UNITAR Hiroshima take-home benefits: a case study

Paul Mahoney

New Zealand
 
In 2007 I was privileged to participate in the UNITAR World Heritage Management training course in Hiroshima, Japan. Two years later it remains an inspirational professional refreshment.
 
UNITAR attendees are challenged to create a personal action plan to implement on return to in their home countries. My own list includes (1) improving world heritage stakeholder relationships and (2) initiating comparative analysis studies for tentative list sites. Another key action is establishing a similar training course in New Zealand that engages a much wider audience of heritage stakeholders.
 
The UNITAR training course, being based on heritage best practice, is relevant to all heritage management, including national and even local sites. My UNITAR experience inspired the course content and the approach to learning that involves active participation from site visits and personal case studies. In addition, advice on effective learning was given by skilled UNITAR presenters like Jeff Cody.
 
The New Zealand ‘Principles of Heritage Management’ course was created for the hundreds of Department of Conservation staff whose role includes a cultural heritage element. We have also had a great response inviting stakeholder representatives to attend, to the extent that some courses are now 50% staff and 50% stakeholders. Most attendees have no formal cultural heritage management training, but may have a strong personal interest. The two-day course for 14 participants includes six lecture topics along with a practical visit engage with issues at to a cultural heritage site.
 
Participants also select a personal case study relevant to their work. We help them to develop it on-line prior to the course. They further develop it during the course and present it to all participants at the end. We encourage attendees from the same area to work together on a case study and present it jointly. We are amazed at the passion of participants for their case study and are humbled by the compelling presentations they develop. The intention is to build understanding and confidence so they can effectively contribute to heritage work under the guidance of professionals. Post-course support is provided by intranet resources, which will be posted on the internet eventually.
 
The 2007 UNITAR course highlighted the values-led approach to heritage management. It challenged participants to identify the values of all stakeholders, to work hard to communicate heritage values effectively, and even to track changing values over time. New Zealand is a multicultural society with a strong indigenous culture. Maori values are built into the course.
 
UNITAR training stressed the vital importance of identifying heritage values and effectively communicating them. Presenter Francois Le Blanc put it like this: “Imagine you meet the Director General or the Mayor in the elevator … this gives you a one- minute opportunity to advocate your project … what values are you going to communicate so you are invited to discuss more?”. Participants on our course develop a range of value bullet points and then identify two or three that are the leading values.
 
We recently celebrated delivery of the 20th training course since 2007 and have trained 266 participants. Course evaluation forms demonstrate a high degree of satisfaction. Courses continue to be fully booked. All this success can be traced to the inspirational training environment created by UNITAR.