BRIEFING OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE OF ARTS AND CULTURE ON HERITAGE MONTH

 

The Ministry of Arts and Culture together with the Members of the Executive Councils of Arts and Culture in the provinces (Arts and Culture Minmec) culture invites the nation to participate in Heritage Month Celebrations that will be taking place in September throughout the country. The theme that has been adopted for the next three years is "Celebrating Our Living Heritage ("What We Live")." For the purpose of this year, which coincides with our tenth year of democracy, the theme reads "Celebrating our Living Heritage (What We Live) in the Tenth Year of Our Democracy."

 

For the benefit of the nation, may I take this opportunity to define Living Heritage. "Living Heritage" means the intangible aspects of inherited culture and may include:

 

Living heritage like any other human activity emanates from time immemorial. It is a lived experience of the various communities. It is a totality of their experiences; the manner in which they deal with birth, the coming of age, maturity, marriage, old age and death; the manner in which they celebrate theses stages of human development; the manner in which they deal with poverty and destitution, how they build their economies, how they create their stability; how they co-exist with other communities as well as their natural environment, how they narrate their stories, how they sing and dance.

 

The kind of living heritage that we have today is part of the inheritance from our common human ancestry from time immemorial. Our living heritage ranges from oral traditions, oral histories, rituals, indigenous knowledge systems that have been preserved; that have undergone changes and thus have removed or added some new dimensions due to constant interaction among the various communities of the world that originally were separated by space and time distances. This interaction has further been enhanced by global cosmopolitanism that has been brought about by the advent of telecommunications, increased travel and tourism and thus reducing the distance of time and space among various communities.

 

South Africa presents a perfect model of a cosmopolitan society that is comprised of rich and diverse cultural heritage - hence the concept of the Rainbow Nation. It is therefore incumbent upon us as government to create an enabling environment for the expression and exhibition of various forms of Living Heritage of all population groups. This should happen in the manner that supports our ideals of the non-racial, non-sexist, multilingual and multicultural society. It should also happen within the context of trying to promote the sharing of cultural experiences among various communities because it is through that sharing and mutual appreciation of our common and diverse cultural heritage that we shall achieve national reconciliation, nation building, and social cohesion.

 

This year a different approach to the Heritage Month and Heritage Day Programmes for 2004 was adopted. It was agreed to discontinue the "National Event" that is usually characterized by a big event at the Union Buildings or any other venue. As a result, the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) and provincial departments envisage a decentralized Heritage Month and Heritage Day that will see the provinces, municipalities, Traditional leadership Authorities playing a prominent role in the roll-out strategy so that the Heritage Month and Heritage Day have an impact at a community level and generates capacity to mobilize the South African public around the concept of living Heritage. DAC and provinces hope to use the theme as a springboard to achieve a bigger vision of collecting, preserving and promoting our Living Heritage. Through this theme, DAC intends to establish a dynamic national database of both Living Heritage and Living Human Treasures since we are losing the latter almost everyday.

 

We have planned for focus weeks that will prioritize different elements of Living Heritage. Various stakeholders (provincial departments in particular) have begun to provide details of how they plan to implement programmes designed to popularize Living Heritage. The Department of Arts and Culture has forged a partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to ensure that there is a great deal of publicity around the theme and its programmes throughout the month.

 

The focus weeks are as follows:

 

WEEK ONE: MUSIC, DANCE

 

 

Music and dance programmes designed not only to showcase music and dance performances but also to link these to particular stories, events, ceremonies or rituals will characterize this week. This will also be an opportunity to demonstrate how music and dance performances have evolved overtime in a multicultural society and how various cultures have mutually influenced one another (trans-culturation). The rationale behind this exercise will be to emphasize our common heritage that could in fact serve as one of the building blocks for nation building and social cohesion.

 

The Department is working with the universities of Venda, Zululand and Fort Hare in the collection and preservation of Indigenous Music, Dance and Oral History. This week will present an opportunity to showcase the work that this project has yielded.

 

Of utmost importance, will be the active participation of local communities in the showcasing of indigenous music and dance performances.

 

WEEK TWO: INDIGENOUS/TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES

 

There is a tendency to exclusively associate indigenous /traditional knowledge and practices to the African section of our population. This has elicited a wrong perception that other population groups have never been traditional and have never grappled with challenges other traditional communities have dealt with. For instance, the production of food, medicine and ointments centuries ago is completely different from how it is done today. This is a common phenomenon among all the population groups and there is a lot that we can share in terms of how our ancestors engaged in judicious farming methods, how they made fire, how they dug gold and diamonds, how they conserved our environment, how they bred livestock, how they played the roles of midwives, how they brought up the young ones, how they use facials and traditional make-ups etc.

 

WEEK THREE: ICONS OF SOUTH AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE AND THEIR STORIES

 

This week will be dedicated to profiling and interviewing individuals or discuss achievements of individuals that have excelled in various aspects of living heritage.

 

We have used the concept of icons in order to simplify the concept of Living Human Treasures, which is the UNESCO definition of the same concept.

 

These icons are people who:

 

 

WEEK FOUR: NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON THE ROLE OF LIVING HERITAGE IN MORAL REGENERATION; SOCIAL COHESION, POVERTY ALLEVIATION; NATION BUILDING; RECONCILIATION AND IN FORGING A NATIONAL IDENTITY

 

We intend holding a national dialogue on the afore-mentioned national imperatives. The main purpose is to simplify these imperatives for the entire South African citizenry. It is further to discuss the manner in which South Africa can actually realise these ideals.

 

In recognition of the wisdom that resides in the South African populace, the Department, through the broadcast media, will engage the nation in a discussion on how various aspects of our living heritage can be harnessed to grapple with these national imperatives.

 

This national dialogue will to a greater degree lay a foundation for the development of a National Strategy on the Collection, Protection, Preservation and Promotion of Living Heritage/Intangible Cultural Heritage.

 

HERITAGE DAY: 24 SEPTEMBER 2004

 

RESTITUTION AND RETURN OF CULTURAL PROPERTY TO ORIGINAL OWNERS

 

In the initial document for heritage month that was submitted to the Ministers and the Members of the Executive Councils for Arts and Culture in the provinces, the sub-theme on restitution and return of cultural property to original owners had been recommended to be the fourth focus week of the Heritage Month. However, MinMec felt that this sub-theme was not relevant to theme that is basically about promotion of Living Heritage.

 

MinMec suggested that this theme be pursued separately due to its significance.

 

The idea or a theme was strongly influenced by the former Anti Apartheid Movement of Netherlands (AABN) through the Foundation for Audio-Visual Productions on Southern Africa (African Skies) whose plan is to return the Dutch Anti-Apartheid material to South Africa.

 

The AABN has presented to the Department of Arts and Culture a catalogue consisting of video footage and productions. The catalogue consists of 189 hours of historically valuable video footage and 15 edited productions about the support of struggle against apartheid in the Netherlands and on the co-operation between the Dutch Anti-Apartheid Movement with the liberation movements of South Africa, particularly, the African National Congress.

 

As a separate gesture, South Africa intends to return to Namibia archival and library material that has been kept in South Africa since after the First World War when Namibia (South West Africa then) became a Mandated Territory of South Africa.

 

On 24 September 2004, the DAC envisages a Hand-Over Ceremony that will witness a significant international reciprocal event in the form of the African Skies Project that will see the Dutch handing over Anti-apartheid archives to the government of South Africa and the latter handing over Namibian historical records stored in the archives of South Africa to Namibia.

 

This will be a significant gesture to the continent and to the rest of the world and it will strengthen the cause of repatriating cultural heritage objects to their original places. The gesture will be fitting in a year leading to South Africa hosting the World Heritage Committee Meeting in July 2005.

 

The ceremony involving Ministers of Culture and embassies will take place at the National Cultural History Museum (African Window), which forms part of the Northern Flagship Institution.

 

Further discussions are taking place between the DAC officials, AABN and Namibian officials.

 

CONCLUSION

 

We call upon government departments, non-governmental organizations, community-based organization, the private sector and individuals to participate in the preservation and popularization of living heritage.