Q & A | How Does Culture Contribute to Development? | ICOM-CC 2014 Events

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Interactive Q&A Panel Discussion

Part of the ICOM-CC 17th Triennial Conference - this event is free and open to all. Register to attend here.

Date: Tuesday, 16 September 2014 | 5.30pm - 6.45pm

Venue: Room 105 & 106, Melbourne Convention Centre, 1 Convention Centre Place, MELBOURNE  VIC  3006

This event is hosted by the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Melbourne School of Government and is in addition to the ICOM-CC 17th Triennial Conference being held this year in Melbourne from 15 to 19 September 2014.

The theme of ICOM-CC’s 17th Triennial Conference is Building Strong Culture through Conservation. By preserving cultural materials essential to the continuation of collective memory, conservation helps rebuild communities which have been damaged through war, natural disaster, or displacement, and contributes to the identity of thriving communities. Access to cultural material directly contributes to what Amartya Sen describes as ‘functionality’ - giving individuals the tools we need to understand our place in the world, and ‘capability’ - giving us the ability to make choices about our place in the world.  When people have access to their cultural material they are able to participate in assessment of their history and historical position, understand where their knowledge was derived from, build educational foundations, and engage creatively in the future. These are very much the hallmarks of social inclusion that contributes to social transformation. However, culture remains a silent partner in many significant international development agendas, such as the Millennium Development Goals and is often the gilding rather than the core of international government programs.

This Q&A will explore the intersection of culture and international development by grappling with the following questions:

• How might we measure the impact of culture on international development?
• Who are the key actors in cultural development and whose interests do they serve?
• How does ‘strong culture’ assist economic development and social resilience?
• In what ways can development strategies incorporate principles and practices of cultural conservation?
• How do communities manage generational shifts in how culture is valued and transmitted?

Expert Panellists

Professor Lyndal Prott is Director of UNESCO’s Division of Cultural Heritage. Prior to joining UNESCO in 1990, she had a distinguished career teaching and researching at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney, where she held the Chair in Cultural Heritage Law. With her husband, Dr. P. J. O’Keefe, she is coauthoring a five-volume work, Law and the Cultural Heritage, two volumes of which are already published. Her book on the International Court of Justice, The Latent Power of Culture and the International Judge (1979), and her more recent Commentary on the UNIDROIT Convention (1995) are also well known among experts in international law. For her work she has been awarded honors by the governments of Australia and Austria.

Estelle Parker is Deputy State Director, Victoria State Office, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia.

Ms Parker joined DFAT as a Graduate Trainee in 2001 and has served, inter alia, as: Director, Western Europe Section, DFAT Canberra (2010); Policy Adviser to the Special Coordinator, Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) (2006-2008); and as a Civilian Peace Monitor in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea (2002). She has also worked on European Union issues in DFAT Canberra (2004-2006) and in state government/business relations in the Victoria State Office (2002-2004).

In 2011 and 2012, Ms Parker took leave from DFAT and worked with Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC in designing and delivering a postgraduate International Relations/Public Policy subject at the University of Melbourne. She took up full teaching of this subject in 2013.

Ms Parker holds a Bachelor of Arts (av. First Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Arts (Communications) (with Distinction) from RMIT University and a Master of Public Policy and Management (with First Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne.

Luis da Costa Ximenes is Director, and Emilio Vicente Noronha is Project Manager of Belun, a local NGO set up to bolster civil society in Timor-Leste and reduce underlying tensions that might lead to violent conflict. He is an Australia Award Fellow on the Reconciliation and Cultural Recovery Project, which is a partnership between the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University and the University of Tasmania.

Belun’s mission is to serve society and prevent conflict with integrity and innovation. Headquartered in Dili, Timor-Leste, Belun comprises a dedicated team of over 40 staff, who are strongly supported by 84 volunteer district monitors across the country. Belun is among the largest national non-government organizations in Timor-Leste and holds the most extensive community outreach program across the country.

Belun works through three main pillars: Community Capacity Development, Conflict Prevention and Research and Policy Development. Within Belun’s pillar for Community Capacity Development, projects are focused on developing community capacity and engaging civil society and state actors to support vulnerable groups within communities, ideally by working through local partners. To date, one of the most successful has been the Community Capacity Development taking place through the Balibo Community Learning Centre (Balibo CLC) in Balibo. Supported by Balibo House Trust and Australian Agency for International Development’s (AusAID) – East Timor Community Assistance Scheme (ETCAS). The project has been running since July 2011, and aims to develop the Balibo CLC to become self-sustaining as a learning place that engages the community to participate in their own local development, now and in the future.

Moderator by Associate Professor Robyn Sloggett
Robyn Sloggett is Director of the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation (CCMC) and the Co-Chair of the 17th Triennial Conference of the International Council of Museums Committee for Conservation (ICOM-CC), Building Strong Culture Through Conservation.She has qualifications in Art History, Philosophy and Cultural Materials Conservation. As Director of the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation she manages the diverse conservation, teaching and research programs of the Centre.

Her contribution to research and teaching has developed in both an academic and professional framework. In her previous role as Deputy Director and Grimwade Chief Conservator in the Ian Potter Museum of Art she managed both Conservation and Collections Management, developing research programs which linked the scientific analysis of art and archival material (in partnership with researchers in the Faculty of Science) with art historical analysis (in partnership with researchers in the Faculty of Arts) and collection management (in partnership with staff in the Ian Potter Museum of Art and Information Services). These collaborations resulted in over 23 competitive research grants and 17 successful ARC projects.

Robyn is currently a member of the University’s Cultural Collections Committee; founded and is Production Manager for the Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art; is a member of the Collections Committee of the Library Board, State Library of Victoria; and is currently Chair of the Indemnification Committee Arts Victoria. In the past she has been a member of a number of editorial boards (including Museums National Museum Australia Magazine and Open Museum Journal) and a number of organising committees (including the IIC’s 50th Congress Tradition and Innovation). She was a Board Member of the Ian Potter Museum of Art from 2000 to 2005, a Foundation Director of AusHeritage, a member of the Federal Government’s Conservation and Collection Management Working Party of the Heritage Collections Council, and both a State and National President of the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM Inc). She has been a member of course advisory committees for both the University of Canberra and Deakin University. She is an associate of the School of Enterprise and the Centre for Free Radical Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Melbourne.

Her research interests include programs in cultural materials conservation that focus on the materials and techniques of artists (particularly in Australia and South East Asia), ethical and philosophical issues in cultural materials conservation, and the development of scientific techniques for conservation.

In 2004 she was awarded the Australian Institute for Cultural Materials Conservation’s Conservator of the Year Award for service to the profession.