on the UNESCO representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Sociological or anthropological approaches of heritage are based on the idea that these choices are not neutral, but they reflect political and social concerns.
This lecture aims to examine how the safeguarding process of lakalaka both enlightens and reflects some aspects of social and political dynamics in Tonga, such as changes occuring in the hierarchical relationships and the Monarchical system.
Students and staff of Tonga International Academy (Moana Unitech) and members of the public attended Dr. Aurelie Condevaux's talk as part of Tonga International Academy (Moana Unitech) public lecture series.
