Elävä aineeton kulttuuriperintö (Living Heritage. Background report on implementing the Unesco Convention for the Safeguarding of Intagible Cultural Heritage in Finland. ) (original) (raw)

The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was adopted at the UNESCO General Conference in 2003. In Finland the Convention was ratified in May 2013. The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture has assigned the responsibility for implementing the Convention to the National Board of Antiquities (NBA), which has now drafted a model for its execution in Finland. CUPORE – The Finnish Foundation for Cultural Policy Research has been collaborating in this preparatory stage in the context of background research. At the end of 2014 and at the beginning of 2015 Cupore conducted as part of its assignment two surveys, one aimed at experts in the field, the other open to all respondents but especially aimed at relevant stakeholders. The latter survey was posted on the website on intangible cultural heritage maintained by the NBA for respondents to freely answer. The objective was to map the model for the Finnish implementation of the Convention and also to chart criteria for preparing a national inventory. This final report of the study contains analyses of the mentioned surveys as well as expert articles that reflect on the analyses in more depth and explicate the definitions and concepts in the Convention. The articles especially examine the interfaces between intangible and tangible cultural heritage, the definitions and concepts of community participation and safeguarding, the role of archives in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and the role of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage from the viewpoints of intellectual property and copyright legislation. This report also includes the results of the 10 discussion groups organized by the NBA in autumn 2014/spring 2015. Among the themes of the hearings were all the five domains of intangible cultural heritage defined by the Convention: oral tradition, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, and knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, supplemented with the themes of cultural diversity, Swedish-speaking Finns, the Sámi and the Romani. The report also offers a more detailed analysis of the execution and administrative processes, preparing of lists and the listing criteria implemented around the Convention in Estonia, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands. The underlying goal of this study has been to create a roadmap for a Finnish model for implementing the Convention and fostering intangible cultural heritage more generally as well, and for raising awareness in the civil society about what our intangible cultural heritage could be. A steering group was appointed for the study in cooperation with the NBA, with representatives from the NBA, The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and Cupore. In the course of the study the steering group has, apart from the hearings, also consulted with other operators, researchers and experts in the field. (In Finnish, summary in English)