Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth is a British Council’s action research programme exploring ways in which local culture can improve the lives of individuals around the world. From 2018, through pilot projects in Colombia, Kenya and Vietnam, the programme explores cultural heritage for inclusive growth as a global concept with local solutions. The projects are community- and people-led and are devised and managed with local partners on the ground, supporting local communities to promote their own cultural heritage, leading to economic growth and improved social welfare.
In Viet Nam, the in-country Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth project – known as Heritage of Future Past – works with music and film heritage, in particular valuable aspects that are under-represented or at high risk of disappearing. By employing innovative approaches that enable a variety of communities to contribute to and benefit from the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, Heritage of Future Past seeks to create inclusive and sustainable growth opportunities in the heritage sector. The project is implemented across two closely-linked programming strands: Community Culture Heritage and Film-Archive-Music Lab (FAMLAB). While activities in the former focus on the safeguarding of cultural heritage within the project’s target communities, Strand 2 reaches out to the creative industry at large – in particular to artists, creative practitioners and audiences – to serve as a catalyst for collaborative works that engage with Vietnam’s music and film heritage via contemporary pathways.
The strand of Community Cultural Heritage has been focusing on building capacity and creating opportunities for members in target communities to plan and implement activities to preserve and promote their heritage, including heritage tourism. From 2018 to 2021, with a focus on Vietnamese traditional music, activities have been implemented in four locations: Gia Lai, Kon Tum (working with the gong music of Bahnar people), Ninh Thuan (Cham ritual music), and Ho Chi Minh City (cai luong theatre). These activities aimed to ensure that communities and heritage owners could benefit from their efforts, in a comprehensive and community-based way, in preserving and promoting their cultural heritage. From 2021-2023, Community Cultural Heritage Challenge initiative has been developed as grant scheme to enable local communities to come up with ideas and receive support to design and implement actions aiming to preserve, promote and benefit from their cultural heritage. It is an opportunity for communities that had received training in the previous years to apply their new skills in the form of actions.
Co-organised by the British Council and the Cultural Heritage Department, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, this symposium is one of the project’s key events, aiming to reinforce the role of the community’s member both in the policy making process in cultural heritage sector and invite discourse around sustainable development based on the cultural heritage resources.