“Heritage on Exile”: Reflecting on the Roles and Responsibilities of Heritage Organizations towards Those Affected by Forced Migration
Issue: Vol 3 No. 2 (2016)
Journal: Journal of Contemporary Archaeology
Subject Areas: Archaeology
DOI: 10.1558/jca.31667
Abstract:
This short contribution is a simple reflection on the current refugee crisis, grounded in an active interest in the contributions heritage organisations can or should make towards ameliorating life-changing impacts on people directly affected by situations beyond their control. It also reflects on a career working within the UK heritage sector that can appear to me sometimes rather detached from contemporary life, or slow to respond to it. While recognising the importance of heritage in post-war reconstruction, this paper concerns the people themselves, forced to escape conflict and seek safe haven elsewhere at the moment of crisis, when they are at their most vulnerable, disorientated, traumatised and isolated. They, it seems to me, are the immediate concern. Post-war reconstruction (or debates about whether this is appropriate) can follow later.
Author: John Schofield
References :
Agamben, G. 1995. “We Refugees.” Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures 49 (2): 114–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/00397709.1995.10733798
Arendt, H. 1994 [1943]. “We Refugees.” In Altogether Elsewhere: Writers on Exile, edited by M. Robinson, 110–119. London: Faber and Faber.
Australian Heritage Commission. 2001. A Guide: How to Find Your Heritage Places – Migrant Heritage Places in Australia. Canberra: Australian Heritage Commission. Available online: https://www.environment.gov.au/resource/migrant-heritage-places-australia
____. 2002. Tracking the Dragon: A Guide for Finding and Assessing Chinese Australian Heritage Places. Canberra: Australian Heritage Commission. Available online: https://www.environment.gov.au/resource/tracking-dragon
Council of Europe. 2009. Heritage and Beyond. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Available online: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/heritage/identities/PatrimoineBD_en.pdf
De León, J. and M. Wells. 2015. The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
Gard’ner, J. M. 2004. “Heritage Protection and Social Inclusion: A Case Study from the Bangladeshi Community of East London.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 10 (1): 75–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/1352725032000194259
Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity.
Gokee, C. D. and J. De León. 2014. “Sites of Contention: Archaeological Classification and Political Discourse in the US-Mexican Borderlands.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1 (1): 133–163. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.133
Grenville, J. 2007. “Conservation as Psychology: Ontological Security and the Built Environment.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 13 (6): 447–461. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527250701570614
Historic England. 2015. Action Plan 2015-2018. Available online: https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/he-action-plan-2015-18/he-action-plan-2015-18.pdf/
____. 2016. Three Year Corporate Plan 2016-19. Available online: https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/he-corp-plan-2016-19/three-year-corp-plan-2016-19.pdf/
Kiddey, R. and J. Schofield, 2011. “Embrace the Margins: Adventures in Archaeology and Homelessness.” Public Archaeology 10 (1): 4–22. https://doi.org/10.1179/175355311X12991501673140
Lashua, B., S. Cohen and J. Schofield. 2010. “Popular Music, Mapping and the Characterization of Liverpool.” Popular Music History 4 (2): 126–144. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v4i2.126
Lechte, J. and S. Newman. 2012. “Agamben, Arendt and Human Rights: Bearing Witness to the Human.” European Journal of Social Theory 15 (4): 522–536. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431011432376
Mire, S. 2007. “Preserving Knowledge, Not Objects: A Somali Perspective for Heritage Management and Archaeological Research.” African Archaeological Review 24 (3): 49–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-007-9016-7
Read, P. 1996. Returning to Nothing: The Meaning of Lost Places. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139085069
Schofield, J., ed. 2014. Who Needs Experts? Counter-mapping Cultural Heritage. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
____. 2015a. “Forget about ‘Heritage’: Place Ethics and the Faro Convention.” In The Ethics of Cultural Heritage, edited by T. Ireland and J. Schofield, 197–209. New York: Springer.
____. 2015b. “‘Thinkers and Feelers’: A Psychological Perspective on Heritage and Society.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research, edited by E. Waterton and S. Watson, 417–425. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137293565_26
____. and E. Morrissey. 2013. Strait Street: Malta’s “Red-light District” Revealed. Malta: Midsea Books.
Smith, L. 2006. Uses of Heritage. London and New York: Routledge.
Thomas, M. 2001. A Multicultural Landscape: National Parks and the Macedonian Experience. Hurstville, Australia: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
____. 2002. Moving Landscapes: National Parks and the Vietnamese Experience. Hurstville, Australia: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Zimmerman, L., C. Singleton and J. Welch, J. 2010. Activism and Creating a Translational Archaeology of Homelessness. World Archaeology 42(3), 443–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2010.497400