Description
Increased incidents of internal conflict, along with the desire to assert power and control territory, has seen cultural heritage become a key target in warfare, positioning heritage as
a source of tension and violence. Building on the notion of 'pacific heritage' (Hammami et al. 2022) which attends to the potentialities of heritage to advocate peace, and peace as a means of protecting heritage in all its myriad and changing forms, this paper investigates how affective encounters and engagements with community heritage are conceived and employed in acts of everyday peace and resistance. Drawing on research undertaken with ‘Heritage Gatherers’ from religious minorities in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq who collected and documented their communities’ heritages over the course of one year from 2021-2022, this paper highlights how increased knowledge and awareness of heritage processes and practices assisted in fostering identity, belonging and pride that worked to enhance aspects of social cohesion within and between communities. This was due to the connections established between members of the same communities and with other religious groups. As such, young people became agents of both continuity and change; demonstrating the ways and conditions through which multiple and diverse heritages can become a means of working towards greater understanding and building more resilient futures.
