Local conservation and community participation

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Myths, Monuments, Museums; New Premises? 16-18 July, 199

HERITAGE SURVEYING/MAPPING/RECORDING ITS INTEGRATION INTO THE PLANNING PROCESSES WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND TRAINING AND JOB CREATION

Abstract The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) is South Africa's official heritage body responsible for the protection of the country's cultural heritage. SAHRA is aware of the imbalance in the sites that have been identified and the lack of involvement of black communities in heritage, given apartheid. It is also conscious of the lack of integration of environmental management and heritage into development planning. The only option is to democratize the process. What I outline is a strategy for networking within communities, heritage and planning agencies, schools and non-governmental and community-based organizations to share and participate in this task. This includes a vigorous program of training in heritage surveying and mapping, which is linked to job creation. SAHRA's Heritage Surveying and Mapping Kit will be used to transform heritage within the ambit of methodically identifying and evaluating and mapping sites of social, political, cultural, historical and environmental significance. The essence of heritage work is in people valuing the environment from which they draw a sense of identity, in which they feel they belong. And in the same way, for the needs and values of communities to be recognized and acknowledged in heritage practice, people's participation in the identification of culturally important sites is essential. The program will be a healing process and create the space for people to tell the stories of pain and joy in the context of the identification program