LIVING HERITAGE AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: THE 2003 UNESCO CONVENTION

The round table “Living heritage and indigenous peoples: the UNESCO 2003 Convention ” will bring together scholars and communities’ representatives to reflect on the concrete tools that the Convention proposes to governments, to support and protect the communities that embody the living heritage of humanity.
The presence of the Maori in New Zealand was sanctioned by the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840: a fundamental document that regulates the relationship between the New Zealand colonial government and the Maori. New Zealand is one of the countries that have not yet ratified the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Some important scholars will help us question this normative instrument as a possible space for the protection of the cultural rights of indigenous peoples from a legal, economic and intellectual property point of view:

– What tools and possibilities does the Convention offer to indigenous peoples (Valentina L. Zingari)?
– What are the reasons for the failure to ratify the Convention and what is happening in other countries of Oceania, such as Australia with the Aborigines (Lucas Lixinski)?
– What do indigenous peoples teach us about the safeguarding of living heritage, and what can the scientific and institutional community learn from their experiences also in terms of economic development as a key to effective safeguarding (Harriet Deacon)?
– How can intellectual property rights protect the creations and cultural expressions of these peoples (Benedetta Ubertazzi)?
– What reflections from the French contexts of the overseas territories, on the relationship between living heritage and autochthony (Thomas Mouzard)?
– Finally, how do the Maori tell us about their political identity and how do they represent what they are experiencing in the contemporary context (Wiremu Sarich, Horomona Horo and Rawhitiroa Bosh)?

The meeting with the Maori helps us to reflect on heritage as a tool for change.

Lecturers: Valentina L. Zingari, Lucas Lixinski, Harriet Deacon, Benedetta Ubertazzi, Thomas Mouzard, Wiremu Sarich, Horomona Horo, Rawhitiroa Bosh.