Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Culture is an internationally protected human right which is illustrated in several pieces of international legislation such as article 15(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Linguistically the term ‘culture’ is ‘notoriously difficult to interpret’ as it is considered one of the three most complex words in the English language to describe. The term ‘culture’ has at least three meanings which may be reflected as: ‘a set of desirable characteristics and goals of the civilised world; the norms and other characteristics of particular groups or societies; and specific works of art, literature, music, and other expressions’. In 2012 while doing empirical research for her doctoral thesis, the researcher surveyed fifty role players in different sectors of heritage and asked them specifically about their understanding of the construct ‘cultural heritage/ cultural heritage object’. This approach was used to determine whether there was a common understanding among the participants from different cultures of what is meant by the terms cultural heritage objects. The results show that the overall understanding of what cultural heritage is was not well rounded. The current South African decoloniality narrative has the potential to be exclusive. This paper does not argue for or against a specific viewpoint in terms of interpreting culture and heritage. This paper rather argues in favour of an interpretivistic stance in which the views are considered equal and inclusive of all culture groups in South Africa.