Community-based needs identification for living heritage among displaced communities from Ukraine
Grant scheme: UNESCO
Principal investigator: Mgr. Ľubica Voľanská, PhD.,
Researchers in IESA SAS: Mgr. Martina Wilsch, PhD., Mgr. et Mgr. Art Barbora Morongová, PhD.
Project manager: Mgr. Tatiana Zachar Podolinská, PhD.
Financial manager: Mgr. Branislava Kolesárová
Duration of the project: 2022-2023
As a direct response to the war in Ukraine, the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences is coordinating an international project initiated by UNESCO, Living Heritage Entity. In cooperation with partners, the project aims to identify needs related to living heritage among displaced communities, groups and individuals from Ukraine who live in five neighbouring countries: Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The identification of needs was highlighted as a priority area for action during a coordination meeting organized by UNESCO to promote the protection of Ukraine’s living heritage on 18 March 2022.
In addition to material damage and devastating loss of human life, the critical situation in Ukraine has a negative impact on the social structure of Ukrainian society, tearing families apart and forcing millions of women, children and older adults to flee their homes. As a result, the living heritage of communities in Ukraine, which represents an essential component of their identity and can thus serve as a source of resilience in difficult times and a basis for the continuity of society, is at risk.
The project is created in accordance with the UNESCO document summarizing the operational principles and modalities for the protection of intangible cultural heritage in emergencies (LINK: https://ich.unesco.org/en/emergency-situations-01117). The document emphasizes that communities should be the main actors in identifying how their intangible cultural heritage might be affected by the crisis and how they could safeguard it.
At the end of June 2022, the first three-month phase of the needs assessment was closed. The second phase will be during the summer of 2022. Based on the identified needs, in the coordination of the IESA SAS, each participating partner will develop a specific project to support safeguarding Ukraine’s living heritage. The third phase should consist of implementing the applied projects during 2023.
