​

This conference is designed to create dialogue across Canada on the concept of ‘intangible cultural heritage’, as outlined in the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The link to the conference is here:

 

                                             https://ichincanada.opened.ca/

​

​

The dialogue will be set over a span of two days and will bring in practitioners, governments, community members, academics, students, and those interested in heritage. The conference aims to exchange knowledge and create connections for innovative projects, initiatives, and ICH-based work. This on-line conference will precede an in-person conference in April 2024 that will bring in practitioners, performers, ICH custodians from all regions in Canada and abroad, to showcase their heritage in tandem with discussions on ICH safeguarding, promotion, and transmission.

​

The conference will be presented in English and French with simultaneous interpretation, however, Indigenous and other languages will also be heavily showcased to illustrate the depth of linguistic diversity within each region in Canada.

​

ICH is not limited to academic knowledge. It is foremost important to consider the daily experiences of individuals belonging to different social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and their various strategies to deal with cultural safeguarding, language preservation, intergenerational transmission, Indigenous knowledge revival. In this regard, contribution from ICH custodians and culture-keepers is especially relevant. Because it offers new insight into the variety of ways in which human beings deal with the preservation of their intangible cultural heritage elements, the conference panels will be weaved in with a “showcase” of ICH elements throughout the two days.

​

Conference participants will be encouraged to submit a paper/proceeding for a publication entitled, Intangible Cultural Heritage in Canada: Concepts, Cases and Conversations, edited by Agnieszka Pawlowska-Mainville and Katharine Turvey and published by U of M Press (TBD). CCUNESCO will coordinate a public-facing, high-level executive summary document of the proceedings (example: Global Indigenous Circle on Open Science and Decolonization of Knowledge). Participants will be asked to provide speaking notes to the organizers ahead of time for the interpreters, but also as contributions to an outcome publication. Please see the ‘Call for Papers‘ tab on the ICH Dialogue website.