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Writing OUR STORY

Hip! Hip! Hooray!

The National ICH Project is now in the data collection stage. The information collected will be used to create our first-ever Antigua and Barbuda Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Inventory/Database.

And the best part is: the stories captured about our ICH elements over the next few months will be coming from you—the general public!

Do you have knowledge about cultural heritage elements such as our traditional foods, houses, crafts, toys, and medicine?  Kindly share this information with us! The public is being invited to volunteer for interviews, submit suggestions, or share images and videos with us for storage in the database.  Please contact us here to be a part of this history-making process of writing our own story(ies)!

Know something? Share something! Become custodians of our cultural heritage!

(Photo Credits clockwise : Mr. Dwight Benjamin, Mr. Trevor Simon, and Dr. Hazra C. Medica)

Our trained data collectors have already begun interviewing and collecting information from community members, with the aim of capturing information from each parish in the coming months. Interviews and information collection in Barbuda are also slated to begin shortly.  The information to be collected is expected to register a range of elements from traditional festivals, foods, and music to traditional agricultural practices, social practices, craftsmanship, and architecture.

This first phase of the information collection exercise will run until February 2025 as an integral part of Antigua and Barbuda’s National ICH Project. The project is being funded to the tune of US$ 97,754, / EC$ 264,185.07 by the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund

The interviewing of and collection of information from communities follows the conclusion of two training workshops. The first workshop, the historic ICH Community-Inventorying Training Workshop – September 16-20—  facilitated by UNESCO Global Facilitator David Brown, was attended by twenty-six (26) heritage experts and enthusiasts who received specialised training in information collection methods and best practices.

This was followed by the Database Training Workshop on October 16, which was attended by a smaller cohort of seven (7) participants who were trained in the use of the archival software that will be used to create the Antigua and Barbuda ICH Inventory.

The National ICH Project’s full title is: Strengthening Capacities for the Implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Antigua and Barbuda.

It is a first-of-its-kind mammoth project that will inventory, promote, and safeguard important elements of our cultural heritage.  Antiguans and Barbudans, here and in the diaspora are being invited to share their knowledge of Antiguan and Barbudan cultural heritage. 

The implementation of this crucial intersectoral and inter-ministerial project is being led by Dr. Hazra C. Medica, the Cultural Advisor in the Ministry of Creative Industries, supported by Reginald Murphy CN, MBE, GOH, PhD, Antigua and Barbuda’s UNESCO National Commission Secretary-General.

For more/background information on the Antigua and Barbuda ICH project, please see our previous posts below:

A&B’s ICH PROJECT

ICH-Saving Ready, Set, GO!

This September 16-20, 2024, the country’s UNESCO ICH Fund-sponsored ICH safeguarding project will kick into high gear with a five-day capacity-building workshop. The workshop, open to thirty-two (32) participants, will accelerate the nation’s progress towards its first ever intangible cultural heritage (ICH) inventory. Of the thirty-two workshop participants, four spots will be reserved for participants from Barbuda. Travel and accommodation costs for Barbudan participants will be covered by the project’s funds.

Over the course of five days, workshop participants will be trained by the UNESCO Global Facilitator, Mr. David Browne, on:

  • The principles and methodologies for extensive documentation, with sessions on the use of audio-visual equipment;
  • The creation and tailoring of inventorying forms,;
  • The use of such forms in the field, and how to organize, store, and use data.

By the workshop’s end, participants will be equipped with the skills, methods, and expertise needed to formulate a national community-based inventorying implementation plan for data capture. The final day of the workshop will be devoted to a practice exercise in one of Antigua’s historic villages.

Following the workshop, participants will engage in a two-month data collection period. The data collected will be used to create the nation’s first ever database of intangible cultural heritage elements. A modest stipend of US $75 will be paid per data collector per 24-hour week for 8 weeks.

Register your interest for the workshop by sending an email to cultural.infosystem@ab.gov.ag.

Register your interest for the workshop by sending an email to cultural.infosystem@ab.gov.ag.

The creation of the first version/iteration of the national ICH database will be followed by a three-month period of data collection, using diverse methods and sources. This second data collection exercise will be used to record additional information for the national ICH database.

What is ICH?

The “intangible cultural heritage” (ICH) means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. (2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.)

Photo courtesy of Mr. Trevor Simon (CN)

The following are examples of ICH “domains”/ types:

✓ oral traditions and expressions

✓ performing arts

✓ social practices, rituals and festive events

✓ knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe

✓ traditional craftsmanship

For more/background information on the Antigua and Barbuda ICH project, please see our previous posts below: