Booklet- naturecultures Dialogues 2019-2020

A series of Culture-Nature dialogues (or webinars) were undertaken between August 2019 and October 2020.  The sessions were initiated and hosted by the ISCCL Working Group on naturecultures, and the product of these sessions are summarised in the booklet with links to each discussion. We use the conjoined noun naturecultures to recognise that human, non-human, more-than-human (e.g., spirits, creation ancestors, divinities), natural environments, and landscape are intimately bound (that is, interconnected and entangled). During these dialogues, the Working Group was concerned with understanding different worldviews, how these worldviews conceptualise naturecultures, and the way these influence the understandings, care, and safeguarding of cultural landscapes.

The objectives of the Working Group was to:

(1) Strengthen existing relationships with individuals, ICOMOS groups (International Scientific Committees, National Committees, Working Groups), and other organisations (IUCN, ICCROM) with a commitment to naturecultures integration

(2) Participate in conferences, virtual meetings, and webinars in order to advocate for improved naturecultures integration in caring for and safeguarding significant cultural landscapes.

We were delighted to ‘launch’ this freely available publication in this 50th anniversary year of the ICOMOS-IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes.

Irene Curulli designed this booklet. Maya Ishizawa with Nupur Prothi, were the moderators of these talks. Marike Franklin and Maya coordinated summaries, meetings and correspondence under the leadership and direction of Steve Brown. Each presentation took immense effort from those presenting, and each month we had many engaging discussions with the members who attended and furthered these discussions. It was a delightful communal effort.