Session 4: Underwater Cultural Heritage in Oceania

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Title

Session 4: Underwater Cultural Heritage in Oceania

Subject

Video interview with Session 4 chair Akatsuki Takahashi and links to the papers presented in the session.

Description

The Pacific Ocean contains a wealth of underwater cultural heritage. Underwater sites in Oceania span human history from the Stone Age to the Atomic Age. Due to the cultural richness of underwater heritage in the region and its complex history, the protection of these sites is of high importance for the region. Moreover, the potential for sustainable tourism in partnership with diving industry has been attracting a growing attention.
The first UNESCO regional workshop on the Pacific underwater cultural heritage took place in December 2009 in Honiara, Solomon Islands. As possible steps towards building a capacity for managing UCH, participants at the workshop identified the following needs; systematic recording and maintenance of a database of submerged and underwater sites; exploring licensing activities directed at underwater sites; and developing a training and education programme for managers. The papers presented by experts at the workshop were compiled, edited and published as "Underwater Cultural Heritage in Oceania" in 2010.
Based on the recommendations made at the Honiara workshop, a Feasibility Study on Pacific Capacity Building Programme was prepared by Flinders University with UNESCO support. The Study recommends a possible capacity building programme to be hosted by the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji. The launching of the Pacific Heritage Hub (PHH), a regional facility for knowledge management, capacity building and partnership building, at USP in 2013 presents an opportunity for the actual implementation of the capacity building programme. UNESCO is also exploring the possibility of organising regional and national consultations in the Pacific focusing on cultural policy development.
The objectives of the session are to:

• Enhance understanding of characteristics of UCH in the Pacific.

• Identify priority actions.

• Foster partnership for regional and international cooperation.

Creator

Dr. Akatsuki Takahashi

Collection Items

Video interview with Session 4 chair Akatsuki Takahashi.
The Pacific Ocean contains a wealth of underwater cultural heritage. Underwater sites in Oceania span human history from the Stone Age to the Atomic Age. Due to the cultural richness of underwater heritage in the region and its complex history, the…

The systematic investigation of underwater cultural heritage in the islands started in 1989 with the University of Hawai`i’s Marine Option Program. This slowly grew into a graduate certificate program in maritime archaeology and history. Manned…

By using World View 2 multispectral satellite imagery, LiDAR, and unmanned aerial vehicles, a large submerged archaeological stone alignment, that is likely part of an ancient Hawaiian fishpond, was detected off the coast of Kualoa, Hawai’i during…

Underwater archaeological resources within the Republic of Palau (henceforth referred to as the Republic) cover a wide array of types from famous World War II wrecks, to Yapese stone money disks which sank to the bottom of the sea during their…

This paper outlines a specific example, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and its effort to create and maintain a program for identifying, protecting and interpreting underwater cultural heritage (UCH). This paper suggests the…

Of all the United Nation member states, the Federated States of Micronesia’s (FSM) total land area is one of the smallest (191st out of 193 UN member states), yet the length of its coastline connecting its 607 islands ranks 21st in the world -…

In this paper we demonstrate the results of underwater survey at Nan Madol, Federated States of Micronesia. Nan Madol are the ruins of a megalithic civilization composed of 95 small to large artificial islets made mostly of basalt, situated on a…

Intangible cultural heritage (henceforth ICH) is an integral component to the understanding of many cultural heritage sites worldwide. While the collection of stories, oral histories and other intangible information to interpret terrestrial sites is…

Whaling heritage is a significant part of the world’s maritime history, and its landscape footprint is global. In the 19th Century, the Pacific and adjacent Arctic waters were the epicenter of whaling, where both many of the most productive whaling…
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