KEY FINDINGS The Meaning of Heritage to Australians It was acknowledged by most participants in this research that heritage is a broad concept, one which they had difficulty defining. This, of course, hampered discussion on the topic, and partially explains why respondents reported that they rarely discussed heritage issues amongst their peers. The lack of clear understanding about what heritage is, is one key area where the government can play a role to improve heritage discussions. First responses to questions regarding how respondents defined “Australia’s heritage” included “no idea”, “old buildings” and uncomfortable silence. Figure 1 is a visual representation of the things that first came to mind of our survey participants when they were asked to think of ‘heritage’. The size of the words is relative to how often they were mentioned. It is clear that ‘top of mind’ heritage associations are still dominated by the classical ‘old buildings’ and history view. Figure 1: What comes to mind when you first think of ‘heritage’? However, in both the survey research and the in-depth discussions we conducted, when pushed beyond these immediate associations, a richer, broader view of heritage was revealed. It was suggested that heritage includes both tangible and intangible aspects. Intangible experiences, such as attending festivals or site tours were included just as readily in definitions of heritage as were tangible places and objects. This can be seen in the survey responses shown in Figure 1, with words like ‘culture’ and ‘traditions’ appearing. Experiences were a very strong part of the discussion on what heritage is, to the point where respondents acknowledged that: Far from being static, many of the favoured aspects of Heritage were “experiential” Heritage is not so much about the objects, but what they mean to people Emphasis is placed not only on knowledge of and interest in, but also the celebration of Heritage Heritage objects can therefore change, and be developed or re-created, without losing value (e.g. the MCG redevelopment) if they retain core meaning Heritage should seek to protect the core value of the object rather than the object itself in a pristine way. The discussions quickly revealed that people recognise that heritage that operates on multiple levels. Specifically, examples were given of global, national, community and individual level heritage. The development of connections and involvement in heritage issues among participants usually started from an individual focus, broadening to a more aggregate national level over time. That is to
KEY FINDINGS The Meaning of Heritage to Australians It was acknowledged by most participants in this research that heritage is a broad concept, one which they had difficulty defining. This, of course, hampered discussion on the topic, and partially explains why respondents reported that they rarely discussed heritage issues amongst their peers. The lack of clear understanding about what heritage is, is one key area where the government can play a role to improve heritage discussions. First responses to questions regarding how respondents defined “Australia’s heritage” included “no idea”, “old buildings” and uncomfortable silence. Figure 1 is a visual representation of the things that first came to mind of our survey participants when they were asked to think of ‘heritage’. The size of the words is relative to how often they were mentioned. It is clear that ‘top of mind’ heritage associations are still dominated by the classical ‘old buildings’ and history view. Figure 1: What comes to mind when you first think of ‘heritage’? However, in both the survey research and the in-depth discussions we conducted, when pushed beyond these immediate associations, a richer, broader view of heritage was revealed. It was suggested that heritage includes both tangible and intangible aspects. Intangible experiences, such as attending festivals or site tours were included just as readily in definitions of heritage as were tangible places and objects. This can be seen in the survey responses shown in Figure 1, with words like ‘culture’ and ‘traditions’ appearing. Experiences were a very strong part of the discussion on what heritage is, to the point where respondents acknowledged that: Far from being static, many of the favoured aspects of Heritage were “experiential” Heritage is not so much about the objects, but what they mean to people Emphasis is placed not only on knowledge of and interest in, but also the celebration of Heritage Heritage objects can therefore change, and be developed or re-created, without losing value (e.g. the MCG redevelopment) if they retain core meaning Heritage should seek to protect the core value of the object rather than the object itself in a pristine way. The discussions quickly revealed that people recognise that heritage that operates on multiple levels. Specifically, examples were given of global, national, community and individual level heritage. The development of connections and involvement in heritage issues among participants usually started from an individual focus, broadening to a more aggregate national level over time. That is to