The National Heritage Board and the Norwegian Directorate for Culture are concerned about cultural heritage in Norway. – Culture and cultural heritage are our common identity, and must be part of national preparedness.
Hanna Geiran, Director General of the National Heritage Board, and Kristin Danielsen, Director of the Norwegian Directorate for Culture, have just organized a national conference on emergency preparedness in museums, cultural heritage and cultural environments, libraries and archives in Oslo. This is the first time that the National Heritage Board and the Norwegian Directorate for Culture have organized such a large-scale event. The backdrop is dark.
– “The world is more unstable, and we must realize that our cultural heritage is at risk,” says Hanna Geiran, Director of Antiquities.
– The consequences of climate change, war and armed conflict are getting closer and closer, and we must be prepared for Norway to be affected too,” says Geiran.
The conference “Cultural heritage as goal, means and resilience” has aimed to clarify the role of cultural institutions in national preparedness, as it happens in Norway.
Director of the Norwegian Directorate for Culture, Kristin Danielsen, elaborates:
– “Culture is such an integral part of our society that I often forget its value and social benefits,” says Danielsen.
– We see this when culture is not sufficiently integrated into national preparedness. But we must recognize that art and culture builds resilience in society, creates open meeting places for people and brings them closer together. That’s why it’s also one of the first things to be attacked,” says Danielsen.
The value situation affects Norwegian management
What is the function and responsibility of museums, archives, libraries and others in the larger context of emergency preparedness? The Directorate of Culture, the National Heritage Board, the National Library, the National Archives, regional and local actors manage our common memory and identity. But national coordination must still be improved. In the extreme, we risk losing the story of who we are and where we come from.
The Directorate for Cultural Heritage is the national coordinator for the implementation of the Hague Convention. This involves facilitating and coordinating the exchange of knowledge and experience between sectors and levels in the cultural heritage field. There will also be a national security and emergency preparedness group for cultural values, where the current National Historian has the role of Commissioner General.
However, the directorates are not alone in this responsibility. The conventions are international obligations that must also be followed up at regional and local level, just as the national overall preparedness responsibility principles for emergency preparedness also do.
– “We are good at local emergency preparedness,” says Geiran.
– But we must also have a stronger national preparedness for cultural heritage. For example, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage is working on a national guideline for risk and vulnerability analysis of cultural environments, which is part of our preparedness work.
The UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) and other conventions (1999) and the UNESCO Convention of 1970 are the international community’s measures to prevent illegal trade in cultural objects.
– When the Ministry of Justice and Public Security finalizes the upcoming white paper on strengthened overall preparedness in Norway, we expect the function and role of culture and cultural heritage to be recognized and defined as an integral part of society and thus of overall preparedness,” says Danielsen.
– The Directorate for Cultural Heritage and the National Heritage Board ensure that these conventions are followed up, which are about protecting cultural heritage against attack, destruction, theft and illegal trade both in times of peace and war,” says Danielsen.
