The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is assisting Saint Lucia’s Cultural Development Foundation (CDF), in identifying and preserving the island’s intangible heritage.

The five-day capacity development workshop will focus on the implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at the national level. Intangible cultural heritage encompasses the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.

Deputy Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation, Celeste Burton, said it is important to safeguard a country’s intangible cultural heritage.

Secretary General of the Saint Lucia National Commission for UNESCO, Marcia Symphorian, said that this has been one of the most rapidly ratified conventions; but it is not without its challenges.

Intangible Cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. Facilitator of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage David Brown explained the importance of safeguarding.

The workshop was conducted in collaboration with stakeholder agencies and will be held from March 25 - 29.