Agenda

Waterscapes, heritage, and politics of care

Magdalena Buchczyk
Visiting Scholar, NICHE
Institute for European Ethnology and Helmholtz Centre for Cultural Techniques, Humboldt-Universität - Berlin

Abstract
In her fieldwork reflection, Magda Buchczyk will explore the interplay between heritage practice and the contested ideas and practices of care. Focusing on the example of basket-making in the Mediterranean wetlands, it highlights the divergent ways in which different people, from makers, and designers to environmental activists, understand the notions of stewardship and safeguarding, both the wetlands and their heritage.
Increasingly, coastal erosion and climate change have prompted the implementation of new environmental policies in wetlands, limiting access of ICH practitioners to these vital waterscapes. Across Europe and Ramsar wetlands globally, safeguarding intangible cultural heritage has emerged as a contentious issue between social and environmental justice.
Considering the politics of care related to safeguarding ICH and environmental conservation, the paper explores ways of reimagining ICH as a holistic, multispecies practice weaving together people, plants, and the waterscape.

Organized by: Prof. Franca Tamisari, Laboratorio DEA, NICHE