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Cultural Heritage as a Means to Sustainability Experiences from Quebec and Canada

Cultural Heritage as a Means to Sustainability Experiences from Quebec and Canada Hertogenbosch Colloquium, Netherlands 3 March 2016 Laurier Turgeon, Laval University Quebec City, Canada. INTRODUCTION

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Cultural Heritage as a Means to Sustainability Experiences from Quebec and Canada

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  1. Cultural Heritage as a Means to Sustainability Experiences from Quebec and Canada Hertogenbosch Colloquium, Netherlands 3 March 2016 Laurier Turgeon, Laval University Quebec City, Canada

  2. INTRODUCTION • -In this presentation, I will explore the different ways in which cultural heritage, tangible and intangible, can be used to contribute to sustainable development, by drawing from Québec experiences within the larger Canadian context. • - I would like to consider cultural heritage neither as an end in itself, nor as a forth pillar of sustainable development, but as an important means to attain the three basic goals of sustainable development: protection of the environment, economic progress and greater social justice. • - If we use the anthropological definition of culture, taken in its broad ethnographic sense, it is a complex whole that encompasses knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. It becomes then clear that all change is brought about by cultural change. • - It is therefore suggested here that if we consider heritage as form of cultural action and social agency, we will be better equipped to achieve the policies, processes and practices of sustainable development.

  3. - Cultural heritage and sustainable development are two concepts that present certain analogies. They express a desire to better integrate the temporal dimension to social life, and to better articulate the past, present and future of societies in a spirit of hightened transmission of resources and intergenerational solidarity. • - Cultural heritage can be considered as a resource to be safeguarded, transmitted and valorized. According to the well-known cultural geographer, Lazzarotti, « The reference to heritage and its preservation and transmission have become the privileged means of the legitimization of sustainabilty at the planetary level» (Lazzarotti, 2013). Lazzarotti O., 2003, « patrimoine », dans Lévy J., Lussault M. (dir.), Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l’espace des sociétés, Paris, Belin, 2013, p. 692-693. • - My aim is to take heritage beyond its aesthetics values and to consider it as form of social and economic action, as a means of sustaining pride in oneself, of developing better relationships with others, as obtaining a healthier environment, greater social justice and durable economic development.

  4. Examples from Quebec and Canada: • - Quebec is on the only province and territory in Canada (12) with a majority of French speakers; it has a population of about 8 million inhabitants, of which 85% are French-speaking, the other 15% are English-speaking. The other provinces all have an English-speaking majority. • - As part of the Canadian federal state, Quebec, like the other provinces, has the right to pass legislation in the areas of language, culture, education, health and natural resources.

  5. - In this presentation, I would like to review recent legislation on cultural heritage and the different actions taken in safeguarding and valorizing cultural heritage, particularly intangible cultural heritage, to achieve sustainable development. • Legislation • The Quebec Sustainable Development Act of 2006 • - Quebec prides itself as being one of the first and still very few nations in the world to have adopted rigorous legislation on sustainable development • - According to the Minister of the time, Claude Béchard: “This Act brings Québec into the ranks of those few political entities in the world, among them a few American states (Oregon, Massachussetts), Manitoba, Luxembourg and Belgium, who have enacted legislation bearing specifically upon sustainable development. In so doing, and with the support of the people of Québec, we have responded to the urgent appeal of the United Nations, which in 2002 at the Johannesburg World Summit exhorted the nations of the world to accelerate their efforts to implement sustainable development”.

  6. - The act is the result of a vast public consultation held in 21 cities and towns of Québec, followed up by a parliamentary commission in 2005. • - Québec has focused its approach on legislation that puts sustainable development at the heart of government action by setting clear rules. Thus, the law: • establishes a definition of sustainable development for Québec (it picks up on the Brundtland definition : “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development is based on a long-term approach which takes into account the inextricable nature of the environmental, social and economic dimensions of development activities”. (It does not include culture as a 4th pillar) ; • introduces 16 principles to guide the actions of the public service; (The 16 principles which summarize the 29 principles of the Rio Declaration of 1992, include “Protection of cultural heritage”, defined as made up of property, sites, landscapes, traditions and knowledge. • commits the government to adopting a sustainable development strategy, a single one applicable to all departments and a considerable number of government agencies; • assigns responsibility to the premier to table the Government Sustainable Development Strategy in the National Assembly and report on its progress every five years; • commits departments and agencies concerned to identify actions they will take to help reach the strategy’s governmental objectives and annually report results of their undertakings;

  7. - The Act introduces sustainable development evaluation and accountability mechanisms to measure progress. Among other things, the Act commits the government to: • adopt a system of sustainable development indicators, and • appoint a Sustainable Development Commissioner reporting to the office of the Auditor General of Québec to ensure the transparent evaluation of results. • The Rapport on the application of the Sustainable Development Act of 2013 takes stock of the first years of the implementation of the government’s approach, from the time the Sustainable Development Act came into force on April 19, 2006 to April 19, 2013. - The Act is aimed primarily at government departments and agencies with the hope that they will set an example and that their actions will create incentives in civil society. - However, there are not coercing measures in the Act for neither civil society nor the civil service. In keeping with international law on sustainable development, the Quebec Act is geared to creating incentives, but not applying measures in a forceful manner. It remains a « soft law ».

  8. The Quebec Cultural Heritage Act of 2012 • - Cultural Heritage legislation in Quebec is much more constraining and coercing than sustainable development legislation. • - With the aim of modernization, and taking into account the evolution of the concept of cultural heritage, the province of Quebec has undertaken to reform the law applicable to the protection of cultural heritage by replacing the existing Cultural Property Act of 1972 with the new Cultural Heritage Act, effective October 19, 2012. • - The new law has broadened the definition of heritage to include to historic sites and material objects (architectural and archaeological heritage present in the Cultural Property Act of 1972) intangible heritage, cultural landscapes and historic figures and events. It provides for the making of inventories of these new categories of heritage the listing of their elements in the national heritage registry. • - It also enables municipalities the right to inventory, create registers, list and valorize its tangible and intangible heritage. So that heritage matters are no longer the sole responsibility of the provincial government, but also now a municipal affair.

  9. - Quebec’s new law also restricts the removal of cultural property from its territory: « no classified may be transported outside of Quebec (including other Canadian provinces) without Ministerial authorization ». • - First, there is the general obligation of maintenance. Whereas the CPA obliged the owner to maintain any classified cultural property or any historic monument “in good condition”, the CHA is much more exacting, in that it requires the owner to “take the necessary measures to preserve the heritage value” of any classified or recognized heritage property. • - Both the Minister and the local heritage council of a municipality may now, among other things, call for any measure that either of them deems necessary to prevent any real or perceived threat of deterioration of a property that may have heritage value, or to reduce the effects of, or eliminate, any such threat. • - Persons named or designated in an order under the CHA who transgress the order or refuse to comply with it, as well as any person who knowingly contravenes it, is guilty of contempt of court, which may result in the imposition of fines ranging from at least $2,000 up to $100,000 for a natural person and from at least $6,000 up to $200,000 for a legal person, as well as imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.

  10. CHAPTER I • OBJECTS, DEFINITIONS AND SCOPE • 1. « The object of this Act is to promote, in the public interest and from a sustainable development perspective, the knowledge, protection, enhancement and transmission of cultural heritage, which is a reflection of a society’s identity. » • - Although sustainable development is one of the primary objectives of the act, it is only mentioned once, in the first article, but the text never explains how to achieve it. This is a very similar situation to the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage of 2003; sustainable development is mention in the definition but nowhere else in the text of the Convention. • - To make the concept operational, Québec, like UNESCO, requires that people wanting to register elements of heritage on the lists have to provide a safeguarding plan and explain the measures that will be taken to contribute to sustainable development. These include the preservation of the heritage element itself, the dissemination of knowledge about the element, the involvement of the communities, the transmission of the elements and even the transformation of its use in order to envision new uses and practices.

  11. Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions 2005 • Article 13 – Integration of culture in sustainable development • Parties shall endeavor to integrate culture in their development policies at all levels for the creation of conditions conducive to sustainable development and, within this framework, foster aspects relating to the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions.  • - Canada has ratified this convention and Quebec has taken article 13 rather seriously. As a response to the requirements of this convention and to compensate for the lack of direction of the Cultural Heritage Act in this area, Quebec adopted a policy statement in 2012 called Agenda 21 for Culture aimed specifically at making culture and heritage active agents of sustainable development through five principles, that is by using them as: • 1) a tool for developing a sense of belonging and identity, • 2) a vector of intercultural dialogue, • 3) an instrument of social cohesion and democracy, • 4) a way of creating sustainable economic wealth, and • 5) a means of managing and structuring territories.

  12. Practice • - The second way of having heritage contribute to sustainable development is through practice. It is not sufficient to simply transmit traditions for the sake of transmission because if they are no longer used to fulfill social and economic needs, they will die off and produce unemployment. In fact, it is the best way to make it unsustainable. It is necessary to put heritage to new uses, to think of creative ways of using it, even to create new forms and expressions from it. Here are a few examples I have drawn for Quebec. A Catholic Church transformed into a training center for the Circle du Soleil

  13. Moulin à images, Robert Lepage. Used abandoned grain elevators 150 meter high and 600 meters long as as a screen to do a 40 minute light and sound projection to present the history of Quebec that contributed to the revitalization of the district.

  14. Inuit throat singing: a traditional method of singing between inuit women that is now serving as a breeding ground for the creation of new song forms for inuit artists. Tradition is a great source for creation. (1st ICH practice to be on the Quebec register of ICH)

  15. Preserving traditional practices through sports: Ice canoe races in Quebec, a traditional method of transportation in winter turned into a sporting competition (Quebec ICH Reg. • Courses de canot à glace inscrit sur la liste du patrimoine culturel immatériel du Registre du patrimoine du Québec en 2014.

  16. Using digital technologies to safeguard and disseminate tangible and intangible cultural heritage • On-line multimedia encyclopedia of the tangible and intangible heritage of French North America (340 articles, 300 000 single visitors per year since 2012, national prize for the best website in 2011)

  17. On-line virtual exhibit of the food heritage of Francophones in Canada to illustrate intangible cultural heritage (Museum of civilization, Quebec City). The virtual exhibit is now being presented as a physical exhibit in the Museum.

  18. Multimedia mobile the interpretation of 100 sites of Old Quebec with the help of 6 medias: text, 2D photos, 3D photos, videos, sound recordings and 3D animations that makes residents and visitors more aware of their heritage (two national prizes and an international prize in the USA in 2014)

  19. Conclusion • - Legislation on sustainable development is not very constraining and elaborate in Quebec as well as in other parts of the world (soft law). Legislation on heritage is much more elaborate and coercing (hard law). Therefore, I would like to suggest using heritage legislation as an efficient way of attaining sustainable development. • - Legislation is helpful, but it is not sufficient alone to ensure sustainability, cultural or otherwise. It is through practice itself that heritage can contribute in the greatest ways to sustainable development. But to do so, heritage must be transmitted, not solely as a replica of a disappearing tradition, but also be considered as a renewable resource and used in new and creative ways.

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