Aim of this talk • Define the idea of heritage interpretation in the frame
of heritage conservation management.
• Survey the need for, and outcomes of, heritage interps.
• Discuss the site management functions of interps.
• Introduce interpretation planning and media.
• Stress the need to understand the visitors for whom interpretation is designed.
• Suggest applications of interps in the Kokoda scenario.
Heritage interpretation means: • Explaining to visitors why an object/place is
important enough to conserve as heritage.
In other words:
• Presenting the heritage significance of objects/places to the public.
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Heritage significance
Australian heritage management bases all conservation interventions on an initial assessment of significance, using 4 aspects of cultural significance, plus environmental vales:
• Historic
• Aesthetic
• Social, spiritual or community
• Scientific (research potential)
• + Environmental
Uluru has significance in all fields, relative to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people
The stages of heritage management: 1 Identification of stakeholders & assessment of significance: what & why do we need to conserve?
• What? Settler estate where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, marking cession of Maori sovereignty to Queen Victoria, 1840.
• Who? Maori, Pakeha, locals, nationals.
• Significance? Establishment of white colonial domination of NZ Maori people. “It is a place of belonging and enjoyment that is central to the life of the nation and special to all New Zealanders.”
• What should be conserved? Landscape, house, Maori tradition, memory of history.
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The stages of heritage management: 2 Conservation: develop policy, write conservation management plan, and implement appropriate interventions or treatments to conserve significance.
Conservation policy: restore the house to 1840s configuration to represent settler lifestyle; conserve the local environment to indicate the condition of the land in 1840; conserve intangible Maori values associated with the site.
The stages of heritage management: 3 Interpretation: present the heritage significance of the place to the public.
Interpret via guided tours, cultural performances, interactive activities, house restoration, marae construction, landscape boardwalk
Why do heritage sites need interpretation?
Many heritage places/objects are difficult to understand because:
• Not familiar to modern or foreign people.
• Incomplete or damaged.
• Requires specialist knowledge to understand.
• Need to understand larger social, political, economic conditions of the time.
Trench landscape at Verdun, 2012: Western Front, 1916
Goals of interpretation
1. Express a site’s significance in ways that are clear and interesting to non-specialists.
2. Place the site in its broad social/historical/ecological context.
3. Explain the whole site, specially gaps due to damage or decay.
4. Encourage responsible, non-damaging behaviour by visitors.
Gallipoli landing, 1915 : Gallipoli interps, 2010
What does heritage interpretation achieve?
• Heritage interpretation is strategically important because it is the point of contact between the public and the heritage manager.
• When visitors understand a site, (we hope) they come to respect it, and to feel some attachment to and responsibility for it.
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Sydney
Interpretation in site management • Important for visitor control:
– Manage physical pressure – Control vandal tendencies
• Interps is a ‘soft’ management technique: – Hearts and minds – Understanding helps people
value a site. – Hence willing to exercise care,
accept constraints.
• Used in conjunction w hard techniques: – Protective walkways – Safe reconstructions
Many sections of the Great Wall are ruinous and unsafe for visitors.
Interpretation in site management • Important for visitor control:
– Manage physical pressure – Control vandal tendencies
• Interps is a ‘soft’ management technique: – Win hearts and minds – Guide people to understand and
value a site – Thus inspire to exercise care,
accept constraints.
• Used in conjunction w hard techniques: – Protective walkways – Safe reconstructions
Interpretive reconstruction of segments of the Great Wall demonstrates the original form, corrals visitors, and protects ruined parts.
Planning heritage interpretation • Know the cultural and environmental significance of
the site: What is important for visitors to understand?
• Know the visitors: conduct market research on existing & potential visitors; study experience at similar sites; don’t rely on your own tastes!
• Develop a plan: expertise, experience, time, money…
Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
Interpretive media • Signs, brochures
• Displays, models
• Guides: personal & audio
• Designed paths
• Multimedia
• Drama
• Re-enactments
• Re-created settings
• Visitor centres
• Artworks
• WWW
Knowing the visitors • Understand the visitors, in order to provide a good
experience and help them conserve the site.
• There is no ‘general visitor’: visitors are different and have different agendas in visiting.
• Segmentation by ‘taste’: Tourists? Family trippers? Specialists? Adventurers? Patriots? Plan accordingly.
Interpreting Kokoda • Identification: site and
stakeholders clearly known?
• Significance: understood and agreed by all stakeholders?
• Conservation policy: conservation management plan, specifying limits to interventions, so as to protect significance?
• Interpretation: plan that understands stakeholders (local & Aussie), visitors, and has appropriate resources?
Summing up…
• Interpretation is part of the heritage conservation management process, and follows from the assessment of heritage significance.
• Effective interps aims to inform visitors, imbue a sense of important meanings, and protect the site.
• Efficient interps is designed for specific audiences, with enough overlap to appeal to specific visitor segments.
Frank Hodgkinson, Owen Stanley Trail, 1942: AWM
