Interpreting Cultural Heritage

What makes local culture?

Author: Sustainable Development Association-Meryem Tatlıkiraz

Ephesos, Türkiye. Credit "Minamie's Photo"

One of the purposes of interpretation is to allow communities to understand their heritage better and contribute to its development and enrichment. Interpretations require various methods, media, materials, management, and specific expertise in their field. Interpreters shall enhance the intensity of visitor involvement in the life illustrated by the site using tourism animation, art projects, community theatre, storytelling, reenactment, or simply interpretation of the heritage by a guide. The interpreter doesn't have to give directions, but he has to promote the heritage and involve visitors in the world he describes. It must be a presentation that grabs attention and connects heritage with people's experiences. It should be fun, engaging, meaningful, and well organized (easy to use and understand). Interpretations must meet the needs of a wide range of listeners and convey distinct themes and ideas. Heritage interpretation is a way of connecting the past with the present. Cultural heritage interpretation builds on the concepts of 'communication' and 'learning,' both used to convey to visitors the value, cultural significance, and interest of the heritage in question. Among the stories and ideas behind the heritage on display, it inspires audiences to think about themselves and develop their visions and ideas of what heritage means to them.

Heritage interpretation can help managers in culture and tourism, museums, heritage sites, municipalities, local governments, and tourism destinations to deepen the heritage experience of local people and visitors and to encourage visitors to spend more time (and money) at their site instead of flooding in and out without getting really in touch with people and places.

What’s the activity?

Palatki Heritage Site. Credit "U.S. Forest Service, Southwestern Region, Coconino National Forest"

Interpreting cultural heritage is a structured approach to non-formal learning that specializes in communicating important ideas to people about a place. It connects visitors with what they can explore at heritage sites such as nature preserves, historical sites, or museums, allowing them to communicate with local people. Cultural interpretation is about helping visitors, tourists, and locals interact with and value the heritage site and discover what it means. Regarding these, your first task is to interpret cultural heritage sites. You will investigate your local environment and gather information about historical-cultural places that interest you. Then you will interpret the heritage site by shooting a video. By visiting archives, museums and libraries, you should identify a cultural heritage site you want to tell and tell the story of this area. You can make this interpretation in two ways. If you wish, you can go to the area, take pictures, and use your phone to shoot a video of your visits. Or, without going to the site, you can interpret the cultural site you have determined by preparing a video that includes the photos you have collected by researching, the presentation you have ready, etc. If you visit, contact the locals in the area you are visiting and ask them to tell them what they know. You can also integrate their comments into your comments. If you prepare a video by researching, ensure all materials are original to you. Remember, since this quest aims to improve your interpretation skills, everything you do should be your own.

What am I going to do?

You will research your local environment and gather information about historical-cultural places that interest you. Then you will interpret the heritage site by shooting a video. The choice of the shooting video depends on you. See the documents for more detailed instructions. The' Task Description' document attached in the resources section states clear instructions on what to look out for when completing the tasks. The attached resources provide detailed information about what you must do when interpreting cultural heritage.

What will I learn?

Knowledge Acquired:

Knowledge about Local Identity, History and Heritage
Good knowledge of making videos in heritage sites.

Skills Acquired:

You will develop skills to identify via creative and intuitive thinking
You will develop your oral skills

Attitude Acquired:

You will be able to create the story of a cultural heritage site and convey it to people.

What will I take home?

After this quest, learners will possess a more profound comprehension and awareness of how to interpret heritage sites, keep visitors engaged, and make them feel a part of the location. Learners will have a deeper understanding and awareness of how to interpret heritage sites, keep visitors engaged and make them feel like part of the place. Asking people questions will help you understand various information-gathering techniques.

It is valuable information to understand a local community, its story, and its living conditions. Gathering information and a coherent narrative told through a virtual communication tool will refresh the local memory of the community.

To consolidate our learning process and identify the issues we want to be different in the future, it is better if we evaluate ourselves first. Then, we should transfer what we have learned to others individually or collectively; this will help accelerate our learning process.

Resources
Click each section below to see all resources available.

Websites (URLs)

Fostering communities through heritage interpretation
https://www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/interpret_europe_fostering_communities_through_heritage_interpretation_v28-05-2020.pdf

Ideas for Interpreting Heritage Site
https://www.heritagecouncil.ie/content/files/bored_of_boards_1mb.pdf

Videos

Documents

Frontline Worker Toolkit

Aims and Objectives:

To foster communities through teaching cultural heritage interpretation
To develop the interpretation skills of groups or individuals in the local community and to ensure the interpretation and protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
To build and strengthen the capacity for people with an interest in interpretation by promoting effective competency-oriented informal learning within the context of sensitivity to cultural heritage.
To involve in natural and cultural resource interpretation and inspire to care for resources and provide cooperation.

Top tips:

Now that we've outlined the meaning, and principles of heritage interpretation, let's look at how people can be trained to become good heritage interpreters.

Front-line workers need to know what practical and effective ways can be to train inheritance interpreters.

First, we recommend you reflect on adult learners' learning processes. The idea is that learners should be actively involved in the learning situation. They learn best in meaningful contexts, collaboratively, and interacting with others and their environment. Thus, they allow themselves the opportunity to acquire and structure knowledge and to check and cross-check their newly constructed ideas with others.

We recommend that educators construct or examine meaningful contexts in which learners will experience the relevancy and the meaning of the competencies to be acquired naturally.

It would be best if you asked learners to check the definition and examples of cultural heritage and available resources in research.

To acquire competence(s) related to the interpretation, you should allow learners to take the initiative because competence implies taking the initiative, being creative, and seeking to fulfill one's ambitions. For learners to develop competencies, you should facilitate this process with your suggestions, feedback, and, incidentally, your input.

It would help if you promoted constructive learning. Learning should be thought of as creating one's knowledge in interaction with one's environment rather than assimilating the knowledge that others are trying to convey. If we consider the interpretation of heritage as an act of constructive knowledge production, the use of the constructive learning method will contribute positively to the learning process of learners.

Professional Development in Heritage Interpretation Manual
https://www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/projects/InHerit/Manual-InHerit-EN.pdf