International Symposium

Negotiating Intangible
Cultural Heritage

Repo rt29 November - 1 December 2017
Osaka, Japan

Organised byInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)
National Museum of Ethnology, Japan
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan

Published byInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)
2 cho, Mozusekiun-cho, Sakai-ku, Sakai City, Osaka 590-0802, Japan
Email: irci@irci.jp
Website: https://www.irci.jp
Printed in Japan, by Yubunsha Co., Ltd, March 2018
ISBN : 978-4-9909775-0-4© International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI),
2018

Contents
Foreword

IWAMOTO Wataru

1

Keynote Speech
Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage with regard to UNESCO and ICTM inCentral and Southeastern Europe
Svanibor PETTAN

4

Researchers’ Abstracts and Presentations

Session 1: Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
The “Heritage-Effect” in Ethnic China:

William NITZKY

14

Querying Intangible Cultural Heritage with Central Carolinian Seafaring’s
Extreme Tangibilitites
Vicente DIAZ

23

Navigating Intangible Cultural Heritage Discourses and Practices

Negotiating Heritage through Tattoo Pilgrims:
The Recontextualization of Traditional Tattoos in Contemporary Kalinga Society,North Luzon Philippines
Analyn SALVADOR-AMORES

Session 2: Defining Heritage LocallyTradition of Folk Performing Arts in Tokunoshima:

32

FUKUOKA Shota

42

Mohd Anis MD NOR

49

Don NILES

58

Session 3: Collaboration and Intervention
Empowering Communities through Archives and Narratives of Heritage
M.D. Muthukumaraswamy

68

Practices under the Cultural Property Regime in Japan

Defining Heritage Locally:
Negotiating Malaysian Performance Traditions

Celebrating Cultural Heritage without ICH Involvement:
Papua New Guinea Successes and Challenges

Return and Transfer:Music Intervention Initiatives at the UP Center for Ethnomusicology

Drumming and Marginalized Community:
Museum Documentation of a Cultural Heritage in the Making

Verne DE LA PEÑA78

TERADA Yoshitaka

87Session 4: Museum and Revival of Culture
Digital Technologies, Museums, and Community Engagement:

Graeme WERE

A Melanesian Case Study

Museum and Revival of the Ainu Culture

SAITO Reiko 104

Practicing Engaged Ethnomusicology in Museums and Archives:
The Revival of Han Opera and Mongolian Epics as Examples

General Discussions

96

XIAO Mei

110
119

Annexes
I. Remarks by Organisers
Welcome Remarks

YOSHIDA Kenji 124

Opening Remarks

IWAMOTO Wataru 126

Closing Remarks

IWAMOTO Wataru 128

II. Programme Schedule

130

III. List of Participants132

IV. Profiles

134

V. General Information

141

VI. IRCI Research Activities

FURUKAWA Sachie 144

Foreword
IWAMOTO Wataru

Director-General
International Research Centre for Intangible
Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)In the field of research related to the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in
the Asia-Pacific region, productive and practical discussions have not yet been welladvanced due to limited interactions and communication among researchers. Aiming tocreate a space for academic discussions on research for safeguarding ICH, and to strengthen
a network of researchers—which constitutes the foundation for research on safeguarding
ICH, IRCI co-organised an international symposium, “Negotiating Intangible Cultural
Heritage”, with the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) and the Agency for Cultural
Affairs, from 29 November to 1 December 2017 in Osaka, Japan.
The symposium aimed to analyse the ways in which the multiple levels of negotiation
between various actors/stakeholders affects the safeguarding of ICH. Although thesafeguarding of ICH has been one of the pressing issues in the academic field, what is
known today as ICH—or heritage in general—is not self-evident to local communities andit needs to be identified as such through complex processes.
To organise this symposium, a planning committee consisting of three researchers from
Minpaku (namely, Mr Terada, Mr Fukuoka, and Mr Iida) and four IRCI staff members(including Ms Ohnuki, Mr Kodama, Ms Furukawa, and myself ) was formed at the end of FY
2016, to discuss session themes and presenters.
The symposium began with a keynote speech by Mr Svanibor Pettan, a professor from the
University of Ljubljana and vice-president of the International Council for Traditional Music.
This was followed by presentations of 12 researchers from eight different countries, for the
symposium in four sessions around various themes. The symposium first explored theprocess through which some aspects of culture are selected (over others) and recontextualised as heritage, and how the concept of ICH defined and disseminated by
UNESCO has been negotiated in community-based efforts to preserve and invigorate
culture. The symposium also examined the nature of collaborative negotiation between
local communities and outside organisations (such as museums, archives, research
institutes, NGOs, and government agencies) in their efforts to safeguard ICH. Finally, thepotential for reviving lost or threatened ICH in the process of various negotiations, focusing
on museums, was also discussed.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)1

2

Foreword
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Presenters’ abstracts and PowerPoint slides, and summary of general discussions after all
four sessions were compiled in this report to disseminate the outcome of this symposium
widely and promptly for the benefit of those who did not participate in the symposium. In
the near future, a collection of essays based on the symposium is expected to be publishedby Minpaku.
With the contribution of all participants, this symposium generated many productive
outcomes.
I take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to all the presenters. Especially I am
grateful for Ms Analyn Salvador-Amores’s help for summarising the general discussions. I
would also like to pay my tributes to Minpaku, whose collaboration made this event
possible, and to the Agency for Cultural Affairs for financially supporting this project.

Researchers’ Abstracts&
resentations

PKeynote Speech

Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage with regard to UNESCO
and ICTM in Central and Southeastern Europe
Svanibor PETTAN
Professor and Chair
Ethnomusicology Program
University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Vice-President, ICTM

The questions of definition, re-contextualisation, collaboration, intervention, and revival,
singled out at this international symposium, are essential for critical understanding ofintangible cultural heritage. My presentation addresses these universally relevant issues ina part of the world geographically distant from the Asia-Pacific region, and examines theviews of scholars, governmental representatives, and immediate carriers of both potential
and recognized ICH cases in regard to their presence on the UNESCO lists. Like elsewherein the world, ethnomusicologists and ethnochoreologists in Central and Southeastern
Europe bring to the process their own regionally developped understandings of theirdisciplines, including theoretical and methodological backgrounds as well as attitudes
towards their informants / interlocutors / collaborators in the field. Specific relations within
the interactional triangle consisting of bearers of traditions, researchers, and officials resultin a myriad of cases on the top-down / bottom-up continuum worth of scholarly
consideration.
As a Non-Governmental Organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO, theInternational Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) is involved in several capacities in the
ICH-related agendas, and in a position to propose and advocate improvements. The“national principle”, shared to an extent by both UNESCO and ICTM, sometimes contradicts
local and/or regional nature of ICH and raises questions. How to best approach cases inthose regions that encompass carriers on both sides of political borders? How to address
ICH of transnational and other minorities, which do not fit in the “national principle” andof people inhabiting the territories with no official UN-confirmed status?
As we often learn more from the cases of rejection than from those of acceptance, thepresentation examines a specific case from Central and Southeastern Europe that was
rejected by UNESCO. Finally, each of the issues singled out in the symposium desciption is
discussed with regard to specific cases from Central and Southeastern Europe.

4

Keynote SpeechInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage
with regard to UNESCO and ICTM
in Central and Southeastern Europe
NEGOTIATING INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
Osaka, 29 November 2017

Svanibor Pettan (University of Ljubljana)

ICH, as defined by UNESCO, exceeds the usual scope of ethnomusicological research
past and present, no matter how broadly we define it.
Examples from two heritage-centered conferences:
Heritage Across Borders. Association of Critical Heritage Studies
4th Biennial Conference(Hangzhou, China, September 2018)
Heritage Internationalism and across borders; between theory and practice; tangible
and intangible; communication across boundaries; religion; governance, law,
management; and social justice; memory, time, forgetting; disciplines, methodologies,
dialogues; museums challenging boundaries; nations, regions and territories; cities
and landscapes; as movement; culture-natures and human/non-human relations.
Heritage 2018
6th International Conference on Heritage and Sustainable Development(Granada, Spain, July 2018)
Heritage and governance for sustainability; and society; and environment; andeconomics; and culture; and education for the future; and cultural tourism;
preservation of historic buildings and structures

5

6

Keynote SpeechInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

A dynamic and interactional triangle consisting of culture bearers (who are thesource of expressions of valuable local identities), researchers (who, as expert
intermediaries, use collaborative methodologies to achieve the expected results)
and various officials and policy makers (who affirm the results domestically andinternationally as ICH).

CULTURE BEARERS
Local identity expressions

RESEARCHERS
Collaborative
methodologies

OFFICIALS
Intangible cultural
heritage

INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL (IFMC, 1947-1981)
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC (ICTM, 1981-)
70 YEARS OLD IN 2017

MAUD KARPELES (1885-1976), the initiator
Roots in folk music and dance research

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)ICTMThe International Council for Traditional Music is ascholarly organisation which aims to further the
study, practice, documentation, preservation, anddissemination of traditional music and dance of all
countries.
It is a non-governmental organisation in formal
consultative relations with UNESCO.
Several ICTM members participate in preparation of
their national ICH proposals, represent theircountries at the UNESCO meetings, and/or serve as
evaluators.

COMPARATIVEMUSICOLOGYFOLK MUSIC RESEARCH ETHNOMUSICOLOGY

WHEN?

1885-1950s

From late 18th c. on

From 1950s on

WHAT?

Music of “primitive
peoples” and“High Oriental
cultures”

Peasant music

People making music

HOW?
WHO?

“Armchair”
Products
Top-down
Non-Western people

Fieldwork (extensive)
Products
Top-down
Own people

Fieldwork (intensive)
Processes
Collaborative
Any people

WHERE?

Elsewhere

Within own
ethnic/national realm

Anywhere

WHY?

Knowledge

National duty

Understanding

7

8

Keynote SpeechInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)REVISITING FOLK MUSIC RESEARCH,
ADDING COLLABORATIVE GROUNDS?

European folk music research, based on old songcollecting and historical musicology methods ofanalysis, was subject to critical notions by American
anthropologically based ethnomusicology for its"salvaging” attitudes.
Some intellectual environments interpret the newemphasis on heritage as a natural continuation of acouple of centuries long ideological and political
agendas, linked to national awakenings. Yet the others
warn about the potentially negative effects, asking thequestions like "whose heritage?", warning about the
new rise of nationalism turned against minorities andother vulnerable groups including refugees, migrants,
and asylum seekers.

TOPICS IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
WHERE IS HERITAGE?
Martin Stokes (2001):
Theory and culture; communities and their musics; ethnicity; nationalism; diasporas
and globalisation; race; sexuality and gender; new historicism; practice theory;
music theory and analysis.
Timothy Rice (2009):
1960s: native concepts about music; social behavior of musicians
1970s: event analysis; urban and popular music
1980s: gender; identity
1990s: politics and power; globalization
2000s: war, violence, and conflict; music and medicine.
Rebecca Dirksen (2012):
Representation; re-contextualization; reflexivity; objectification; preservation;
tradition; ritual; authenticity; performance; identity; nationalism; colonialism; postcolonialism; globalization; power; politics; resistance: agency; violence.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)“HERITAGE” AT ICTM SCHOLARLY MEETINGS: WORLD CONFERENCES,STUDY GROUP SYMPOSIA, COLLOQUIA
Late start, increasing presence• 9th ICTM Colloquium (1988): The African Heritage in the
Caribbean• 25th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology(11-17 August 2008): first theme “Transmitting Dance as
Cultural Heritage”• 28th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology(7-17 July 2014): second theme “Dance as Intangible andTangible Cultural Heritage”• 5th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music of the Turkicspeaking World (21-23 April 2016): "From Voice toInstrument: Sound Phenomenon in Traditional Cultural
Heritage of the Turkic Speaking World"• 5th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Applied
Ethnomusicology (5-9 October 2016): third theme “Intangible
Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Societies”“HERITAGE” IN JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL (JIFMC, 194968), YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL (YIFMC, 1969-80), AND
YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC (YTM, 1981-)
Late start, increasing presence• YTM 44 (2011): ‘Coming Out of the Stone: Dangerous
Heritage and the Death of the Twinhox Band’ by Kirsty
Gillespie and Nicholas A. Bainton.
• YTM 45 (2012): ‘The Saman Gayo Lues Sitting Song-danceand Its Recognition as an Item of Intangible Cultural
Heritage’ by Margaret Kartomi.
• YTM 47 (2015): ‘Cultural Tourism, Meitheal, and Representation of Heritage: Traditional Step Dancing andSiamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland’ by
Catherine E. Foley• YTM 48 (2016): ‘Safeguarding Intangible Cultural
Heritage in the Republic of Macedonia’ by Velika Stojkova
Serafimovska, Dave Wilson and Ivona Opetčeska
Tatarčevska

9

10

Keynote SpeechInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)ICH IN THE BULLETIN OF THE ICTM
Bulletin 083 (October 1993):"The 32nd World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music,
held in Berlin, June 16-22, 1993, wishes to draw the attention of all those inpositions of authority at UNESCO and otherwise to the multiple threats
confronting traditional cultures. There are many power structures that are
negatively affecting' cultural heritage. We consider it a basic human right forpeople to express themselves according to their own culture, including bymeans of music, dance, and other performing arts. In the 'International Year of
the World's Indigenous Peoples' we would like to stress that all voices shouldbe heard. The cultural diversity of the World is a treasure to be safeguarded forthe future and necessary for the quality of human life. The conference would
like to support UNESCO's programme to safeguard intangible cultural
heritage."
Bulletin 101 (October 2002):
For the past seven years, the ICTM has been collaborating with the Intangible
Heritage unit of the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Division in the production of the
UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music of the World.

ICH IN BULLETIN OF THE ICTM (cont.)
Bulletin 104 (April 2004) (Krister Malm, ICTM President):
We are an organization in “formal consultative relations with
UNESCO”. This status was reconfirmed last year andprolonged for another six years. During the past two years theinteraction between ICTM and UNESCO has increased
substantially. This is a very important channel for making ourknowledge and expertise available to the communities of theWorld in order to fulfill the main objectives of our Council.
Our most important contribution to UNESCO since our lastGeneral Assembly meeting is probably our involvement withthe shaping of the Convention for the Safeguarding of theIntangible Cultural Heritage.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

1. Re-contextualisation of
Heritage and Community
Five ways of life of traditional music in Slovenia(a) original rural context (reference to an annual ritual);(b) folklore ensemble (staged performance with clear division
between the performers in costumes and the audience)(c) folk music revival (participatory involvement in peasantmusic and dance practice in predominantly urban settings)(d) art music realm (use of traditional music as a raw material,
mostly for choral and symphonic music)(e) popular music realm (traditional music in modern
arrangements for commercial consumption)

2. Defining Heritage Locally
Why was the ICH proposal titled Istrian
Ethnomusical Microcosm, which testified to theshared heritage of local Croatians, Italians, andSlovenes in the Istrian peninsula and opposedcommon national limitations, turned down?
The case of Slovenian minority in the Carinthia andStyria regions of Austria:(a) shared repertories in respective languages(b) bilingual songs

11

12

Keynote SpeechInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

3. Collaboration and Intervention
The case of Romani musicians in Kosovo:(a) As a disputed territory, Kosovo remains outside of the UN,
UNESCO and ICH frameworks;(b) Romanies are a minority population there;(c) As musicians, they connect in a unique manner theethnically, religiously and linguistically distinctive local
communities;(d) Romani musicians are in some cases the only people
knowledgeable of local non-Romani musical heritage.
Where are the limits of collaboration and intervention is sucha case? Could such a case get a chance to reach any of the
UNESCO ICH lists?

4. Museum and Revival of Culture
The case of a folk music revival concert of the Culturaland Ethnomusicological Society Folk Slovenia in 2017:(a) Elder generation vocal group perfoms an old song,learned from historical recordings vs. younger
generation vocal group performs their own newsong, put together according to their own
experience of present (and not past) time.
(b) Song as a meeting point of Slovenia and Ireland;(c) Slovenian song performed by a resident of South
Asian origin

Session1

Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community

In many societies, especially those where cultural transmission is
unconsciously achieved, notion of cultural heritage is notnecessarily evident. This session problematises the formation of
ICH by focusing on popular cultural awareness and related
activities. How do people recognise a cultural element as theirown? How do they place it at the center of their activities? How
do they make their peers conscious of their identity? These
questions will be the key to our deeper understandings of ICH.

Chaired by Don NILES
Presenter 1. William NITZKY
Presenter 2. Vicente DIAZ
Presenter 3. Analyn SALVADOR-AMORESThe “Heritage-Effect” in Ethnic China:

Navigating Intangible Cultural Heritage Discourses and Practices
William NITZKY

California State University, Chico (USA)

China is undergoing a heritage craze. Since the ratification of the UNESCO World Cultural
and Natural Heritage Convention in 1985, the national government down to county andtownship level authorities have promoted the safeguarding of distinct tangible andintangible heritages. Cultural heritage has become a political tool for authorities to reflect
on the past, celebrate the present, and restore national unity. In addition, cultural heritageis recognized as an untapped economic resource in a context of rapid economic reform andmodernization.
In line with new economic and national imperatives, China became one of the first countries
to sign the influential, 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage,
bringing the concept of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) ( feiwuzhi wenhua yichan) into thedomestic realm. The adoption of global heritage system brought a series of discursive
transitions, including terminology and classification of what constitutes heritage, legal
reforms and regulations, and a national-wide application of a heritage preservation
discourse. While domestic conceptualizations of “folk culture” (minsu wenhua) and “ethnic
culture” (minzu wenhua) have long been used in China to denote the quotidian, living
culture of local populations, the recent arrival and appropriation of the intangible cultural
heritage concept has introduced a complicated recontextualization process. Ethnic minority
cultures, in particular, have come under the gaze of state bodies, social groups, andindividual actors who strategically employ and disseminate the notion of ICH for economic
and political ends, leading to a plurality of interpretations and connotations of ICH that
often diverge from the international “authorized heritage course” (Akagawa 2012; Smith
2006).
This paper analyzes the politics of safeguarding ethnic cultural practices and expressions asforms of intangible cultural heritage. Government, academic, and social group efforts tosafeguard ethnic minority cultural attributes as ICH deserves attention because they arebased on mixed conceptualizations of ICH and methods of preservation, the recreation andcommodification of cultural assets, a recognition of heritage practitioners, and indigenous
understandings of “living heritage”. Paying particular attention to the official state,academic, and local discourses in China, this paper examines to how ICH is negotiated in
ethnic China. Interrogating ICH discourses will reveal how heritage is a new mechanism ofgovernance in rural ethnic China and a means for individual stakeholders to actively
navigate claims over their past and present.

14

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)The “Heritage-Effect”
in Ethnic China:

Navigating ICH
Discourses & Practices

William Nitzky, PhD
California State University, Chico

What does the notion of ICH
bring to China?
 Nationalism and Social Cohesion
 Heritage as an Economic Resources New Policy and Practice

2

15

16

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)“Pragmatic Nationalism”:
Culture is the Spirit of the
NationPatriotic Education, Civilized Consciousness, a
Sense of Chinese-ness
Employing evidence of preserved cultures,historical collective memories, and living
cultural traditions to showcase achievementsof the Chinese civilization.

“In Chinese, there is a saying that intangible cultural
heritage (ICH) is the homeland of our spirit. With ICH,
we know where our home is.”Yang Zhi, director, International
Training Center, UNESCO
Intangible Cultural Heritage in Asia

3

Heritage as Capital
Culture revalued as economic
resource
State and private investment
for infrastructure enhancement
and tourism development
Addressing regional economic
disparities as strategy for ruralethnic China
42017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

17

Heritage Policy and Practice inChina

52 World Heritage
Sites
China is 2nd in theWorld
5National 2011 ICH Law

39 Items on UNESCO
China Heritage Registration System ICH List
Level

Items

Inheritors

Provincial

8786

9,564

City

18,186

N/A

County53,776

N/A

National

1219

https://www.culturalheritagechina.org/

1986

Under the ICH Umbrella:
Minsu Minjiang 民俗民间Minzu Wenhua 民族文化6

18

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Ethnicity and Heritage

Ministry of Culture “special focus on intangible cultural practices ofthe minority ethnic groups”
This marks a shift in ethnic policy to ethnic minority culture aspart of the national patrimony and spirit of the civilization.
1) Effort to build new cultural economies in rural ethnic China
2) Protect ethnic and cultural diversity of the nation

433 out of 1219 domestic ICH items are from ethnic minorities
14 out of 38 items listed on UNESCO ICH registry

ICH as a Solution to “Minority
Question(s)”?
Chinese government attention to recognize, celebrate, andexploit the living culture and vitality of ethnic minority
communities.
Safeguarding strategies led by government, private, andscholar actors:
 Top-Down Government Recognition and Registry
 Inventory and Documentation
 Heritage Tourism
 Alternative Approaches for Community Participation andCultural Ecology

7

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Negotiating ICH:
Bronze Drum Heritage 2400 Bronze Drums World-wide 1400 Bronze Drums in HeChi Red River Basin,
northwest Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
9

Lihu township, home to the sub-branch of theYao, the baiku Yao, or Duonou, has thelargest collection of bronze drums of any
township in the region, with 215.
Huali is the largest village in the township.

10

19

20

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Spiritual Power and Ritual
Function of Duonou Bronze
Drums
The drum possesses a sacred value
for its use in communication withthe supernatural world.
Sound of the bronze drum “opens
the path” (bojie) to thesupernatural world for thedeceased soul to reach theancestral land.
11

Across Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan, theBronze Drum has become a symbol of southern
identity and ethnic minority cultural vitality andachievement.

12

Hechi River Basin was deemed anationally registered ecological zone forbronze drum culture.
Traditional Practices of the Bronze Drum placed on
pending status on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural
Heritage list in 2010.

13

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Revaluing Heritage
Heritage movement brought a
spotlight on Duonou culture.
Bronze drum is now a key
cultural symbol of ICH.
Expanding tourism industry
situates the life of the drumin a new regime of value andperformance, complicating
its sacred practice.
14

Defining Boundaries:
Breaking Singularization of theBronze Drum
Villagers conflicted over introduced
secular practice of the drum thatchallenges its sacredness:
Heritage loss and misunderstandingor
Heritage redress that does not
infringe on ritual system
15

21

22

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Conclusion
The new ICH discourse and government-led campaign inChina has complicated the social lives of ethnic
populations, the cultural landscapes of rural locales, andcultural expressions and practices of living heritage.
ICH in China has cultivated a reconceptualization andrevaluation of heritage and ethnicity, introducing new
approaches to protection and exploitation. It has incited
new cross-cultural encounters and power relations
between the ICH discourse and diverse social actors, fromgovernment leaders to village residents.
The local manifestation of the ICH discourse, seen among
the Duonou and bronze drum, produces tensions in theway subject positionalities of local social actors shift andclaims over heritage are made in China.

Acknowledgements ofSupport International Institute of
Education, US Dept. of
Education
 Mellon Foundation
 Chiang Ching-Kuo
Foundation
 Minzu University of China
 California State University,
Chico, College of Behavioral
and Social Sciences Arizona State University,
School of Human Evolution
and Social Change Guangxi Ethnology
MuseumSpecial thanks to
all thecommunities andartisans of Guizhou
and Guangxi!

William Nitzky, PhD
wnitzky@csuchico.edu

Querying Intangible Cultural Heritage with Central Carolinian
Seafaring’s Extreme Tangibilitites
Vicente DIAZ

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (USA)

What does it mean for the ongoing important and admirable effort to recognize traditional
Micronesian seafaring knowledge systems within the rubric and category of “intangible
culture” determinations when the very efficacy and remarkability of traditional seafaring lie
squarely in the conditions and demands of and for full-bodied and total sensory
attentiveness and usage of equally highly material conditions and processes? When Kanaka
Maoli filmmaker and author, Sam Low, in his award-winning book Hawai’iki Rising, observes
that the canoe “invites” the crew to “dance,” the highly visceral experience of rocking androlling, pitching and swaying aboard such a craft at sea amidst the tangible evidence ofcolliding swells not only offers important information to the seasoned and skilled navigator
about directionality and climate conditions, these informative dance “moves” are only apart of a cosmos of information that requires that a navigator devote his or her entire being― the full sensate; not five but nearly nineteen senses, as contemporary cognitive scientists
now number and have measured the ways humans can apprehend reality ― in order toeffectively calculate time, distance, and position at sea for a successful voyage. Traditionalseafaring, this is to say, is not only anything but intangible; it is viscerality to the max:
extreme tangibility. And if efforts to register and recognize traditional seafaring cite its
efficacy as evidence for its significance and importance, it is nothing less than the pay-out
of full and informed attention to highly material and embodied conditions and forces that
account for seafaring’s success, and hence, its value. Such a collision of its own raises a
dilemma: does the otherwise laudable effort to gain recognition for traditional seafaring
under the rubric of intangible cultural heritage discourses and criteria unwittingly obscureor devalue seafaring’s extreme tangibility, a condition about which we stand to learn themost valuable cultural lessons of its practitioners.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

23

24

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Querying Intangible Cultural Heritage
With Seafaring’s Extreme Tangibilities
Vicente M. Diaz
American Indian Studies
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Dancing with Testicles
There is a story – something of a parable -- of a blind navigator from
Kiribati, whose body was so attuned to the ocean that in the calmest ofseas and clearest of skies (conditions that deny the usual “reading” oftelltale signs from nature) could tell directionality and positionality by laying
his testicles on the bow of the boat.
Because waves and swells have distinct and recognizable traits (their“looks” and “feels”), and because they are associated with rising andsetting stars (and islands, around which waves and swells behave yet
differently in recognizable ways) , we are told that the man born without
sight could
actually feel the surrounding environment in order
to ascertain where he happened to be in relation towhere he just came from and where he wanted togo.

“The canoe invites one to dance”--Sam Low, Hawaiki Rising

25

26

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Elsewhere, Kanaka Maoli filmmaker and author, Sam Low, observes theabilities in a different way in his award-winning book, Hawaiiki Rising:
The canoe “invites (the crew) to dance” (2013; 122).
By this, he refers to the highly visceral experience of multi-sensoried,
fully-embodied deciphering of just how a well-engineered craft itself“dances” to nature, that is, to the patterned and anomalousenvironmental forces, behavior, conditions that navigators have formillennia investigated and marshaled into remarkably successful long
distance voyaging capabilities, something they did long before, andsomething that seafarers in the 21st century
continue to do in the face of an ongoing historyof European and Asian colonial encroachment in
the Pacific.

This paper foreground seafaring’s extreme tangibilities in the hopes of
helping unveil residual shortcomings in the otherwise laudable effort tosafeguard cultural treasures in the Central Carollines through the ICH
rubric. It may well turn out that the problems lie not just in presumptions
about intangibility, but also in the terms of ‘safeguarding’, in residual
outdated ideas that undergird the culture concept, and in presumptions
about safeguarding in general.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Central Carolinian seafaring’s “extreme tangibilities” offer a cautionary
contrast to culture concept’s presumed intangibilities. If the turn to“intangibility” is now codified as the better way to safeguard culture andheritage, wresting them away, respectively, from equally resideal
preoccupations with monuments and edifices on the one hand, and fromessentialist and even fascist ideas of culture on the other, I argue that wehave not yet sufficiently appreciated the materiality of profoundly
embodied cultural practices, particularly how the most intangible ofrealities are in fact culturally embodied and manifest, and in morematerially conscious as well as materially unconscious ways than what
we imagine. Indeed this project assumes that we have not exhausted
deep meanings in material and embodied practices.

The parable of the blind navigator whose balls dance on the line also
intimates how parables in religious discourse are supposed to function: as
stories with specific moral lessons to impart. I hope that the moral of thisstory is the possibility of developing cultural policy as it is informed bytraditional cultural practice, and that it not be read as an instance of biting
the hand that feeds one inasmuch as ICH culture and practice areappearing increasingly to be the new hegemon in the field of culturalsafeguarding, especially when a big part of what I do is staked on goodstewardship and cultural advancement.

27

28

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)The Dance
What specifically beckons the alert and informed navigator aboard a
purposefully built craft is the rocking and rolling, the boat’s pitching andswaying, to distinct and combined sets of waves and swells, winds andcurrents, the interpretations and calculations of which would yield, for theskilled and knowledgeable “dancer,” the craft’s directionality, position atsea, even the status and condition of the craft itself, and, perhaps mostimportantly, the prospects of life and death, along a specific voyage.
These conditions and attributes aren’t abstract
intangibles. The navigator, it is said, can be identified
out a group of men by his blood-shot eyes (from lackof sleep). But, in addition to having the legs and thebalance of a dancer, a navigator will also rely on morethan vision, and it is this fundamental character of fully
embodied, multi-sensoried, viscerality of seafaring
culture that ultimately gives it its famous “legs” ofnotoriety and success, of efficacy and ability.

The dance upon craft so engineered as to allow it to also dance tonature is only a part of a cosmos of tangible information that requiresthat a navigator devote his or her entire being to the craft. Such a
devotion involves the full sensate, and not just the five commonly listed
and popularly known of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, but the
now over dozen and a half that cognitive scientists are identifying andmeasuring both as discrete forms and in combination with each other.
These include the senses of danger, of timing, even ofotherworldliness, that comprise part of the complex ways that humans
actually apprehend and humanly instrumentalize
the world around them. Our not apprehending this
instrumentality risks mystifying tradition, including
the materiality of spirituality and other “intangible”
values and ideas.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)The Tangibility of “the Craft” – material knowledgea) the skilled and learned practice of discerning the meanings of the dancing
boat – ie, the knowledge and skillsets that we recognize to be part ofindigenous voyaging knowledge, knowledge also known in environmental
sciences as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or TEK.
b) the physical craft itself, the engineered canoe as the embodiment of
Indingenous Technology or ITa) the ‘choreography’ between TEK and IT

Organic Expressions
Crafts as organs, organs as feelers, as sentient beings, beings asorganic and animate objects that know: asymmetrical hulls represent
gendered, divisions of labor, spars in the lateen sail and riggings idealizesocial harmony, the outrigger for social balance, the finer points ofcarving hull lines, literally embody humans and society: the mast (au) isa penis; engineered triangles, vaginal (Olofat’s “seat”); the vertical spar is“male or man” (rhurhu mwan), the boom is “female or woman” (rhurhu
rhapwut) as are the windward and leeward sides of the hull respectively.

Indeed, the Central Carolinian word forcanoe (waa herak) is blood vessel.

29

30

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

From Dancers to Computers in Loincloths
The visceral knowledge craft of paying close and skilled attention (TEK)to the behavior of the engineered physical craft (IT) also includes learned
abilities in calculating multiple and often confusing variables and factorsthat one encounters in nature. Ken Brower observes in Song for Satawalthat navigators are “computers in loin cloths.”
As a living, organic, tradition in challenged survival, and in efforts torevitalize it across the Pacific, seafaring tradition is quintessentiallyeverything but intangible. More: however under-acknowledged andunder-investigated, there is in fact an undeniable dimension andrequirement of profound viscerality associated with seafaring, and it isprecisely this condition and requirement that makes the tradition soefficacious, so successful. So materially real. Canoes don’t only havesensibilities (of course they have sentience!, they are technologizedsensibilities).

To Extreme Tangibility, and Beyond. Seafaring’s extreme tangibilities
describe the ways by which traditional canoebuilding and navigation
knowledge and practice feature and require fully embodied, total
sensoried attention to the equally embodied and visceral interaction
between human perception and the felt environmental impact upon
specially engineered craft for the purposes of successful movement.
So vital and so significant is seafaring’s extreme tangibility – so muchrides on the craft in the double sense of the word -- that even thosedimensions and characteristics that we might identify as its intangible
elements can also be accounted for in remarkably material ways withsupremely material consequences.
If, that is, we only learnt more about its lived practice and conceptual selfembodiments in relation to specific and changing localities andenvironmental conditions, including its changing social environments.

31

Negotiating Heritage through Tattoo Pilgrims:

The Recontextualization of Traditional Tattoos in Contemporary Kalinga Society,North Luzon Philippines
Analyn SALVADOR-AMORES

University of the Philippines Baguio (Philippines)

What are the various and changing meanings ascribed to tattoos in the context of identity
formation? How does tourism influence the intangible cultural heritage of local cultures?
How are traditional tattoos recontextualized in the contemporary period? The recent
exodus of tourists from foreign, local and diasporic Filipinos to a remote village in Buscalan,
Kalinga north Luzon Philippines to be inked with batok (traditional tattoos) from Whang-ud,
a renown 99-year old tattoo practitioner in a remote village in Buscalan, Kalinga north ofLuzon Philippines have gained global attention and a controversial subject worldwide. The
reinvention of batok changed the meaning and context of these traditional tattoos, just as
have the motivations of people for embarking on long mountain treks like “tattoo pilgrims”
to experience the pain of tattooing from Whang-ud. The steady flow of visitors trekking thevillage to get tattoos prompted Whang-ud to train young women as apprentice to tap ink
on the bodies of tourists and the growing demand for tattoos. The batok, once formerly
practiced in the confines of collective and place-based rituals have now been associatedwith contemporary tattooing practices as a form of individual expressions of identity, choiceand fashion.
The popularity of batok can be attributed to the stature of Whang-ud, the rarity of her
designs, and the hand-tap method of tattooing would validate the “authenticity” of theexperience by urban and diasporic Filipinos, as well as foreign tourists. Originally, thesebatok were associated with the Igorots, the different ethnolinguistic groups in the Cordillera
region. Today, the very same tattoos associated with headhunting as symbols of savagery
that were criminalized during the American colonial period at the turn of the century, arenow ostensibly part of the trend of modern tattoos. These tattoos are now appropriated as
visible and permanent markers of Filipino identity. Noticeably, the “mass production” ofthese tattoos may have gained meaning in contemporary tattoo practices, but have lost the
deeper symbolic associations of these tattoos including the absence of rituals performedon this once sacred and place-based practice. The pain, perforation of the skin, andpermanence (embodied) to construct individual and social identities through appropriationof the batok resulted to the re-contextualization of the tattoos in the present. Analyzing thecontemporary tattooing practice of the Kalinga, highlights the varied channels throughwhich these practices today are negotiated, changed, contested, transformed or continues
within the context of modernity.

32

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)`

Negotiating Heritage through Tattoo Pilgrims:!
The Recontextualization of Traditional Tattoos
in Contemporary Kalinga Society, North
Luzon Philippines•`

Analyn Salvador-Amores, Ph.D.!
avsalvadoramores@up.edu.ph!
Department of Social Anthropology!
University of the Philippines Baguio!
PHILIPPINESNEGOTIATING HERITAGE THROUGH !
‘TATTOO PILGRIMS’Part 1!
HOW IT USED TO BE

Part 2!
HOW THEY ARE NOW

Traditional Kalinga Tattoos

CommodiÞcation of
Tattoos!

33

34

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)My queries:!

•

What are the various and changing meanings
ascribed to tattoos in the context of identity
formation?

•

How does tourism inßuence the intangible cultural
heritage of local cultures?

•

How are traditional tattoos decontextualized in thecontemporary period?

Anthropological Lens

TOURIST GAZE

Tourists determine thelocals’ roles in meetingthe demands andexpectations.
!

The host comply withthese demands becauseof expectations imposedon them.
!

John Urry (1990, 2011)

TOURIST BORDER
ZONEHOST GAZECOMMODIFICATIONOF TATTOOSTATTOO PILGRIMSBoth local and tourists
meet at the tourist
border zone thereby“inventing traditions”
that are now “staged”
but commodiÞed.

Point of view of thelocals towards tourism,
and focuses on the roles
and actions of hostcommunity in responseto the tourists’ needs
and demands.!
!

John Urry (1990, 2011) and
Edward Bruner (2013)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)INTANGIBLE CULTURALHERITAGE
NEGOTIATING HERITAGE THROUGH ‘TATTOO PILGRIMS’HERITAGE

TOURISMREINVENTION OF
TATTOOSCOMMODIFICATION OF
TATTOOSREPACKAGING OF HERITAGE

Heritage and tourism are collaborative industries, thatheritage converts locations into destinations and tourism
make them economically viable as exhibits themselves.

-Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (1995), Theorizing Heritage!

Tattooing, both its practice and design, has
become a significant component of global
popular culture and the focus ofanthropological studies worldwide.

35

36

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)•

Batok or batek is thegeneral term for the‘traditional’ tattoos of
the indigenous groups
in the Philippine
Cordillera, north ofLuzon.

“Igorot girls, 1930’s” photographed by E. Masferre (Schiffmacher and Burkhard 2001: 30). Right- Photograph fromthe H.O. Beyer Collection

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)!
!

‘Tattoo Pilgrims’: !
Tourist and the Host Gaze

Photo courtesy of Earvin Pernias

Buscalan, Tinglayan
Kalinga37

38

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Traditional tattoo patterns from my fieldnotes
to the skin (Tapping Ink, Tattooing Identities,2013)!
2013)

Female teenagers ages 12-14 are now tattooing
in the village to accommodate high demand of tattoos
by tourists visiting Buscalan.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)!
!

Tattoo Pilgrims: !
‘Repackaging Heritage’

The Manila Fame Controversy, October 20-22, 2017

39

40

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Conclusion•

The coming of tattoo pilgrims in the village opened new avenues of
economic activities for Whang-ud’s community, as it catered to tourists
needs.!

•

More than a vibrant new economy, it also fosters heritage awareness forthe tourists and locals as they have been getting inked with the same
tattoos that they abhorred 40 years ago from tattoos becoming a stigma tostatus; and had become conscious of their ethnic identity and heritage.!

•

Tattoos have become a part of self-expression that have done their bit
to erase the pejorative notion behind tattoos with new meanings; thisreßects the demographic shift of tattooees;•

Tattoo pilgrims created: (1) a shifting economic landscape by tattoos aspart of commodiÞcation and (2) at the same time reviving tattoos in thepresent, thereby repackaging notions of heritage.

!
!
!
!
Acknowledgements
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Ethnographic Museum!
University of the Philippines Baguio

Earvin Perias!
La Salle University - St Benilde

Session

2

Defining Heritage LocallyToday, it seems difficult for local communities to maintain cultural
heritage without support from the outside, be it technical,
financial, political, or moral. Under these circumstances, somecommunities are striving to remodel their activities conforming
to the prevalent concept of the ICH and associated policies. The
session focuses on the negotiation in which local communities
engage both internally and with outside influences in appropriating
the ICH concept.

Chaired by TERADA Yoshitaka
Presenter 1. FUKUOKA Shota
Presenter 2. Mohd Anis MD NOR
Presenter 3. Don NILES

Tradition of Folk Performing Arts in Tokunoshima:
Practices under the Cultural Property Regime in JapanFUKUOKA Shota

National Museum of Ethnology (Japan)

The concept of heritage regime (R. Bendix et al. 2012) has contributed to expand ourunderstanding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) as intersections of local, national andinternational governance of heritage. After the adoption of the Conventions concerning theworld heritage and ICH, UNESCO centered heritage regimes were formed and has come toaffect traditions of performing arts in many countries. Prior to the UNESCO Conventions,Japanese government implemented the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties in1950 and firmly established what might be termed a “cultural property regime.” Now theefforts of grafting cultural property regime with heritage regimes are being taken and theprocess also influences the changes of the concepts of cultural property or heritage inJapan.
Tokunoshima is an island in Southern Japan with population of around 24,000 people. In
Inokawa settlement of the island, folk performing arts called natsume-odori is performedat the certain time after rice harvest, though they do not grow rice anymore following
government’s policy. People in the community organize a preservation association with theaim to transmit the tradition of songs and dances of the community to the next generation.
They meet twice a month to practice songs. They have made a document of lyrics of songs,
recorded songs by elder people, and produced a gramophone record and CD. These
activities which can be seen as a process of objectification are stimulated by the explorationof regional cultures by folklorists. Natsume-odori was designated as an “intangible folk
cultural property” by Kagoshima prefecture in 2001.
Despite these efforts, the genre faces serious challenges mainly because of the decrease inpopulation. Besides declining birth rate, one of the most critical issues in Japan, more thanhalf of adolescents left the island for higher education and job opportunity. Japanese
government introduces policies for revitalization of regional societies aiming at economical
sustainability of regional societies. Cultural properties are also recognized as resources forthat purpose. I will discuss how people in the community work out a strategy to safeguard
their tradition responding to these situations.

42

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Tradition of Folk Performing Arts in Tokunoshima:
Practices under the Cultural Property Regime in Japan
Fukuoka Shota (National Museum of Ethnology)

intangible cultural heritage (ICH)the concept of ICH spread with misunderstanding“what is on the representative list is ICH”
the concept helps us view traditions of different categories
from an integrated perspective of ICH
ICH embodies cultural diversity and plays a certain role inmaintaining a community
how can we re-contextualize ICH in a changing society?

43

44

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

heritage regimes
heritage regimes emerged from the negotiation among
different organizations and actors at international, national
and local levels with competing priorities

cultural property regime in JapanLaw for the Protection of Cultural Properties (1950)“a cultural property regime” has been firmly established inJapan prior to heritage regimes
efforts to graft cultural property regime with heritage regimes
are being madecultural property regime in Japana relatively long history of designation of cultural properties
by the national and local government
under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties
accumulation of published histories of municipalities nationwide
usually some chapters are devoted to folklore, rituals,
festivals, performing arts and so on
monumental book series of folk songs of Japan by NHK (Japan
Broadcasting Corporation), from 1944 to 1980 (except Amami
and Okinawa)
The book series contains lyrics and notations of folk songs
region by region with commentary

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Tokunoshima
population of about 24,000 (over 50,000 in 1950s)
consists of three townships: Tokunoshima-cho (30 settlements),
Isen-cho (17 settlements) and Amagi-cho (14 settlements)
keeps the highest birth rate in Japan, however, manyadolescents leave the island for the opportunities of educationand job
population transition in Tokunoshima-cho
age

0-4

5-9

1014

1519

2024

2529

3034

3539

4044

4549

5054

5559

6064

6569

7074

7579

8084

8590

90-

2015

575

595

602

444

209

396

533

700

603

562

762

929

938

776

559

566

596

500

313

2010

619

695

682

532

253

461

725

677

602

776

957

1004

813

591

633

738

678

403

251

2005

716

736

797

623

333

648

661

645

790

1021

1026

847

642

699

819

811

547

312

208

2000

703

824

947

693

432

569

571

770

981

1024

871

670

741

882

919

673

451

251

155

1995

843

1003

1080

708

367

495

755

1016

1017

875

671

775

924

982

759

599

402

243

126

1990

1065

1176

1230

833

317

718

1038

1086

893

700

781

941

1039

802

670

529

402

197

119

1985

1273

1302

1290

893

490

1005

1176

978

725

840

1027

1069

835

747

614

493

308

178

78

year

the research organization on culture of Tokunoshima
formed in 1966 mainly by residents
They have actively published periodicals
Research Notes on Tokusnoshima from 1968 to1989 andBulletin from 1972 to 2012
M (b.1948)
graduated from a university in Tokyo and returned to
Inokawa settlement as an officer in a local post officean active member of the research organizationtranscribed lyrics of natsume-odori, recorded performanceby elder people and published a gramophone record (reissued as a CD)
serves as a head of the Council for the Protection ofCultural Properties of Tokunoshima-cho, after retirementfrom the post office

45

46

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

natsume-odori
dancing with singing of Inokawa settlement
danced in the event called hamauri (going down to thebeach), which used to celebrate the rice harvest, though now
almost no rice fields are left
after the feast at the beach, people visit houses in thesettlement and sing and dance natsume-odori in their gardens
until next morning
each family welcome the people with drink and food andsometimes provides towels
the change of social relationship in the settlement and thedecrease in population cause the concern for transmission
the preservation association was organized by people in thesettlement

teaching natsume odori in elementary school
members of the preservation association teach songs anddances in cooperation with teachers
children dance natsume odori in school events including theathletic meetthe effort of the elementary school help children enjoy
dancing in natsume odori

schools as a site of negotiationa municipality establishes and runs schools, teachers are civil
servants of a prefecture, the cost of employment is provided
by the national government and a prefecture
school can be regarded as a site of negotiation
various demands and restrictions, and also values fromdifferent standpoints are negotiated2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

reorganization of schools
reorganization of schools is discussed in municipal assembly of
Tokunoshima-cho because of the decreasing number of pupils
in Isen-cho, the mayor has promised not to reorganize schools
in order to maintain tradition of each communities
a system of transmission needs to be reorganized accordingly

reformulation of the cultural property regime
cultural properties and environment are proposed to betreated as a whole rather than taking care of each property
separately
cultural properties are encouraged to be treated as resources
to revitalize local societies

strategy for transmitting natsume odori
teaching how to sing and dance to children in collaboration
with teacher at elementary school
providing opportunities for children to experience enjoyment innatsume odori
trying to involve children in performance
reviving a custom to splash water to anyone passing byafter natsume odori
conceiving of performance joined by people from several
settlements
creating a new style by accepting repertoire, style andlanguage of other settlements
documenting performance

47

48

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

audio-visual documentation of performing arts
audio-visual documentation of folk performing arts ofTokunoshima at 28 settlements by Minpaku, 2010-2016
the project was launched upon a request from people inTokunoshima like M and carried out in collaboration with thema system which enables people to utilize audio-visual
documentation as a resource for transmitting the tradition is in
the process of building

Defining Heritage Locally:

Negotiating Malaysian Performance Traditions
Mohd Anis MD NOR

Nusantara Performing Arts Research Center (Malaysia)

Defining local intangible cultural heritage (ICH) or Heritage in general, in multi-cultural
Malaysia is problematic if the blurring of indigenous and hybrid origins as reflected in the
dichotomous discourses between autochthonous (native to the place where it is found)
and/or allochthonous (originating in a place other than where it is found) performance
traditions are not negotiated. The proclamation Malaysia’s Heritage in the UNESCO’s
Representative list of the Intangible Cultural heritage of Humanity is a case in point.
The 2008 (originally proclaimed in 2005) Makyong traditional Malay theatre form, theongoing nominations of Malay Pantun (oral traditional), Dondang Sayang (Hybrid social
popular music ensemble) and backlog nomination of Wangkang Ceremony (Hokkien Chinese
Malaysian) in 2018, are self-evident of the polemics in defining and negotiating local
Heritage in Malaysia. An apparent conflict in accepting multiculturalism vis-à-vis solitarycultural hegemony in defining local Heritage remains unresolved without collaborativenegotiation between local practitioners-communities and outside organizations (such as
research institutes, NGOs and government agencies). Defining local Heritage is crucial to theefforts of reviving lost or threatened Heritage. This effort is both cooperative andconciliatory for the safeguarding of Malaysia ICH.
A case study on the revival of Malay Zapin (1994 - to date) that has yet to be nominatedfor UNESCO’s ICH list, explores the processes in which Heritage is defined locally by the
stakeholders in their efforts to preserve, invigorate and negotiate their Heritage that is recontextualized through community-based activities. The multiple level negotiations by
numerous stakeholders and cultural agencies/institutions within the cultural-landscape of
Zapin practitioners/stakeholders demonstrate aspects of culture resilience in defining andappropriating the ICH concept without forgoing autochthonous and allochthonous featuresthat gave the hybrid origin its indigeneity. This paper will elucidate the processes ofnegotiations in defining Heritage locally in their effort to safeguard Malaysian ICH.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

49

50

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

51

52

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

53

54

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

55

56

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)57

Celebrating Cultural Heritage without ICH Involvement:
Papua New Guinea Successes and Challenges

Don NILES

Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies (Papua New Guinea)

In 2008, Papua New Guinea ratified UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of theIntangible Cultural Heritage (2003). Since then, cultural mapping pilot projects have been
undertaken in two regions of the country—Southern (2009) and New Guinea Islands(2011)— and two more were planned. In spite of this, ‘ICH’ remains a rather unknown term
to most people in the country.
Perhaps not surprisingly for a country boasting tremendous cultural diversity, respect forancestral traditions and a commitment to safeguard and transmit these ‘noble traditions’are proclaimed in the Papua New Guinea Constitution (1975). Consequently, cultural
heritage and its maintenance have been of concern to the government long before the ICH
Convention. This has resulted in documentation and dissemination programmes, theestablishment cultural research institutions and associated archives, and the generalpromotion and sponsorship of cultural activities. In some cases, the latter have indeed
resulted in cultural performances that attempt to meet outside expectations, rather thancontinue ancestral forms.
In recent years, however, such attitudes celebrating cultural diversity have faced tremendous
challenges as the result of religious extremism that sees tradition as impeding thedevelopment of the nation, a financial crisis that has resulted in government support for
cultural activities being cut by more than 75%, and a competition between two National
Commissions for UNESCO that has hindered, rather than encouraged, submissions by local
communities and other cultural bodies to that organisation.
My presentation will overview this situation, including suggestions on promoting the
successes and attempting to resolve the challenges.

58

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Celebrating Cultural Heritage without
ICH Involvement: Papua New Guinea
Successes and Challenges“Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage,”organised by the National Museum of Ethnology, IRCI, and
the Agency for Cultural Affairs
National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan
29 November – 1 December 2017

Don Niles
Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies

ICH and PNG
2003: UNESCO Convention for the
Safeguarding of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage
2008: Papua New Guinea ratifies the
UNESCO Convention
2009, 2011: ICH cultural mapping in
Papua New Guinea by National
Cultural Commission

59

60

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Recording of
PNG music,from 1898

Formal presentation of early
PNG recordings from Berlin byGerman ambassador, 1987

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Institute of PNG
Studies staff making
video recordings

Storage container
for masterrecordings at
Institute of PNG
Studies6162

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Local PNG Music Publications

2011:
New Guinea Islands region

2009:
Southern region

Two ICH cultural mapping pilot projects

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Naomi Faik-Simet taking video during
cultural mapping in Hoskins, 2011

26 November
2013: removalof carved
lintel (above)from PNG
Parliamentbuilding

63

64

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Label of‘culturalterrorist’ on
those
attempting
to destroy
traditional
cultureDecrease in government support
for ICH activities
IPNGS funding
K400,000
K350,000
K300,000
K250,000
K200,000
K150,000
K100,000
K50,000
K0

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Traditions at new venues:
2014 Madang Show, Madang Province

Ad for 2017
GorokaShow:
reinterpreting‘tradition’

65

66

Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)PNG & ICH: Conclusions•••

ICH materials have long beencollected in Papua New Guinea, wellbefore ‘ICH’, as a UNESCO concept,
existed1974: government institutions,
including IPNGS, established tocollect, preserve, and promotecultural heritage
2008: Papua New Guinea ratifies the
UNESCO Convention on ICH, butwith little real effect

PNG & ICH: Conclusions•••

PNG has the archives and the resources
to undertake focussed research on ICH,
but they largely remain untapped
PNG must decide on one UNESCO
National Commission and develop
programmes that build on present
resources, rather than ignore themCommunity involvement is essential toguide such projects from inception tocompletion

Session

3

Collaboration and Intervention

ICH is a concept introduced to local communities from theoutside and external organisations have played pivotal roles in
concretising the concept in local contexts. Building on the issues
discussed in Session 2, this session examines the nature of therelationship between local communities and external organisations(such as archives, research institutes, NGOs and governmental
agencies), which can be placed in the continuum of collaborationand intervention.

Chaired by FUKUOKA Shota
Presenter 1. M.D. Muthukumaraswamy
Presenter 2. Verne DE LA PEÑAPresenter 3. TERADA Yoshitaka

Empowering Communities through Archives and Narratives of
Heritage
M. D. Muthukumaraswamy

National Folklore Support Centre (India)

National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC) established six digital community folklore archives
for fragile and disadvantaged communities in six locations in India between 2007 and 2012,
and this presentation is about one archive NFSC built for Narikuravar, popularly known asa nomadic gypsy community of Tamilnadu. I present this as a case study for understanding
the dynamics of collaborative ethnography, the relationship between digital visual archives
and the narratives of heritage, and the socially empowering means of language, lore andcrafts. Before NFSC’s engagement with the Narikuravar community, many sociologicalstudies pointed out that the discrimination against the Narikuravar community by the larger
Tamil society is due to their unhygienic habits, illiteracy, odd language, perceived criminal
behaviour, and their adamant refusal to integrate into the mainstream society despite
governmental efforts. The negative stereotyping of Narikuravars had also been aboundingin mass media with popular films and mass magazines casting them as backward,
underdeveloped, poor, and subjects of ridicule. NFSC’s initial hypotheses and efforts toconnect the prestigious Tamil traditional literary genres of Kuravanchi with the community
and thereby build the prestige of the community in the eyes of the larger Tamil society
failed since there was no evidence to relate Kuravanchi literary genres to the lore of
Narikurvar. Similarly, NFSC’s endeavours to see possible cultural connections between the
Romani people and Narikuravar did not yield any results and the Narikurvar could not relate
to Romani music or the documentaries made on their lives. As the community archive
established inside a Narikuravar settlement was growing in its holdings, the materials
documented through collaborative efforts pointed towards a different cultural universe.
First of all, the clan and kinship structures of the Narikurvars and their religious rites andrituals exhibited close affinities with the warrior castes of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Their oral
ballad of origin myths revealed many facets of their history of they being the warriors andmedicine men in the northern armies that invaded the southern part of India. Their ballads
also unveiled that the Tamil Narikuravars are the descendants of the disbanded andabandoned armies of the past. Their hunting habits are not the remnants of the hunters
and the gatherer’s tribe but a readjusted vocation of an abandoned army. The Narikuravar
language, Vaagri-boli, is a Creole of Rajasthani, Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil and English. Learningfrom the new findings and the documentation, NFSC focused on rewriting the social historyof Narikuravars, presenting the material culture of the community, and creating a
multilingual dictionary for Vaagriboli. A new narrative of heritage for the Tamil Narikuravar
community emerged with the publications of Vaagriboli dictionary, the social history of
Narikuravars and material culture displaying the skills of Narikuravar men and women

68

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

especially the talents of Narikuravar women in jewellery making. When NFSC distributed
the Vaagriboli multilingual dictionary to all the schools near the Narikuravar settlements allover Tamilnadu, and the other two books and CDs to all the community elders it did nothave any dramatic effects. When NFSC handed over the archive to the community elders
and with drew from the project in 2013, there were few signs of the community representing
its heritage to themselves and the world outside. In the past four years, however, there has
been a considerable reduction in the dropout rate of Narikuravar children from schools;
there have been new entrepreneurial efforts by Narikuravar women to set up jewellery
shops, and the Narikuravar elders spoke to the media and the government resulting in the
Tamilnadu government setting up a Tamilnadu Narikuravar Welfare board.

69

70

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)______________________________________________________

Empowering Communities througharchives and narratives of heritage
M.D.Muthukumaraswamy
Director
National Folklore Support Centre, No , 508, Fifth Floor, Kaveri Complex,
96 Nungambakkam High Road, Chennai 600032, India
muthu@indianfolklore.org_____________________________________________________

Introduction to
Digital Community
Archives
Folklore archives -often thought of as thedusty preserves of scholars, eccentrics,
and governments become different
avatars altogether if they are
constructed, shared, housed, and kept
retrievable within the native contexts ofthe communities. As community spaces,
folklore archives shelter possibilities toinfluence and shape the social histories
of communities, aid self reflexivity, andpropel economic development.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Aiding self
empowerment
The digital community archives intend
to uncover, collate, and organise a
range of forms of traditional
knowledge with a view to enabling
respective communities to understandsuch knowledge as important cultural
capital in a larger process of selfempowerment.

Participatory
research
Knowledge is conceived as an asset
owned by the community.
A community archive so imagined
evolves tools and processes through theparticipatory design.
The challenge is to arrive at a system
whereby the community and thefacilitators take into account and resolve
culturally differentiated understandingof what constitutes a record for thearchive, its description and usage.

71

72

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)I. Documentation
The choices for the materials to be documented need to bearrived at through community consensus.
At least two versions of the same folklore item needs to be
documented.
Visual literacy workshops with the communities need to be
conducted prior to the use of photography and video.
There should be a negotiation between the insiders and theoutsiders on the comprehensibility of the documentation
proposed and undertaken.
Members of the community need to participate in the
documentation as fair and equal partners.
Thee integrity of the documented information needs to be verified
with diverse groups inside the community. Even contradictory andopposing voices need to be recorded.

II. Description and archiving of documented
materials
The digital records need to be described in the native languagesof the communities.
Language documentation needs to be an integral part of archivebuilding processes.
Publication of multi lingual dictionaries need to be undertaken
and their usages should be explained to the communities.
The relations in the ‘relational database’ of the archives need tofollow the sensorial and everyday experiences of the insiders. This
point is the key to the establishment of community archives andwe have not fully achieved this goal yet.
Use of computer aided tools such as visual thesaurus and mind
mapping should be used for arriving at the experiential relation
between the documented materials.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)III. Interpreting documents
Repeated projection of documented materials to the communities
should be the chief method for interpreting the documented
materials.
Stray and other meta folklore emerging out of the responses tothe documented materials need to be in turn, documented.
Structured interviews and questionnaires should be avoided.
Intimate conversations carried over a fairly long period should be
used for interpreting the archival records.

IV. Public Dissemination
Archival materials should be collected together as community
resources before they can be circulated back to the communities.
Whether it is an edited video, or photo album the processes ofediting, describing, and the methods of dissemination should havethe participation of the community members.
The dissemination through the online channels and other media
outlets should aim towards carving out a cultural space for thecommunities.
The primary audience for archival material should be thecommunities themselves.

73

74

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Vagri
Community
archive
Fieldwork among forty
settlements

Historicalsubjugation
Nagri are one of the most subjugatedsections of Indian society. They havebeen victims of historical dislocation,compelled to search forunconventional occupations.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)Historical truth
Not nomadic tribes butabandoned warriors

Occupation
The occupational structure of thecommunity has radically shifted over theyears. Traditionally, they were hunters andpetty mobile traders in public places. The
settled life has opened up a wide range of
new occupational choices. Now they are
involved in government service, private
employment, running small business, wage
earning in construction sector, agriculture
labour, and other activities.

75

76

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Status of women
Craft traditions
Indigenous knowledge
system - medicine

Women selling beads and other petty
goods in rural areas have to work very
hard for a living. The uncertainty of thesales and income pose serious
challenges to a life on the margins.
Vagri women contribute considerably
to the food supply and personally takepart in all extra-domestic activities.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)77

Return and Transfer:Music Intervention Initiatives at the UP Center for Ethnomusicology
Verne DE LA PEÑAUP Center for Ethnomusicology (Philippines)

Established in 1997, the University of the Philippines (UP) Center for Ethnomusicology is a
center for music research with material collections on the music cultures in the Philippines,
Southeast Asia and representative areas from other continents. Its core holding, the Jose
Maceda Collection is comprised of archival materials including sound recordings, fieldnotes, video, film, photographs and musical instruments put together by Dr. Maceda andhis associates since 1953. Recognizing the precious value of these materials, UNESCO
inscribed it in its Memory of the World Register in the year 2007. In this presentation I
discuss the new endeavour towards community engagement and empowerment that theleadership of the center has decided to pursue as illustrated in two projects – an ongoingmusic repatriation initiative and a proposed community-based documentation venture.
The music repatriation program dubbed ReCollection aims to reintroduce recordings fromthe collection back to the communities where they were collected from, some as far backas the 1950s, by distributing special limited edition CDs to various sectors in the community.
The project allows the communities to reconnect with voices, sounds and memories, at thesame time giving opportunities for present day researchers collect new data, thus
ReCollection. The project has so far been successfully implemented in the municipalities ofSagada and Bontoc in the Mountain Province and in Kabayan, Benguet.
Scheduled for implementation in 2018, the proposed Adimayku Music Documentation
Center intends to train and assist a local cultural organization in Hingyon, Ifugao to conduct
music research and archiving in their own locality. The Adimayku Association is actively
involved in the preservation of Ifugao music, dance and narratives through training andperformance. The venture aims to transfer skills and resources from academic experts andnational cultural agencies, thus empowering the cultural community towards selfdetermination and ownership.

78

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Return and Transfer: Music intervention
initiatives at the UP Center for
Ethnomusicology(a brief ethnography of ethnographers)
Verne de la Peña, PhD
UP Center for Ethnomusicology
International Symposium: Negotiating Intangible Heritage
29 November to 1 December 2017
National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan

1. Establishment
In 1997, the Board of Regents of the
University of the Philippines
established the UP Center for
Ethnomusicology to house theresearch data and related materials
collected by Jose Maceda and his
researchers beginning in the 1950s.

79

80

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)UP Center for Ethnomusicology• to develop, organize, manage, and conduct music research withfocus on the development of new theories of music composition,
distribution of music instruments, and recognition of
fundamentals binding the "musics" of Asia and the relationshipof languages to music structure;• to serve as a source of teaching and research materials and tohouse all musical instruments;• to publish and openly disseminate research of the Center;• to conduct dialogues, trainings, conferences, and other fora
related to its primary functions;• to obtain and manage funds contributed by public and private
persons and entities.

Thus, we can say that theCenter was created and run
by academics in the serviceof academia.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

2. Reorganization
After the passing of Maceda in 2004, the post of
Director of the Center was taken by Ramon P. Santos,
another composer, ethnomusicologist and National
Artist. Santos immediately instituted reforms beginningwith the restructuring of the organization.
Santos initiated the inventory of the accumulated
holdings that included books, field notes, recordings,
artifacts and various paper documents as well as
personal memorabilia. True to the original
configuration of the Center as conceived by Maceda,
these materials were kept together to form a unitary,
integrated collection.

The Jose Maceda Collection• 2,500 hours of field audio
recording,• some 421 containers of field notes
and around 800 containers ofrelated paper documents,• 10,000 photographs and• 1,000 musical instruments.

81

82

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)In 2007, the Jose
Maceda Collection,
gained internationalrecognition by virtue of
its inscription into the
UNESCO Memory of
the World Registry.

Digitization Projectin 2007, the digitization project began
through the generous financial support
provided by the National Commission
for Culture and the Arts, the Office of
the Chancellor of UP Diliman andPhonogrammarchiv - Austrian Academyof Science. This was completed in 2014.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

3. REDIRECTION
With a restructured and rejuvenated Center, along with the completionof the digitization of its holdings, high priority was then shifted towards
the reactivation of research activities. As research agenda, the UPCE
implemented a plan to revisit the sites where Maceda and his coresearchers conducted data gathering from the 1950s with the primaryobjective of investigating the retention or change that has transpired in
the music cultures concerned after the passage of several decades.

Repatriation Program• An important component of this re-visitation
involves the repatriation of musical recordings to thecommunities where these were originally gatheredfrom.
• Dubbed the ReCollection Project in reference to theremembrance of old voices and sounds of thecommunity as well as the gathering of new data to
update information stored in the archives.

83

84

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Repatriation
In 2013, the Center began torepatriate of some of earliest fieldrecordings in the its archives.
These comprised of some 44 tracks
of vocal and instrumental music of
the Kankanay in the municipalities
of Sagada and Bontoc in Mountain
Province, Northern Luzon recorded
in 1954 by Lester Brooks and in1956 by Jose Maceda.

The Center prepared a special limited edition DVD compilation of these tracks anddistributed these to various sectors in the community including the Mayor’s office,schools, the community museum and descendants of the recorded performers.
Sessions were organized where culture bearers and experts in the community wereasked to listen to the tracks and comment on these. Following Ruth Stone’s methodof “feedback interview” (Stone 2013), these sessions yielded information relating to
the current status of traditional music in the site.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Kabayan, Benguet
The repatriation of recordings and data gathering continued
with ReCollection 2016 held in the municipality of Kabayan in
Benguet Province, Northern Luzon. This time, a total of 82
tracks of music of the Ibaloi people were compiled fromrecordings made by Maceda in 1961 and by Santos in 1987.

Shift in the concept of conservation
The ReCollection Project, with its key compotent of repatriation, signals
a fundamental shift in the Center’s model for cultural conservation.
Where before, the Center took on the role of custodian of endangered
cultural artifacts within a safe haven, the Center now recognizes its role
in reconnecting these artifacts with their source communities. In
essence, this constitutes an expansion of the conservation processfrom the preservation of objects to the fostering of attitudes andbehaviour towards the maintenance of cultural practices.

85

86

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Community-Based Music Documentation
CenterPresently, the Center is laying down the groundwork for a task thatshifts the view of conservation even further: the direct involvement of
the community as the primary researchers, archivists andconservateurs of their own endangered cultural practices. UPCE
envisions the establishment of a Community-Based Music
Documentation Center in Ifugao, Northern Luzon.

CONCLUSION• The devotion and determination of a scholar to systematically document themusic cultures of an entire county resulted in the establishment of a center
mandated to safeguard the assemblage of research data, which will eventually berecognized for its invaluable contribution not only to national patrimony but as alegacy to all humanity.
• Because of its vulnerability, not only from the ravages of nature and time but
from the instability and capricious nature of academia itself, the preservation ofthis distinguished collection became the overriding preoccupation of theinstitution.
• Today, the institution attempts at a more proactive conservation of music culturesby acknowledging the rights of culture bearers and communities and recognizing
the centrality of their role as primary stakeholders in sustaining cultural heritage.

Drumming and Marginalized Community:

Museum Documentation of a Cultural Heritage in the Making
TERADA Yoshitaka

National Museum of Ethnology (Japan)

Taiko (or wadaiko) is a relatively new genre of communal drumming in Japan, which traces
its origin to the 1950s. It has since become one of the most frequently performed musicalgenres, with thousands of groups actively engaged in performance. In contrast to thelimelight which the genre and performers have enjoyed in this “Taiko boom” (Bender 2012),
the drum makers who support the genre have been discriminated against due to theprofession’s affiliation with the marginalized buraku (or hisabetsu-buraku) community.
The young people of the buraku community in Osaka began performing taiko in the 1980s
to foreground the social and cultural contributions of drum makers and other buraku
populations throughout Japanese history. Taiko has become a powerful venue to assert
their historical contributions and to raise awareness in human rights issues in general,providing an effective alternative to the more confrontational movement in the past. It has
also become an activity performed with the intent to overcome divisions within thecommunity.
Minpaku has audiovisually documented the formation and activities of the first buraku
group, Ikari (“Rage”), focusing on the experiences and emotions of its members, particularly
the negotiation between the professed objectives of the group and individual experiencesof marginalization. The film, based on this documentation, has been screened for various
audiences to create venues for interaction- within the community, with other marginalizedgroups, and with the general public. The public nature and perceived neutrality of museums
can be utilized strategically to create a pathway between marginalized communities and thegeneral public.
In this presentation, I focus on performing arts among a marginalized community which are
not yet perceived as a cultural heritage but are increasingly viewed by the community as
holding significance to its continuation. While it is unknown if this genre will be regarded
as a cultural heritage in the future, I argue that an involved and continuous collaboration
with the community in documenting their activities provide an opportunity to investigate
the process of heritization as it evolves.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

87

88

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

89

90

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

91

92

Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

93

Session

4

Museum and Revival of Culture

The continuation of intangible heritage can be severely threatenedby political upheavals and natural disasters. Effects ofwesternisation and globalisation may also create additionaldifficulties. Among organisations working toward reviving or
reinvigorating lost or attenuated local heritage, this session
prioritises the museums and examines their collaborative efforts
with local communities.

Chaired by OHNUKI Misako
Presenter 1. Graeme WERE
Presenter 2. SAITO Reiko
Presenter 3. XIAO Mei

Digital Technologies, Museums, and Community Engagement:
A Melanesian Case Study

Graeme WERE

University of Queensland (Australia)

Digital technologies have revolutionised our engagement with the past. Rapid advances inimaging technologies have significantly reshaped museum and heritage experience. Digital
graphics and virtual environments are now everyday media used for interpreting artefacts,
sites and documents. The ‘recoding’ of the museum, as Parry (2007) calls it, promotes new
knowledge of museum collections, objects and dispersed assemblages, and also fosters new
ways of transmitting intangible heritage.
This paper examines the way digital technologies have influenced the production of
intangible heritage using the case study of a partnership between a community in New
Ireland, Papua New Guinea and two museums in Queensland, Australia. The goal of the
project was to employ digital technologies to provide remote access for New Irelandcommunity members to virtually handle relevant 3D digital objects which were physicallylocated in Australia. The aim was to support the sustainability and revival of traditional
funerary carving skills using a participatory design methodology which involved community
workshops, focus groups, and museum visits between project staff and partners in orderto develop a local tool to access museum collections.
This paper discusses the development and outcomes of this project, including issues andopportunities involved in utilizing digital technologies in Melanesia. It focuses on the way
the digital technology was engaged by the New Ireland community and lessons for future
digital projects in the region.

96

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Digital technologies, museums, and community
engagement: a Melanesian case study
Graeme Were
University of Queenslandg.were@uq.edu.au
CRICOS Provider No 00025B

Kastom: cultural revivalism

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

97

98

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)CRICOS Provider No 00025B

Prototype

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Testing and development

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

Consultation workshops

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

99

100

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Digital platform

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Selecting objects

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

101

102

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)Poxai

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

Digital return

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Community empowerment?

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

103

Museum and Revival of the Ainu Culture

SAITO Reiko

National Museum of Ethnology (Japan)

Ainu people have been enthusiastic about revival of their traditional culture during the last
20 or 30 years. In the 1980s, the consciousness that they send out their culture themselves
to Japan society increased.
The Ainu are an indigenous people who have lived in Hokkaido, the northern part of Honshu
Japan, the Kurile Islands, and southern Sakhalin. But now they are primarily in Hokkaido.
They developed cultures adapted to each of those environments. Ainu history is that ofinteractions with neighboring peoples. Domination by the Tokugawa Shogunate during theEdo period, and assimilation during the Meiji period led to discrimination against the Ainu.
Their lifestyles, language, and beliefs have been affected by a policy of Japanization.
Disadvantaged in Japanese society, the Ainu have nonetheless worked to improve theirstatus and put great effort into preserving Ainu culture. With the support of the international
indigenous rights movement, a law, commonly known as the Act on the Promotion of Ainu
Culture, was passed in 1997. In 2008, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution officiallyrecognizing the Ainu as an indigenous people.
Now Ainu people continue to honor their traditions and to create a new and distinct
culture. I will introduce their cultural activities which were done in relation to museums.
National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) is carrying out two projects under an agreementwith the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, a public interest incorporation. One is an
implementation of the Kamuynomi rite. Kamuynomi is an Ainu word meaning ‘prayer to thedeity’. By implementing the rite, the Museum aims to ensure proper storage of its Ainu
collection and handing down of this traditional rite to future generations. Since 2007, local
federation of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido have given public performances of traditional
Ainu dance together with the Kamuynomi prayer ceremony.
The other project is to host traditional artisans sent by the Ainu Association, as visiting
researchers to study crafts and arts. It has helped the Museum to further improve its
academic research and collection on Ainu culture, and is also expected to promote the Ainu
culture. Besides, we also renewed our exhibition of “the Ainu culture” last year incollaboration with the Ainu people.

104

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Museum and
Revival of the Ainu culture

Reiko SAITO（National Museum of Ethnology)

Distributionof Ainu
people(19th century)

105

106

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)NME and
Ainu Association of Hokkaido（L）kamuynomi：
a rite of Ainu people to offer prayer to deity（R） Hosting some Ainu artisans as visiting researchers

kamuynomi

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Traditional dishes for the rite 2015

Traditional dance 2015

107

108

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Renewal of exhibit 2016

Renewal of exhibit 2016

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Renewal of exhibit 2016

kamuynomi for new exhibition
2016.6.16

109

Practicing Engaged Ethnomusicology in Museums and Archives:
The Revival of Han Opera and Mongolian Epics as Examples

XIAO Mei

Shanghai Conservatory of Music (China)

As a teacher of ethnomusicology in a conservatory, I was asked by a student a challenging
question after a short-term fieldwork into the countryside. She asked, “If we cannot help
but watch the skills of our objects gradually being eliminated by the society, is that notsimilar to watching a goldfish dying in a suffocating fishbowl without saving it?”Indeed, anthropology or ethnomusicology does have a traditional requirement of its
practitioners to obey the principle of “neutral values” in their observation. However, as
various risks and uncertainties including political authorities, social turbulences, and cultural
conflicts emerge alongside the development of society, the academic ethics of objectively
non-intervention are clearly challenged. What contributions can we make to the culture
bearers on whom the success of our research depends? Is our role merely data collector
and publisher of the outcome? How can we benefit our objects, especially those in weaker
positions, while broadening the horizons of our science, making the culture bearers active
interveners of cultural continuation and protection just as we are?
The concerns of this paper start from the “engaged anthropology” proposed by Michael
Herzfeld. The museums’ and archives’ function of intermediary between institutions,culture bearers, and scholars to contribute to the practical possibilities of sustainable
development of communal intangible cultural heritage on the moral basis of “engagement
and participant” through the introduction and analysis of two actual cases. They are called
the “fascinating Chu tunes and melodies: Collection of Han opera artidacts” held by Hubei
Provincial Museum in 2015, and “Revival of Mongolian Khorchin Epics” from 2003 until now
by audiovisual archive of the “courier station for Musical Culture Transmission on the
Steppe” in Inner Mongolia College of Arts.

110

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage” ( 29th Nov.- 1st Dec.)

Practice Engaged Ethnomusicology in Museums and Archives:
the Revival of Han Opera and Mongolian Epics as Examples

Xiao Mei
Shanghai Conservatory of MusicIf we cannot help but watch the skills of our the communities we research
gradually being eliminated by society, is that not similar to watching agoldfish suffocating in fishbowl without saving it?
－－a student of Shanghai Conservatory

Neutral values OR Intervention Contribution

111

112

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Case Ⅰ.
‘Fascinating Chu （楚） tunes and Han（汉） Melodies’:
Exhibitions of Han Ju (opera, 汉剧) at the
Hubei Provincial Museum

Gan
Ju The earliest mention of Han Ju (汉剧） in
literature was in 1605, but it was not known
by this name until 1912.
 Han Ju is listed in the national intangible
heritage protection list, but it is not taken
seriously.
 In the original, there were 22 troupes, but
only two of them left in 2013, and thegovernment wants to dissolve one of them.

Dian
Ju

……

Han
Ju
Jing
Ju

Xiang
Ju

The Han Ju’ s influence

Why did the museum get involved in the protection of Han Ju?

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) Along with the development of intangible
cultural heritage safeguarding and thedevelopment of new relationships between
societyandpeopleinculturalanthropology and ethnomusicology, themuseum has begun to explore theintangible cultural assets behind thetangible.
Hubei Provincial Museum As the museum’s research deepened, it discovered that traditions both invillages and cities were vital to the forming of Chinese Xiqu (operas,戏曲).
 The museum started by researching Xiqu associated with ancientarchitectures and their planned exhibitions.
 The museum collected 386 important historical documents, old costumes
and facepaint, recordings of more than 1,000 plays, 41 scripts, 19 props,
169 garments and 14 pieces of musical instruments.

 Importantly, during exhibition, the museum
organized nearly 200 performances, a featthat is hard for professional troupes.
 People who visited the museums could also
explore further aspects of the culture.
Therefore, we can say that Han Ju
performance succeeded in the museum.
 The exhibition was also invited to show in
Beijing and Hong Kong, arousing great
excitement in Xiqu circles.

113

114

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Changing
original Xiqucircles

Diversified
the museum

Bringing
Xiqu into
university

Cohesion fanstogether

Government
involvement

One exhibition has saved one Xiqu form

Curator says:“The museum’s first task is to preserve, namely materials, cultural relics and literatures according toinstitutional regulations. Secondly, the museum hopes bea healthy societal influence. Hubei Provincial Museums,
like other large museums, attracts more than 1 million
visitors every year. A single exhibition or a daily show
attracts large numbers of audiences. Our museum attracts
at least 1.65 million visitors every year and the numberof visitors was as large as 3 million a year if the newmuseum is completed. We use this influence to promote
Han Ju and cultivate its audience. The heritage andsustainable development of Han Ju should be achievedby the troupes themselves.”2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Case II.
The Revival of Mongolian Epics
in Recording Archives
Folk Music Transmission Station of Art College,
Inner-Mongolia University / FMTS

 Since the last century, folklore researchersand enthusiasts have begun to collect
Mongolian epics.
 However, they mainly collected texts andneglected aspects of performance, the mostimportant facet of oral epics.
 From 2003, FMTS began the systematiccollection of the epic song Manggusin
Ulger. While building the database, they
explored the formulate, themes, typicalscenes, idiomatic expressions and basic
modes of the epics, finding meaning in oral
traditions in the recounting of epics incombination with musicology research.

Formulate
Typicalscenes

Basic
modes

ThemesIdiomatic
expressions

115

116

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

They discovered that there are two different
performance traditions in traditional Horqin epics:
Hoor and Choor.

Hoor tradition

Choor tradition

 In 2006, researchers at the Station discovered afolk artist called Buren Chuglaa who could
master 18 Manggusin Ulger epics and 5 otherepics.

 The Station invited him to teach on campus and madesystematic sound and video recordings of him.

■ Regretfully, Buren Chuglaa passed away after

speaking and singing only a few of the 18 epics that
he had mastered, leaving only three complete epic
recordings and five of the 9 tunes that he knew.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)How to revive the Horqin epic singing through the audio-visual data?
 Can new technologies of video and database management revive traditions
in new expressions of contemporary folklore?
 In 2008, the Station researchers decided to restore and rebuild the epic
videos in its database, enabling folklore oral artists to learn theperformance mode of epics through a special program.

Eencouraged artists who could speak and sing Hoor epics
to learn Choor epics• The singer Jalson is a representative of this kind of experiment,
his experiments produced an integration of two traditions –namely a new style.
The station selected people who were exposed to epic
stories since young, as well as those who loved listening
to epics• The singer Qishan is a representative of this kind of experiment,
and he is getting closer to the traditions of Choor epics.
The Grass-roots Choor Epic Transmission Station is a
new way of collaboration between the government,
scholars and herdsmen, who work together in the Horqin
Grassland• The grass-roots transmission station arouses herdsmen’s
attention to the epics traditions.

117

118

Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Fieldworkcollection

safeguarding

traditionalmusic databaseapplication

researchlaboratory-grownfolk ecologicalrebuilding

scholarsingerrestorereconstruction
traditionalmusic database

Neutral values OR

Intervention Contribution

Engaged Ethnomusicology

General Discussions
Chaired by IIDA Taku

Summary of General Discussions

The chair opened the discussion referring to the triangle presented by the keynote speakerbased on the relations of the cultural bearers, policy makers and researchers. It wasreiterated that cultural bearers are indispensable, and therefore have an important role in
the intangible cultural heritage (ICH). This is also the basis of the outline of the presentations,
namely the first session focused on the cultural bearers, following sessions on the policy
makers, and the role of the practitioners.

1. Different perspectives on the triangle relationshipIn the discussion, there seems to be a blur with the triangle when it comes to the issues
pertaining to cultural survival and revival, specifically on the distinctions between thepractitioners and policy makers in relation to the cultural bearers. In addition, there is acomplex negotiation between other stakeholders such as the policy makers. Traditional
knowledge has long been undervalued that pertains to academic research because of
power relations in academia specifically on how researchers influence cultural bearers.
It was also noted that for this triangle of relations to co-exist, it is important to have theresources for all the stakeholders such as the cultural bearers, researchers and policy
makers in order to determine what can be done in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.
ICH can also be an enabling tool to bring in resources for the community.
On the other hand, the triangle is significant but the distance is very close – specifically on
local communities and practitioners that support culture. Local governments also work
closely, and researchers are committed to conduct research with cultural bearers. The
missing link is between the researchers and the policy makers. Research and policy nexus
should be strengthened instead.
Furthermore, with the advent of globalization, the distance between these stakeholders
have become pertinent when it comes to the different roles. This in turn, ultimately alters
intangible cultural heritage. However, different levels of engagements drive the reality ofchange and can alter understanding of ICH.
However, distance is not an issue between the triangle, but instead interconnectedness andhow they intermingle. ICH is just one, and has to do with the policy makers. ICH as anarrative, and repositions the situation. Further, ICH is an imposed term, and culturalbearers do not conceptualize this on their own. ICH should be bottom up, and in reality are
different. This also largely depends on the context and think of how the ICH in different
120

General Discussions
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

levels and conceptualized in different ways. There should be a localized understanding of
ICH on how people, specifically the cultural bearers understand this term. There are also
different levels of discourses in ICH – global; and regional, and more so what is happening
on the ground, and does not necessarily need to be labeled as such. There are different
discourses and local interpretations.
Is it necessary to have ICH as a theme? There are benefits of the ICH as a matter of fact,
while others do not desire to have an ICH in different communities.
There is a national myth of ICH –every nation state would like to demonstrate ownershipof ICH.
ICH to nation state – there is collaboration and some do not have at all. We know thedefinition of ICH, but should be able to lend political voice so that myth of ICH can be
deconstructed to the benefit of the practitioners.
― Part of the agent of change, but the extent of interference is complex.
― ICH is in cauldron of continuous change.
― ICH is close to artifact rather than practice.
― Issues on methodology and process.
― Claiming of ICH that leads to the politicization of ICH.

2. On the ICH definition and directions
ICH should have reflexivity – complications come in the national level and not in the
documents that have been produced, it is observed that it was extremely difficult to draftthe 2003 Convention. The view should be inclusive and not exclusive, and to deal with theconcept and use it very well as long as there is a political will in the national level. The
solution can be through (a) reflexive definition of the ICH, and not really restricted; (b)unpacking the tension between the terms of intangibility and tangibility, and (c) clarity on
the categories of cultures listed in the ICH.
From the point of IRCI, it concurs with the vague definition of ICH before it was ratified in
2003. It has developed in a democratic way and emphasized community involvement insafeguarding ICH, although too risky to push the safeguarding to the communities. A
consideration should be given in relation to the impact of those “listed” to the communities
vs. ICH, it is in fact inherited and should focus on endangered or disappearing ICH instead.
The impact should be considered and should be integrated in the Convention of the states,
as it is heritage is also a form of capital.

3. Positive shift of ICH
There is a shift in the focus of the discipline through ICH. This is observed in thee changes
brought by the ICH, facing the shift of the discipline specifically on the power given to thecommunities (example on ethnomusicology) such as the participatory research and close
collaboration with the communities.

121

122

General Discussions
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Furthermore, UNESCO’s project with the ICH such as convening scholars beyond borders isa significant contribution for the purpose of sustaining ICH. For instance, this can be
exemplified in the use of film in documenting ICH that can impact communities on how tothink broader in relation to ICH. As a recommendation there should be a move in looking
at ICH as one ICH Studies in the future.

4. Negotiations of ICH
How do practitioners shape the thinking of the ICH? What are the roles and interventionsof the researchers, and the positive impact of how the actors to value heritage? It can benoted that the importance of anthropology in ICH can be underscored, more than methods
but also the perspective on how to approach ICH in different levels. It is also good to see
how heritage studies are developing between museums, universities and communities(critical heritage vs. traditional view); heritage studies reflected the critical approach andanthropological methods have approached these contestations.
It was also recommended that languages as part of the transmission of ICH should be
included in the future symposiums of ICH. Since the globalization of language (English) andtheir effect in the local languages have a detrimental effect to communities and theirintangible culture. One of the key issues that people ought to be facing is the negotiation
between national interests vs. community interests.

Annexes

I. Remarks by Organisers

Welcome Remarks
YOSHIDA Kenji

Director-General
National Museum of Ethnology, Japan

Good afternoon, distinguished guests and participants,
Welcome to our museum, the National Museum of Ethnology, Minpaku. Minpaku is theabbreviation of the name in Japanese. We are very much honoured to have this international
symposium, “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”, here at our museum. Let me takethis opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the International Research Centre for
the Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)—especially DirectorGeneral Dr Wataru Iwamoto—and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, forjointly organising this important symposium with us.
Our museum, Minpaku, was opened to the public on the 17th of November, 1977. This year
marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of our museum.
Japan is noted for its early inclusion of the preservation of intangible cultural heritage inthe law for the protection of cultural properties. Our museum has also focussed on
intangible cultural heritage from the very beginning. The late Tadao Umesao, the founder
and the first Director-General of this museum, used to say that “the museum is not a place
for the accumulation of objects, but the place for the accumulation of information”. From
this perspective, Minpaku has spent substantial energy in collecting and making audio-visual
records of cultural activities, in addition to collecting artefacts. Minpaku currently holds
345,000 objects and 70,000 audio-visual materials. This is the world’s largest collection ofthis sort built in the second half of the twentieth century. The museum has long been
considered as a place for the representation, preservation, and conservation of the tangible
cultural property of the past. From this point of view, there seems little room for museums
to contribute as far as the safeguarding (dynamism) of intangible cultural heritage. However,
the museum is not only a repository of tangible cultural heritage, but a space to create andtransmit “intangible cultural heritage”.
At the National Museum of Ethnology, every year we receive four or five Ainu craftsmen
and –women for a month so that they may scrutinize our Ainu collection by actually
touching and handling the objects. The Ainu are the first people of Japan. Some participants
publish books based on their research of our collection, and others make replicas of the oldpieces which were made by their predecessors. During their stay, we also hold an Ainu
traditional ceremony called “kamuynomi”. According to Ainu beliefs, all beings including
animals, plants, and even houses and artefacts have spirits called “kamuy”. In our museum,

124

Annex I. Remarks by OrganisersInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

once a year, we hold the “kamuynomi” ceremony to comfort and ease the spirits that are
related to the objects stored. For the ceremony, objects usually kept in our storage are
actually used. To me, it is an occasion when our collection is infused with real life. Tomorrow
we will hold this year’s kamuynomi ceremony, and you all are invited to attend. We do
believe these are activities to vitalize the museum; in other words, to make use of themuseum as a place where people gather and hand down their knowledge and experienceto the next generation, and thus build the future.
Recently, especially after the enactment of the Convention for the Safeguarding of theIntangible Cultural Heritage in 2003, safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage became
one of the central issues in the studies of culture, including anthropology, art history,
cultural geography, museology, and heritage studies. Local communities in every corner ofthe globe have started re-discovering their cultural heritage—both tangible and intangible—
and are establishing community museums. However, the notion of “intangible cultural
heritage” is yet to be explored.
According to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, theterm refers to 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. Definedin this way, “intangible cultural heritage” is said to be manifested in domains such as oral
traditions—including language as a vehicle of intangible cultural heritage—performing arts,social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature andthe universe, and traditional craftsmanship. “Intangible cultural heritage” in this sense is thebasis of human existence, and may well be called the bodily knowledge and memory heldby human beings, which continuously construct and reconstruct people’s sense of identity
through various social interactions. While it carries a sense of continuity, the bodily
knowledge always changes, as our life always does. It is dynamic and never static. Once thedynamism of the bodily knowledge, or “intangible cultural heritage” is ignored, the notionof “intangible cultural heritage” itself is also denied. In this sense, “safeguarding” ofintangible cultural heritage should not be understood as “preservation”, in the sense ofmaintaining the heritage in an unchanged condition. It should be read as “safeguarding”, or
ensuring, the “dynamism” of intangible cultural heritage.
I have gone through the programme and abstracts of this symposium, and found a lot of
inspiring discussions about the interaction and negotiation among various actors or
stakeholders with regard to safeguarding, creation, or re-creation of intangible cultural
heritage. I do hope that in the coming three days, discussions at the symposium would shed
new light on the multiple issues concerning intangible cultural heritage. I thank you verymuch for your participation. Thank you.

125

126

Annex I. Remarks by OrganisersInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Opening Remarks
IWAMOTO Wataru

Director-General
International Research Centre for Intangible
Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Dear distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen, and dear friends,
It is my great honour and pleasure to say a few words on behalf of the International
Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI). I would liketo begin by extending a hearty welcome to all of you participating in the symposium,“Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”, from all over the world. In particular, I would liketo express my sincere gratitude to Professor Svanibor Pettan who kindly agreed to makethe keynote speech. My name is Wataru Iwamoto, Director-General of IRCI. You might haveread my name in every correspondence but here I am in reality! Curiously enough “Wataru”
is written in Chinese characters, formed of “water” and “walk”, which also means
negotiating. Perhaps, 63 years ago, at the time my father named me, he already predictedthat I would organise this symposium.
IRCI is a UNESCO Category 2 centre that was established six years ago, based upon theagreement between the Government of Japan and UNESCO. Since then, IRCI has beenpromoting and contributing to research activities towards safeguarding intangible cultural
heritage in the Asia-Pacific region and promoting UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguardingof the Intangible Cultural Heritage by co-operating with researchers and academic
institutions internationally.
Today, it is our great pleasure to co-organise this symposium with the National Museum of
Ethnology, known as Minpaku, an internationally unique institution that functions as a
research institute and museum in the field of cultural anthropology and ethnology, and to
welcome participation of outstanding experts from Europe, North America, and the AsiaPacific countries as well as observers from the UNESCO Hanoi office and ICHCAP, our sisterorganisation in the Republic of Korea. Our centre has a purpose of promoting research in
the Asia-Pacific region, but it is needless to say that we also target Japanese researchers.
With this in mind, we organised the symposium, entitled “Glocal Perspectives on Intangible
Cultural Heritage: Local Communities, Researchers, States, and UNESCO”, with a Japanese
private university named Seijo University in May; and the proceedings of the symposium
have been distributed to you. You can go through them afterwards. It is in the same spiritthat we have organised this symposium with Minpaku. In this regard, I would like to express
my sincere gratitude to Professor Yoshida, Director-General of the National Museum of
Ethnology, who made possible this collaboration with Minpaku. Moreover, this has beencommissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan as an international
collaborative project for the safeguarding of cultural properties. I pay special tribute to Ms

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Hamada, a representative of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
As you already know, the symposium is composed of four sessions: namely, Recontextualisation of Heritage and Community, Defining Heritage Locally, Collaboration andIntervention, and Museums and Revival of Culture. This symposium is expected to lay thefoundation for ICH research in the Asia-Pacific region through professional, inter-disciplinary
discussions on theories and issues in safeguarding ICH, and I hope this will be a wonderful
opportunity to reinforce networking among the researchers.
The outcome of this symposium, including the presentations of each participant, will be
widely disseminated in the UNESCO member states in the Asia- Pacific region.
As the Director-General of one of the organisers, I expect that your active involvement andparticipation in the discussions over the three days will ensure the success of this symposium
and will contribute to the promotion of research on the safeguarding of our intangible
cultural heritage.
Thank you for your attention.

127

128

Annex I. Remarks by OrganisersInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Closing Remarks
IWAMOTO Wataru

Director-General
International Research Centre for Intangible
Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Now, we have reached the end of this long day. Thank you very much for your active
discussions. When I was a student in Paris from 1979 to 1981, I had the chance to attend
the course of Professor Lévi-Strauss. He spoke about the family structure of Micronesia.
One day, he said that au Japon (in Japan), there occurred the same phenomena as in
Micronesia within the Fuijiwara family in the 10th century. Then, he explained the meaningof giving one’s daughter to another family. I was very impressed by Professor Lévi-Strauss’s
profound knowledge and a rigorous methodology of research.
Anyway, as the beginner in this field, I learned a lot during these three days. Especially, I
was fascinated to listen to a presenter elaborate on the word, “conscious”. When we areconscious of something, that thing occurs. For example, if we consider art or rituals as being
traditional, they are as such; however, if we consider them as intangible cultural heritage(ICH), it will result in many consequences, say, regarding their ownership or procedure or
identification of the stakeholders. I see that introduction of the concept of ICH has resulted
in some of these consequences, although I also think that ICH makes a significant
contribution towards safeguarding our traditional art and rituals.
I personally believe that ICH has three aspects. One is intrinsic value. This refers to thebeauty of traditional art or the importance of our ancestors’ message. The second aspectis rather more functional. We can use ICH for sustainable development of the community
or for restoration of the damaged area. The third aspect of ICH, in my view, is as a tool formutual respect.
We are speaking of the 2003 Convention of ICH, selection processes, etcetera, but please
remember the representative list is one of various measures of the Convention which insists
upon the importance of the safeguarding of the ICH. The fact that UNESCO also insists on
the importance of ICH is due to the value in safeguarding ICH, which contributes to thedevelopment of mutual respect between states, communities, etc. For example, I have myown ICH that I cherish, but you must also have your own ICH that you cherish. Thus, I should
recognise your love for your ICH, and vice versa. This will perhaps help create a peacefulglobal society. This is what I have learnt from these three days’ discussions.
I thank you all, the participants, keynote speaker, chairs, and panellists for your high-quality
interventions and active discussions, as well as observers for your valuable input. My
gratitude also goes to researchers of the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku),
especially the three eminent specialists, Dr Terada, Dr Iida, and Dr Fukuoka. Without their2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

intellectual input, this symposium could not have taken place. I thank also the Agency for
Cultural Affairs, represented by Ms Hamada, who is sitting in the centre. Without her
positive decision of allocating the budget for us, this symposium could not have beenrealised. In addition, I pay tribute to the technical staff and students of Minpaku, whoprovided effective assistance during our discussions. My gratitude also goes to my staff, Ms
Ohnuki, Mr Kodama, and especially Ms Furukawa. Without Ms Furukawa’s constantrequests with deadlines, your papers would not have reached us, and her flexibility is also
appreciated, I think. Last but not the least, I thank the translators. It is with your help that
we could exchange our opinions. Although the Italian proverb says, “Traduttore, traditore,”
we know you did not betray us and that our discussions were translated with fidelity andwithout fault. Thank you very much.
Tomorrow, you will go on a tour of Minpaku. Unfortunately, I have to pack my bags toattend an intergovernmental meeting in Jeju Island, so I cannot participate. Nevertheless, I
wish you an enjoyable stay in Japan, and I hope to see you again here or in your country. I
also wish you a safe return to your home countries. Thus ends the international symposium.
Thank you very much for your cooperation.

129

II. Programme ScheduleDay 1 : 29 November, Wednesday(Venue: Conference Room 4, National Museum of Ethnology)
13：00－

Registration

13:30－13:40 Welcome Remarks
Mr YOSHIDA Kenji, Director-General, National Museum of Ethnology, Japan
13:40－13:50 Opening Remarks
Mr IWAMOTO Wataru, Director-General, IRCI
13:50－14:30 Keynote Speech	Mr Svanibor PETTAN, Professor, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia/Vicepresident, International Council for Traditional Music
14:30－14:45 Coffee Break(Venue: Conference Room 3, National Museum of Ethnology)
14:45－16:45
Session 1: Re-contextualisation of heritage and community
Chair: Mr Don NILES

30mins for each presenter:
Presenter 1 : Mr William NITZKY
Presenter 2 : Mr Vicente DIAZ
Presenter 3 : Ms Analyn SALVADOR-AMORESGeneral Discussion (30mins)
17:00－17:15

Photo Sessions

17:30－19:30 Reception Dinner(Venue: Restaurant, main building, 1 floor, National Museum of Ethnology)

Day 2: 30 November, Thursday(Venue: Conference Room 4, National Museum of Ethnology)
10:30－11:50	Observation of Minpaku otta kamuynomi, a rite of Ainu to offer prayer todeity(Venue: In front of the main entrance, National Museum of Ethnology)
12:00－13:30 Lunch & Coffee Break(Venue: Conference Room 5 and Conference Room 3, National Museum of Ethnology)
13:30－15:30 Sessions 2: Defining heritage locally

Chair: Mr TERADA Yoshitaka

30mins for each presenter:
Presenter 1 : Mr FUKUOKA Shota
Presenter 2 : Mr Mohd Anis MD NOR
Presenter 3 : Mr Don NILES
General Discussion (30mins)

130

Annex II. Programme Schedule
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

15:30－15:40 Coffee Break(Venue: Conference Room 3, National Museum of Ethnology)
15:40－16:00 IRCI’s Activities

Day 3: 1 December, Friday(Venue: Conference Room 4, National Museum of Ethnology)
10:00－12:00 Session 3: Collaboration and Intervention

Chair: Mr FUKUOKA Shota

30mins for each presenter:
Presenter 1 : Mr M. D. Muthukumaraswamy
Presenter 2 : Mr Verne DE LA PEÑAPresenter 3 : Mr TERADA Yoshitaka
General Discussion (30mins)
12:00－13:30 Lunch & Coffee Break(Venue: Conference Room 3, National Museum of Ethnology)
13:30－15:30 Sessions 4: Museum and Revival of Culture

Chair: Ms OHNUKI Misako

30mins for each presenter:
Presenter 1 : Mr Graeme WERE
Presenter 2 : Ms SAITO Reiko
Presenter 3 : Ms XIAO Mei
General Discussion (30mins)
15:30－15:45 Coffee Break(Venue: Conference Room 3, National Museum of Ethnology)
15:45－16:45
Overall Discussion

16:45－17:00 Closing Remarks
Mr IWAMOTO Wataru, Director-General, IRCI

2 December, Saturday(Venue: National Museum of Ethnology)
10:00－11:00 Gallery Tour of National Museum of Ethnology

Chair: Mr IIDA Taku

131

III. List of Participants
Keynote Speaker
Mr Svanibor PETTAN

Professor and Chair of Ethnomusicology Program, Department ofMusicology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia/VicePresident, International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM)

Presenters
Session 1: Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
Mr William NITZKY

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology,
California State University, Chico, USA

Mr Vicente DIAZ

Associate Professor, Department of American Indian Studies,
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA

Ms Analyn SALVADORAMORES

Associate Professor of Social Anthropology andDirector of the Museo Kordilyera Ethnographic Museum,
University of the Philippines Baguio, Philippines

Session 2: Defining Heritage Locally

Chair: Mr TERADA Yoshitaka

Mr FUKUOKA Shota

Associate Professor, Department of Advanced Human Sciences,
National Museum of Ethnology, JapanMr Mohd Anis MDNORManaging Director, Nusantara Performing Arts Research Center(NusParc)
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Music and Performing Arts
Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia

Mr Don NILES

Acting Director and Senior Ethnomusicologist,
Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, Papua New Guinea

Session 3: Collaboration and Intervention

Chair: Mr FUKUOKA Shota

Mr M.D.
Muthukumaraswamy

Director, National Folklore Support Centre, India

Mr Verne DE LA PEÑADirector and Associate Professor, Department of Musicology,
University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines

Mr TERADA Yoshitaka

Professor, Center for Cultural Resource Studies,
National Museum of Ethnology, Japan

Session 4: Museum and Revival of Culture132

Chair: Mr Don NILES

Chair: Ms OHNUKI Misako

Mr Graeme WEREHead of Anthropology, School of Social Science,
University of Queensland, Australia

Ms SAITO Reiko

Associate Professor, Center for Cultural Resource Studies,
National Museum of Ethnology, Japan

Ms XIAO Mei

Professor, Department of Musicology, Shanghai Conservatory of Music/
Director, Research Institute of Ritual Music, China

Annex III. List of Participants
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Observers
Ms PHAM Thi Thanh
Huong

Chief of Culture Unit, UNESCO Ha Noi Office, Viet Nam

Ms YANG Xiao

Assistant Dean of Department of Art Education and Ethnomusicology
and Professor of Department of Musicology, Sichuan Conservatory ofMusic, China

Ms LING Jiasui

PhD Student, Shanghai Conservatory of Music,
China

Ms Pilyoung PARK

Programme Officer, International Information and Networking Centre
for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP),
Korea

Mr Hyeongi SON

Project Officer, ICHCAP, Korea

Organisers
National Museum of Ethnology, JapanMr YOSHIDA Kenji

Director-General, National Museum of Ethnology

Mr TERADA Yoshitaka

Professor, Center for Cultural Resource Studies,
National Museum of Ethnology

Mr FUKUOKA Shota

Associate Professor, Department of Advanced Human Sciences,
National Museum of Ethnology

Mr IIDA Taku

Associate Professor, Center for Cultural Resource Studies,
National Museum of Ethnology

IRCI
Mr IWAMOTO Wataru

Director-General, IRCI

Ms OHNUKI Misako

Deputy Director-General, IRCIMr HAYASHI Yohei

Chief Officer, IRCIMr KODAMA Shigeaki

Associate Fellow, IRCI

Ms FURUKAWA Sachie

Associate Fellow, IRCI

Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan
Ms HAMADA Yasue

Deputy Director, Office for International Cooperation on Cultural
Properties, Traditional Culture Division, Cultural Properties Department,
Agency for Cultural Affairs

133IV. Profiles(in alphabetical order)

Verne DE LA PEÑA obtained his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology fromthe University of Hawaii. Research areas include Benguet Kankanaey, Tagalog, and Filipino hiphop. He has presented papers andlectures on burial rites and prestige feasts in Buguias Benguet aswell as repartee singing and drinking events in Sariaya Quezon.
Received Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in composition from the
University of the Philippines. Has written for various media,
including chamber, choral, dance and theater. His works have been
published and performed in parts of Asia and America. He’s mostrecent work is Putri Anak a theater piece premiered at the Cultural Center of the Philippines
in April of 2017. The work fuses the Philippine Spanish colonial genre called komedya with
Southeast Asian stylistic elements. As a member of the faculty in the University of thePhilippines College of Music, he handles graduate and undergraduate courses in WorldMusic, Philippine Music and Musicology. Has given lectures and seminars on the same areas
all over the country and internationally. He is also music director of Tugma (Tugtugang
Musika Asyatika), a student ensemble specializing in Philippine and Asian music. Since 2011,
he has been producer and host of the weekly program in the university radio station titled
Tunog at Tinig featuring Philippine music.

Professor Vicente M. DIAZ is Pohnpeian and Filipino from Guam.
He teaches in the American Indian Studies Department at the
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where he heads the Native
Canoes Project and the Digitizing Ancient Futures that mixes
indigenous Micronesian seafaring knowledge and virtual/augmented
reality. Diaz is a recognized leader in Native Pacific Cultural Studies
and global indigenous studies. His research interests include decolonial and indigenous historiography, indigenous culturalrevitalization, traditional seafaring, and Pacific Islander film andvideo. He is the former Coordinator of the Micronesian Seafaring Society and founder of
the Guam Traditional Seafarers Society. His work include Sacred Vessels: Navigating
Tradition and Identity in Micronesia (1996), Repositioning the Missionary: Rewriting theHistories of Colonialism, Native Catholicism, and Indigeneity in Guam (University of Hawai’i,2010), and consulting for the Hale’ta Our Roots textbook series for the Guam Political
Status Education Coordinating Commission (PSECC).


134

Annex IV. Profiles
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)FUKUOKA Shota is Associate Professor at the National Museumof Ethnology, Japan. He specializes in music cultures of Southeast
Asia and has conducted fieldwork in Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos,
Vietnam, and Malaysia. Recently he is also interested in the role ofvideo in the process of inheritance of performing arts and is trying
to visually document performing arts based on the close relationshipwith people in the island societies in southern Japan.


IIDA Taku is Associate Professor at the National Museum of
Ethnology, Japan. His recent research interests include local
movements concerning translocal concept of cultural heritage.
Based on his research in Madagascar, originally with perspectives of
ecological anthropology and media studies, he curated a special
exhibition “Zafimaniry Style: Life and Handicrafts in the Mist Forest”
in 2013. This exhibition focused on an UNESCO element ofIntangible Cultural Heritage “woodcrafting knowledge of theZafimaniry people,” naturally expanding his interest to comparative
study of people affected by socially-shared heritage. As soon as the exhibition opened, heorganized a project “Anthropology of Cultural Heritage” in 2013 through 2016. He is now
editing two volumes about people’s heritage practices over the world.


IWAMOTO Wataru is Director-General of International ResearchCentre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region(IRCI) since 2016. He started his professional career in Ministry of
Education, Science and Culture of Japan and then assumed various
posts such as Director of the Division of Secondary, Technical andVocational Education, and Director of the Division of Social Science,
Research and Policy at the UNESCO HQs. Back to Japan, heorganised at Nagoya in 2014 “World Conference on ESD” with
UNESCO, as Advisor, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science,
and Technology.


M. D. Muthukumaraswamy is a Tamil writer and a folklorist whoheads National Folklore Support Centre, Chennai from its inception
in 1997. He studied literature and philosophy and his doctoral
dissertation was on Semiotic Analysis of Bharatha Koothu: A study
in theatrical communication. He edits Indian Folk life, Indian Folklore
Research Journal and Journal of Ethnomusicology. His publications
include edited volumes Voicing Folklore: Careers, Concerns andIssues, Folklore as Discourse, Many Voices One Nation and the coedited volume Folklore, Public Sphere and Civil Society. He holds
several visiting professorships in universities both in India and abroad.

135

Annex IV. Profiles
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)136

Professor Dr. Mohd Anis MD NOR, Managing Director of
Nusantara Performing Arts Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur, is aretired Professor of Ethnochoreology and Ethnomusicology at the
Cultural Centre (School of Performing Arts), University of Malaya in
Kuala Lumpur and is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Facultyof Music and Performing Arts, Sultan Idris Education University in
Tanjung Malim, Perak. He is the Secretary General of World Dance
Alliance (WDA Americas, WDA Asia Pacific and WDA Europe) and
Chair of the ICTM Study Group on Performing Arts of Southeast(
Asia International Council for Traditional Music - PASEA). He was the 2007－2008 William
Allan Neilson Distinguish Professor of Music, Dance and Theatre at Smith College,
Northampton, Mass. USA; Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan in 2011; and aEuropean Union Erasmus Mundus Fellow at the Norwegian University of Science andTechnology at Trondheim, Norway, for the 2012－2013 Winter Semester.
Don NILES (PhD) is Acting Director and Senior Ethnomusicologistof the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, where he has worked
since 1979. He has researched and published on many types ofmusic and dance in Papua New Guinea, including traditional,
popular, and Christian forms. The author/editor of numerous books,
articles, and audiovisual publications, Don also edits the Institute’s
music monograph series (Apwɨtɨhɨre: Studies in Papua New Guinea
Musics) and journal (Kulele: Occasional Papers in Pacific Music andDance). He is an Executive Board member of the International
Council for Traditional Music and an honorary associate professor at the Australian National
University. In 2016, he was invested as an Officer in the Order of Logohu.
Williiam NITZKY is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology andMuseum Studies at California State University, Chico. His research
specialization is critical heritage and museum studies, tourism
development, ethnicity and identity politics, and contemporary
China and Japan. Some of his publications include safeguarding
living cultural heritage (Museum International, UNESCO-ICOM),
ecomuseum development in China (Urban Anthropology), andcommunity participatory approaches in heritage protection (Cultural
Heritage Politics in China, Tami Blumenfield and Helaine Silverman,eds.). He is currently writing a book, Heritage for Community: An Ethnography of Ecomuseums
in China, on the implications of the proliferation of ecomuseum initiatives in rural ethnic
China. He holds a BA in International Relations (George Washington University), a MA in
Asian Studies (University of Hawaii at Manoa), and a PhD in Anthropology (Arizona State
University). In 2016, he curated the exhibition, Hmong Reflections: Stories of Our Own, at the
Valene L. Smith Museum of Anthropology, and produced the NETA listed and PBS aired
documentary Stories in Thread. He is an academic consultant for Guangxi Museum for
Nationalities and the National Committee for Ecomuseums and Community Museums in China.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)OHNUKI Misako is Deputy Director of International ResearchCentre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region(IRCI) and Visiting Professor of Kanazawa University. Since 2012 shehas been engaged in the field studies and research projects focusedon the revitalization of community’s ICH in danger of disappearing,in particular, post-conflict and post-war areas (Sri Lanka, Timor
Leste, and Viet Nam.) She also currently concerns with the projecton museum as hubs for transmission of ICH in Viet Nam.


Svanibor PETTAN is Professor and Chair of Ethnomusicology
Program at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He earned his
degrees from the Universities of Zagreb (B. A.), Ljubljana (M. A.) andMaryland (Ph.D.), and conducted fieldwork in Australia, Egypt,
Norway, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Turkey, USA and territories of former
Yugoslavia. In his studies he examines music in relation to politics
and war, multiculturalism, minorities, and applied ethnomusicology.
His publications include ten authored or edited books, many
articles and publications in other formats, including a tetralogy on
Romani musicianship in Kosovo (book, picture exhibition, film, CD-ROM) and Oxford
Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology. Dr. Pettan is past Secretary General and current
Vice-President of ICTM, past-president of the Cultural and Ethnomusicological Society Folk
Slovenia, and member of several international editorial boards. He was initiator and chairof the ICTM study group Applied ethnomusicology and is current chair of the study group
Music and minorities.


PHAM Huong is a Principal Specialist and Chief of Culture Unit,

UNESCO Ha Noi Office. She also serves as a member of the Boardof Directors of Global Public Use Planning Consortium which
promotes the holistic approach in heritage planning andmanagement. Ms. Huong holds an advanced degree in Public Policy,
Media and Communications from Swinburne University ofTechnology, Melbourne, Australia and a Bachelor degree in
Economics from Viet Nam’s Institute for International Relations. Her
research areas of interest include heritage studies, cultural tourism
and creative industries.


137

Annex IV. Profiles
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)138

SAITO Reiko is Associate Professor at the National Museum of

Ethnology, Japan. She specializes in the material culture ofindigenous peoples in the Arctic and Boreal areas: the Ainu inJapan, as well as Northwest Coast Peoples in Canada and Alaska.
She is also concerned with images and indigenous representation
in tourism, arts and crafts. After graduating Hokkaido University,
Saito worked as a curator at Hokkaido Museum of Northern
Peoples, and produced many exhibitions concerning art, usage ofplants, fur clothing, and other themes. Since 2011, she has beenworking at this museum, also involving some exhibition and on the project of database of
Ainu collection.
Analyn V. SALVADOR-AMORES. DPhil. (Ph.D.) is a Social

Anthropologist and Associate Professor at the University of thePhilippines in Baguio. She is currently the Director of the Museo
Kordilyera, UP Baguio’s Ethnographic Museum. She earned her
doctorate in social and cultural anthropology from University of
Oxford, UK. Her research interest includes non-western aesthetics,
endangered languages, material culture and visual anthropology.
Included in her publications in the study of Philippine indigenous
culture is the award-winning book ‘Tapping Ink, Tattooing Identities: Tradition and Modernity
in Contemporary Kalinga Society’ (2013). She continues to carry out solid ethnographic
fieldwork and have contributed to the understanding of cultures of the indigenous
communities in northern Luzon.


TERADA Yoshitaka (PhD in ethnomusicology, University ofWashington, 1992) is Professor of ethnomusicology in the Centerfor Cultural Resource Studies at the National Museum of Ethnology
in Osaka, Japan. He specializes in music cultures of Asia and Asian
America, and has conducted fieldwork in the India, Philippines,
Cambodia, Japan and North America. Since 1999, he has produced
ethnographic films on music from diverse locations, many of which
deal with the music culture of marginalized communities. He iscurrently the Film/Video Reviews Editor of the Yearbook for Traditional Music.
2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)Dr Graeme WERE is an Associate Professor in Anthropology andMuseum Studies and is Head of Anthropology in the School ofSocial Science at the University of Queensland. His researchinterests include museum anthropology, digital heritage andmaterial culture studies and he has a regional specialism in Papua
New Guinea and Vietnam. His recent work includes Lines thatconnect: rethinking pattern and mind in the Pacific (University of
Hawai’i Press, 2010) and (co-edited with J.C.H. King) Extreme
collecting (Berghahn, 2012). In 2012, he received a UQ Foundation
Research Excellence Award for his work on digital heritage and knowledge networks in
Melanesia. He serves on the Australian government’s National Cultural Heritage Committee.


XIAO Mei is a Professor at the Musicology Department of Shanghai

Conservatory of Music, Director of Research Institute of RitualMusic in China, a specially-appointed Researcher of the Oriental
instrument museum. She also is vice president and secretary
general of the Association for Traditional Music in China, and amember of the executive board of ICTM (2011－ ), found-membersof the MEA of ICTM, and Chair of China National Committee of
ICTM. She received her M. A in the China Conservetory (1987), Ph.D
in Fujian Normal Universty (2004). As visiting scholar, she studied in
Phonogrammarchiv (Vienna) in 2000 and Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology ofOxford in 2004. She has been collecting, collating and studying traditional and folk music
and ritual music for Han and ethnic groups in China such as Mongolian, Oroqen, Naxi, Miao
(Hmong) and Zhuang peoples over a long period of time.


YOSHIDA Kenji is Director-General at the National Museum of

Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, specializing in cultural anthropology andmuseum anthropology. He has been carrying out fieldwork on theexpressive culture and cultural heritage of Southern Africa especiallyin Zambia. He has also been organizing various exhibitions on art
and culture by networking art museums and cultural museums. His
major exhibitions and publications include Discovery of Cultures(Bunka no Hakken, in Japanese) 1999, Images of Other Cultures (ed.
with John Mack, exhibition catalogue) 1997, Preserving the Cultural
Heritage of Africa (ed. with John Mack) 2008, Self & Other: Portraits from Asia and Europe(ed. with Brian Durrans, exhibition catalogue) 2008, Portraits of Cultures: Networking
Museology (Bunka no Shohzoh, in Japanese) 2013, The Power of Images: The National
Museum of Ethnology Collection (exhibition catalogue) 2014, and Searching for the Origin
of Religious Belief: Spirit Churches in the Southern Africa (Shukyo no Shigen wo Motomete:
Nanbu Africa Seirei Kyokai no Hitobito in Japanese) 2014.

139

140

Annex IV. Profiles
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Participants of the symposium

V. General Information

National Institutes for the Humanities

National Museum of Ethnology

1. Introduction
The safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has been one of the most pressing
issues in the studies of culture, to which scholars of anthropology and related disciplines
have paid increasing attention in recent years. However, what is known today as ICH, or
heritage in general, is not self-evident to local communities, and it needs to be identified
as such through complex processes. This symposium aims to analyse the ways in which themultiple levels of negotiation between various actors/stakeholders affects the safeguardingof ICH. It will first explore the process in which some aspects of culture are selected (overothers) and recontextualised as heritage, and how the concept of ICH defined anddisseminated by UNESCO has been negotiated in community-based efforts to preserve andinvigorate culture. The symposium will also examine the nature of collaborative negotiation
between local communities and outside organisations (such as museums, archives, research
institutes, NGOs and government agencies) in their effort to safeguard ICH. Finally, thepotential for reviving lost or threatened culture in the process of various negotiations
regarding ICH will be discussed.
This symposium is expected to lay the foundation for ICH research in the Asia-Pacific region
through the professional, inter-disciplinary discussions on theories and issues in ICH
safeguarding.

2. Organisers
・National Museum of Ethnology, Japan・International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region(IRCI)
・Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan

3. Venue and Dates
Venue: Conference Room 4, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan(10－1 Senri Expo Park, Suita, Osaka 565－8511, Japan)
Dates: 29 November － 1 December, 20172017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

141

142

Annex V. General Information
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

4. Keynote Speech
Mr PETTAN, Svanibor
Professor and Chair of Ethnomusicology Program, Department of Musicology, Faculty ofArts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Vice President, International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM)

5. Sessions
The following four sessions are organised:

Session 1. Re-contextualisation of Heritage and Community
In many societies, especially those where cultural transmission is unconsciously achieved,
notion of cultural heritage is not necessarily evident. This session problematises theformation of ICH by focusing on popular cultural awareness and related activities. How
do people recognise a cultural element as their own? How do they place it at the centerof their activities? How do they make their peers conscious of their identity? These
questions will be the key to our deeper understandings of ICH.
Session 2. Defining Heritage LocallyToday, it seems difficult for local communities to maintain cultural heritage without
support from the outside, be it technical, financial, political, or moral. Under thesecircumstances, some communities are striving to remodel their activities conforming to
the prevalent concept of the ICH and associated policies. The session focuses on thenegotiation in which local communities engage both internally and with outside
influences in appropriating the ICH concept.
Session 3. Collaboration and Intervention
ICH is a concept introduced to local communities from the outside and externalorganisations have played pivotal roles in concretising the concept in local contexts.
Building on the issues discussed in Session 2, this session examines the nature of therelationship between local communities and external organisations (such as archives,
research institutes, NGOs and governmental agencies), which can be placed in thecontinuum of collaboration and intervention.
Session 4. Museum and Revival of Culture
The continuation of intangible heritage can be severely threatened by political upheavals
and natural disasters. Effects of westernisation and globalisation may also create
additional difficulties. Among organisations working toward reviving or reinvigorating
lost or attenuated local heritage, this session prioritises the museums and examines theircollaborative efforts with local communities.

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

6. Expected Outcomes of the Symposium
1.	Case studies are shared among researchers, which contributes to the enhancement of
ICH safeguarding researches in the Asia-Pacific region.
2.	Network among ICH researchers are strengthened through interactive discussions.
3.	Collection of essays based on the symposium is expected to be published by National
Museum of Ethnology in 2019.

7. Organising Committee of the Symposium
National Museum of Ethnology:
Mr TERADA Yoshitaka, Professor
Mr FUKUOKA Shota, Associate Professor
Mr IIDA Taku, Associate Professor
IRCI:Mr IWAMOTO Wataru, Director-General
Ms OHNUKI Misako, Deputy Director-General
Mr KODAMA Shigeaki, Associate Fellow
Ms FURUKAWA Sachie, Associate Fellow

8. Secretariat of the Symposium(IRCI): International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-PacificRegionAddress: 2 cho, Mozusekiun-cho, Sakai-ku, Sakai City, Osaka 590－0802, Japan
TEL : +81 － 72 － 275 － 8050
FAX : +81 － 72 － 275 － 8151
E-mail: irci@irci.jp
Ms OHNUKI Misako, Deputy Director-General
Ms FURUKAWA Sachie, Associate Fellow

143VI. IRCI Research Activities
These slides were presented at the second day of the symposium, 30 November 2017.

Research Activities of
IRCIInternational Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage
in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)
Sachie Furukawa

Associate Fellow, IRCI
30 November 2017

International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage
in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO(IRCI)
Establishment
Established in October 2011 as a Category 2 Centre of UNESCO
Opened as an institution of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH)
Location
at Sakai City Museum in Sakai-City,
which is the south central part of Osaka

144

Annex VI. IRCI Research Activities
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Organizational Chart of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage

National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH), Japan

International Research Centre
for Intangible Cultural Heritage
in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Nara National Research Institutefor Cultural Properties

Tokyo National ResearchInstitute for Cultural Properties

Kyushu National Museum

Nara National Museum

Kyoto National Museum

Tokyo National Museum

UNESCOInternational Research Centre for Intangible
Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)IRCI’s Objectives
To promote the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of
the Intangible Cultural Heritage (the 2003 Convention) and
its implementation, and to enhance the safeguarding ofIntangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)through instigating andcoordinating researches in the Asia-Pacific region.

145

146

Annex VI. IRCI Research Activities
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Strategies and Projects for FY 2017
Activity Focus I: Promoting Research for ICH
Safeguarding
1. Mapping Studies on ICH Safeguarding

2. IRCI Researchers
Forum on ICH
Safeguarding in the AsiaPacific region

Activity Focus II: Research on ICH
Safeguarding and Disaster Risk Management
1. Preliminary Research on
ICH safeguarding and theDisaster-Risk Managementin the Asia-Pacific region

2. Study of Emergency
Protection of ICH in
Conflict-Affected
Countries in Asia

NewInternational
Symposium“Negotiating ICH”

Enhance ICH Safeguarding

Activity Focus I:

Promoting Research for ICH
Safeguarding

International symposium “Glocal Perspectives
on Intangible Cultural Heritage: Local
Communities, Researchers, States and
UNESCO” held at Seijo University in July 2017

New

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Activity Focus II:

Research on ICH Safeguarding
and Disaster Risk Management

Preliminary Research on ICH Safeguarding and the DisasterRisk Management in the Asia-Pacific Region (2016-2017)
Visiting related
institutions to collectinformation and build
relationships(Philippines, Veit Nam,
Myanmar, Vanuatu, Fiji,
and Marshall island)◀NCCA, Philippines(July 2016, Manila)

Assessing the current
situation of ICH in relation tonatural disasters (2017)
1)
2)

International Working Group Session(January 2017, Tokyo)

impacts of natural disasters
on ICH
active roles of ICH in
preparing for confronting,recovering from disaster▲ Workshop withlocal communities(July 2017, Gauaisland, Vanuatu)＊Publishing
Summary Report＊OrganisingInternational Workshop
in 2018

Past Projects

Safeguarding of Endangered ICH(2012~2016)
2. Research for Endangered Traditional
1. Research for Safeguarding Intangible
Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Extinction: Handicrafts in Post-conflict States (Sri Lanka)
Vietnamese ICH Element Dong Ho
Woodblock Printing

3. Documentation of ICH as a Tool for
Community-led
led Safeguarding Activities

4. Study of Legal Systems related to Intangible
Cultural Heritage in the Greater Mekong
Region147

148

Annex VI. IRCI Research Activities
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Reports and Publication
IRCI brochure 2016

IRCI New Website(https://www.irci.jp)

IRCI Research Database(https://www.irci.jp/ichdb/)

IRCI brochure 2017

Fully
redesigned

2017 International Symposium “Negotiating Intangible Cultural Heritage”
International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

Thank you
For further information, please contact:
irci@irci.jp149

ISBN : 978-4-9909775-0-4