Susanne Verburg explained in her introduction that safeguarding means that you want to give the intangible cultural heritage a future. This can be done in various ways, such as creating visibility or involving new people in the intangible cultural heritage, so that it is passed on to new generations. The bottom-up principle is important when guaranteeing, whereby initiatives come from below. The people who practice the intangible cultural heritage have their own responsibility in safeguarding.
Within the research line, Susanne has investigated three cases to gain insight into Scouting, gaming and the Fruitcorso Tiel. The interviews were focused on aspects that are important for securing, such as knowledge transfer, how a community takes shape and also on the visibility or invisibility of the cultural expression. Important results that are already clear, for example, are the role of young people. As a young person, do you have much or little say? Are your ideas taken seriously and is something being done with it? What do external people know about your cultural expression?
Youth panel
These questions were reflected in the panel discussion with Michiel (gaming), Pim (Fruitcorso Tiel), Floor (Scouting) and Justin (Youth Pride Amsterdam).
The message of Youth Pride is that you can be proud of who you are and inclusiveness. Within the large organization of Pride Amsterdam, the young people certainly belong, but it is sometimes a search for ways to get young people to really participate. For Justin, creating a safe environment for young people is very important.
The Fruitcorso is all about building together on a big end result: the corso car. It is a social activity, wherever you are creative. At the Fruitcorso, a number of clubs are working on a youth car and a 'large' car. Yet few young people are active in the organization.
For many young people, gaming is a way to relax and make (new) friends online. These contacts can also be international due to the online aspect. Within the large game community there are different groups around different games. These people help each other to become better at the game you play. Greater familiarity with gamers' motives would be good because they now have a lot to do with prejudice and stereotyping.
Scouting started at a young age for Floor. She joined her parents and never stopped. Scouting is all about socializing and organizing together. That is why she is now also leading young groups. There are also stereotypes about Scouting, but that used to be difficult for Floor and now no longer.
Reflection Simon Mamahit and Marco Altena
The panel discussion showed that the power of young people is that they can add new ideas to older concepts, whereby combinations with other youth cultures can also be made. Such as adding a music festival to the parade of the Fruitcorso in Tiel. In addition, the youth cultures show what young people need, such as being involved in nature at Scouting, but also a safe environment by, for example, meeting new people online. Finally, Youth Pride strongly emphasizes that the organization is open to new people.
It was an eye opener that several youth cultures have to deal with image problems. Exchange in this area and supporting each other could be steps to tackle these problems. This can be achieved by offering a stage to youth cultures. Here, youth participation is very important and in such a way that young people are not only allowed to think along, but can actually do something. It was striking that it is not obvious that all participants in a cultural expression are also friends of each other. Knowing each other for a long time does ensure that culture becomes a familiar environment.
Question round
In the round of questions, questions were asked about the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and youth cultures. The young people from the panel indicated that for them the term intangible cultural heritage was not important for the perception of their cultural expression. Pim van de Fruitcorso and Justin from Youth Pride were familiar with the term, because these elements have been added to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory. The panel responded to a question about traditions that they consider change and dynamics important and that some traditions may also disappear.
Furthermore, a question arose as to whether youth culture is an 'anti-culture', a discussion started about the dynamics of youth cultures. This mainly focused on the interaction between the different generations. Youth cultures are not exclusive to young people and within 'older' traditions, interaction between generations is important to remain relevant as a cultural expression. This applies, for example, to crafts, where arguments about sustainability are a reason for the younger generation to continue to practice the craft.
Discussion rounds
In the second part of the program, small groups continued to discuss the three themes of visibility, community building and knowledge transfer. These questions were always central:
- How do you see knowledge transfer, visibility or community building in your area / practice? And what are the characteristics / forces of this?
- Where and how are incentives needed to reinforce this?
Visibility
To increase the visibility of youth cultures, being physically present was considered very important. Visibility always has two sides, because you also expose yourself in a certain way. Media play an important role here. Good cooperation with media is therefore recommended.
Visibility also has to do with being able to fight stereotyping. Becoming more visible of youth cultures can ensure that young people are taken seriously. When it comes to young people who are active within a heritage community, it is also important to make young people visible to older people.
It would be good if there were more awareness among others about youth cultures and the role of young people. Conversely, many young people do not know which parties are committed to youth cultures. Making yourself known to a local government can help you forward. It was suggested to appoint ambassadors, to give youth cultures a face.
Community building
Questions were asked about what exactly communities are. Words such as community, network and like-minded people were an alternative. The general feeling was not to see a community as fixed, but as a cycle.
Communities grow because of like-mindedness: young people often attract more young people. There is a shared interest, and new growth sometimes comes naturally, but sometimes it has to be actively sought. It is found that young people sometimes become part of a community, but not a supporting pillar. Do young people still want to connect to a community for a long time? And how do you deal with people who are only partly involved? It was suggested to discuss this topic with people from their own community.
It is noted that a community that connects with a necessity, such as relaxation, sustainability, gaining 'skills for life', has a more powerful recipe for continuing. The nostalgia (of a craft for example) does not have to disappear, it can be mixed in it.
People are storytelling animals , one of the participants found. They identify with stories. What story does your community have? Furthermore, make sure that cosiness and feeling safe are at the forefront. Create a setting within your community where questions can be asked and ideas can be suggested, without making people laugh.
Knowledge transfer
For the theme of knowledge transfer, the keyword was inclusiveness. How can you give young people a voice and responsibility in their own language and in their own strength and have them organize what they find important? With its own perspective on tradition. Inclusiveness sets requirements for knowledge transfer, it requires that you think about the way in which you disseminate knowledge.
There is also a difference between intention and doing. It is noted that many organizations want to do something with young people, but in practice it does not get off the ground. The DNA of the organization is not tailored to young people.
When transferring, you have to take into account changing means of communication and a different language. Social media are important means of communication for young people. Young people want to get excited.
You have to give young people responsibility themselves. They must master the traditions (within intangible cultural heritage communities). That is why passing on is also always renewing. Passing on comes from two sides. It is a dynamic process. For example, as a board / headquarters you facilitate cultural activity for a while, then you transfer the acquired knowledge and skills to the next group, which also facilitates it for a while. In this way you 'guarantee' cultural activity time and again.
Conclusions
When it comes to the power of young, words like dynamic, energetic, involvement, enthusiasm and participation come to the fore. The four examples of cultural expressions presented during the youth panel of the expert meeting showed that there are similarities in how young people experience cultural expressions, but also differences. For example, the emphasis is on inclusiveness and the creation of a safe environment for one person, while for the other a stereotype is blocking the way.
By looking at cultural expressions of young people, we discovered strong points from which we can learn something for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. This is how knowledge transfer is about inclusiveness. Do you speak the language of the other (in this case a young person) and are you willing to go on a path of renewal? The visibility of a cultural expression can also help to combat prejudices about your cultural expression and to find good partners who can help you further. At the same time you make yourself vulnerable as a young person.
When forming a network (or community building), the challenge is how to bind young people. That is only possible if you learn to speak their language, but also that you give them responsibility. By giving young people their own responsibility and role, they become more involved.
With this expert meeting as a basis, the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage will develop a toolkit. This toolkit will provide intangible cultural heritage communities with tools to collaborate with young people and to strengthen cultural expressions of young people.