Capacity building on community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage in Quang Nam Province, Viet Nam

As part of the partnership by UNESCO Ha Noi and the DCH in building capacity for trainers on community-based ICH inventorying, the training took place in Tay Giang District, Quang Nam Province with the participation of twenty-five trainees including cultural workers from six mountainous districts of Quang Nam Province, local cultural officers and village members from A Nong and Lang Communes of Tay Giang District.

Having adapted the UNESCO materials delivered in the May 2016 during the Training of Trainers in Ha Noi, two trainers from Quang Nam DOCST and the DCH, together with UNESCO staff, presented a wide range of topics contextualized to the local setting, highlighting the importance of community involvement in defining and identifying ICH elements, their free, prior and informed consent and ethics in inventorying and other safeguarding measures.

The training also equipped participants with practical skills in working with Katu ethnic tradition bearers in inventorying their ICH. A two-day fieldwork practicum in Anoonh, A Rot and Porning villages of Tay Giang District allowed the participants to apply inventorying and documenting ICH elements using data collection methods and techniques such as interviewing, audio recording and photographing.

Group discussions among cultural workers and community members upon fieldwork findings helped address risks and threats to the viability of ICH elements of the Katu, such as fabric and bamboo weavings, the space of gongs and blacksmithing. The team members jointly proposed a number of relevant safeguarding measures, drawing upon community-based identifications.

The training ended with informative and comprehensive presentations by the team members, especially the Katuic participants, on the inventoried ICH elements. In concluding the training course, Vice Chairperson of Tay Giang District, Mr. Arat Blui, asserted that the activity has set as an exemplary practice in promoting active cooperation between civil workers and the local people in identifying and safeguarding their cultural values and will be thus replicated throughout Tay Giang District. He also encouraged the replication of this training in other districts of the province.

For further information please contact Mr. Nguyen Duc Tang, National Programme Officer in Culture, UNESCO Ha Noi Office, atnd.tang@unesco.org