Description
Cultural heritage is often at risk and under attack, either directly or indirectly, when violence and conflict escalate. This paper presents findings from a participatory intangible cultural heritage project that trained youth in the occupied Palestinian territories in heritage safeguarding approaches using oral history interviews. Since its inception in 2017 until now, the conflict landscape in which this research has taken place has changed significantly, and violence against Palestinians has increased. In this paper, we discuss the experiences of youth from Gaza and the West Bank who participated in our project and how – or whether – they consider the role of cultural heritage safeguarding as a form of peacebuilding during times of violent conflict. The analysis draws on data collected as part of the evaluation activities conducted during the four project phases. The main findings from this analysis reflect that working with intangible cultural heritage contributed to peacebuilding outcomes across the core domains of security, socio-economic development, political inclusion and reconciliation. We discuss each of these domains and highlight what youth gained from and through their participation in the project. Our paper shows that while the value of ‘softer’ approaches to peacebuilding may be questioned during war, they contributed to helping conflict-affected communities cope with and respond to violent conflict. This makes intangible cultural heritage safeguarding a valuable contribution to peacebuilding efforts.
