Engaging Children in Understanding the Local Heritage: a Preliminary Report of the Second Fieldwork in Sirwan Valley, Iraqi Kurdistan

NABATI-MAZLOUMI, Yasaman

‘Engagement, ‘outreach’, ‘participation’ and other similar words are all terms that have been used when referring to any public activity in archaeology and heritage practice. Different terminologies reflect the variety of perspectives on the topic of public engagement in archaeology as well as the available methodologies. For decades, archaeology has been conducted for, and shared among, a small group of scholars, however recently, many archaeologists consider community engagement as an important part of their work. Therefore, they make special efforts to share their interpretations in ways that are more accessible to a wider audience than solely academic publications. My research while addresses this gap between local communities and archaeological practice, aims to make the latter more relevant to local concerns, and to empower local communities to actively shape heritage discourse. Taking the Sirwan River valley in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as the case study and drawing on the archaeological and community work of the Sirwan Regional Project, I will present a case study of engaging activity with the children in the region to help them develop a culturally relevant understanding of their local heritage.

Session 5. Public Engagement and Cultural Heritage. The Role of Communication and Dissemination in the Humanities ^[info]