Engaging Youth in World Heritage Education: Perspectives from the 2024 World Heritage Young Professionals Forum

• In Event: International Education: Dynamics, Issues and Explorations

Proposal

“As the waters of the Yamuna River rise toward the Taj Mahal we stand in a moment of collective action.” These words echoed through the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee as 50 World Heritage Young Professionals from 31 different countries stood resolutely behind their speaker and message. This youth declaration was heard by the Director-General of UNESCO, the director of the World Heritage, the Indian Minister of Culture, and UNESCO delegates from over 80 countries. Framed in the urgency of rapidly changing technology and climate, the audience heard about the potential for and responsible use of digital technologies to teach about world heritage, the importance of building youth capacity in world heritage stewardship, and combating climate change through the inclusion of Indigenous ways of knowing. In this paper I draw on my experience as the sole representative from the United States to the World Heritage Young Professionals Forum 2024 as well as interviews of the other participants to explore the educational priorities and concerns of youth working in world heritage around the globe and highlight their diverse and incredible work.

The World Heritage Young Professionals Forum is among the flagship activities of the World Heritage Education Programme, and is designed to foster intercultural learning and exchange by bringing together young people (under the age of 32) and heritage experts from different parts of the world. Addressing the troubling dearth of youth participation in World Heritage stewardship (Röll & Meyer, 2020) the Forum is designed to enhance the expertise and capacities of young professionals in protecting, preserving, and promoting our natural and cultural World Heritage. The World Heritage Young Professionals Forum 2024 was held in New Delhi, India and included 30 young professionals representing different countries and 20 Indian young professionals. Throughout this experience the participants discussed and explored cultural heritage education, a stated requirement of UNESCO States Parties that should engage diverse stakeholders and build lasting networks toward sustaining cultural heritage (Jagielska-Burduk, Pszczyński, & Stec, 2021). This paper draws on participatory observation in these sessions focused on the educational priorities and concerns of the young professionals as well as 22 semi-structured interviews with colleagues from 20 different countries focused on World Heritage education. These were followed up by another 10 interviews conducted remotely which resulted in an interview with a representative from every attending country.

My initial analysis of these interviews combined with field notes from the programming found that on a global scale World Heritage young professionals call for educational programming that integrates digital technologies and includes local and Indigenous knowledges. Innovative digital technologies have the potential to improve heritage experience through education and entertainment, connecting it with local communities while contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. These technologies have the power to enhance accessibility and connection to World Heritage, making it more inclusive; facilitating protection, management, disaster resilience and security. Young professionals caution that the use of technology, however, must be in close association with traditional techniques and practices, to balance the digital with the tangible. Examples of successful integration of innovative digital technologies mentioned by young professionals included promoting youth engagement through co-creation of digital souvenirs and creating curricula using virtual reality renderings of World Heritage sites.

Throughout the program and interviews, World Heritage young professionals repeated the need for States Parties and the global community to honor the sovereignty, rights, land, knowledges, and agency of Indigenous peoples and local communities who continue to embody and steward World Heritage. Drawing on the deep knowledge of these local communities requires creating and sustaining spaces for meaningful dialogue with local communities that enable a participatory approach of learning and collaborative documentation for revitalization of local and Indigenous knowledges. Young professionals also expressed the increasingly worrying role of technology in disrupting these knowledges as well as the potential of technology in revitalizing, preserving, and teaching about World Heritage. Examples of successful collaboration with local and Indigenous communities include the creation of Indigenous World Heritage stewardship cohort systems that are taught by local Elders, classes taught to NGOs by Indigenous experts about local conservation practices, and Indigenous language applications used to help translate Indigenous medicinal practices.

Our collective cultural heritage is facing rising threats from climate change and overtourism, and the continued disengagement of youth in this time of crisis could leave us with no World Heritage leaders to combat these threats. To further youth engagement and continue the field forward it is critical to listen and respond to the voices and needs of World Heritage young professionals.

Author

• David Elikak Kancewick Smith, University of Idaho