University of Melbourne: How Data Expertise Is Fostering Endangered Languages. “The PARADISEC digital archive model revitalising endangered languages around the Pacific has now been taken up in North America by the Cherokee Nation.”
National Geographic: Rising seas threaten the Gullah Geechee culture. Here’s how they’re fighting back.. “Latitude, topography, and proximity to the Atlantic Ocean make the stretch of coastline from Jacksonville, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida—called the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor— particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise, storm frequency and intensity, higher temperatures, and a warmer, more acidic ocean.”
Washington Post: Residential schools banned native languages. The Cree want theirs back.. “Across Canada, the often brutal residential school system, designed to assimilate Indigenous people into White, European culture, succeeded in breaking the tradition of passing on languages from generation to generation — and put the survival of some in jeopardy. But now, 25 years after the last residential school was shuttered, some Indigenous communities — including the one here that Pope Francis visited Monday — are reviving and relearning their native languages.” Please be advised that the first few paragraphs in this story have references to sexual abuse.
University of Maryland: Who Owns the Sounds and Images of Native People’s Pasts?. “The last known fluent speaker of the tribe’s native Western dialect died in 2010, and the remaining tribal citizens–who traditionally don’t count their members but are estimated to number about 350 speak an amalgam of Ahtna’s Western and Central dialects. Audio recordings of Western Ahtna exist, but many are kept in mainstream archives that don’t belong to the Chickaloon tribe. Now, two University of Maryland faculty members are part of a new effort to bring those recordings, and other pieces of history, back to the Native people who lived the stories within them.”
Europa Nostra: Heritage Solidarity Fellowship for Ukraine – Call for Applications. “On International Museum Day, Europa Nostra and Global Heritage Fund, in partnership with ALIPH and with the vital collaboration of the Heritage Emergency Response Initiative (HERI), are launching the Heritage Solidarity Fellowship for Ukraine. The aim of this scheme is to provide much-needed support to heritage professionals in Ukraine who are currently facing hardships.”
Lieber Institute West Point: Ukraine Symposium – The Ukraine Conflict And The Future Of Digital Cultural Property. “Various international instruments explicitly provide for the protection of cultural property in armed conflict. As conceived, the law was formulated to protect physical works from damage or destruction in war. Events in Ukraine, however, have demonstrated that armed conflict can endanger digital material as well. Some digital creations might even qualify as a digital form of cultural property—that is, digital cultural property. Given the growing prevalence of digital material and the threat posed to all forms of cultural works in war, how should States approach their legal obligation to protect digital cultural property in the event of armed conflict?”
The Mayor: Czechia helps Ukraine preserve its endangered cultural heritage. “Yesterday morning, two trucks filled with packaging, bubble wrap, polyethylene foams and other materials left the National Museum in Prague and set off to Ukraine. According to the museum, this consignment of materials was commissioned by the Czech Ministry of Culture to help Ukraine preserve its endangered cultural heritage, monuments, and artworks.”
UK Government: Russian attack on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and cultural property: UK statement to the OSCE. “Alongside schools and hospitals, contrary to its obligations under the 1954 Hague Convention, Russia is targeting cultural property. As verified by UNESCO, 127 cultural sites have been damaged or destroyed since the start of the war. This includes the Hryhorii Skovoroda National Literacy Memorial Museum in Kharkiv region, as mentioned by my Ukrainian colleague earlier. This is not collateral damage, as some in Russia would have us believe. Russia is deliberately waging a war with no distinction between military and civilian targets, with no regard for the Ukrainian people, their history or their culture,”
Evening Standard: Russia is engaged in a campaign of cultural terrorism in Ukraine — we must fight against it. “Russia is engaged in a campaign of cultural terrorism. It might seem bizarre to bomb a quiet house of books, or crush Kharkiv’s historical tram depot, which is a bit like shelling the London Transport Museum. But Russia knows very well how important arts and culture are to a nation’s sense of itself.”
ArtDependence: Imagine Ukraine: A Three-Part Project in Support of Ukrainian Cultural Front. “The PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, Ukraine), Victor Pinchuk Foundation and M HKA (Antwerp, Belgium) in partnership with Bozar (Brussels, Belgium), the European Parliament (Brussels, Belgium), and the Office of the President of Ukraine present Imagine Ukraine, a three-part project continuing the cultural front against Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
NHK World Japan: Ukraine reports over 240 cases of damage to cultural heritage by Russian forces. “Ukraine says it has documented at least 242 instances of Russian occupiers’ war crimes against cultural heritage. Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy on Saturday revealed the numbers. By region, 84 instances were reported in Kharkiv, 45 in Donetsk and 38 in Kyiv.”
My Lethbridge Now: Galt Museum raises fund for heritage institutions in Ukraine. “The Galt Museum has launched a fundraising campaign to support heritage institutions damaged by the war in Ukraine. The Friends of the Sir Alexander Galt Museum Society are administering the campaign and all proceeds will be transferred to a fund set up by the State Archival Service of Ukraine for reconstruction projects after the war, according to the Galt.”
Mediazona, translated from Russian: “The task before us is to make it look like Ukraine simply does not exist.” Mentions of Kyiv and Ukraine are removed from the textbooks of the Prosveshchenie publishing house. “On February 24, Vladimir Putin announced the start of a ‘special operation’ and Russian troops invaded Ukraine. Immediately after that, employees of the Enlightenment group of companies, one of the largest and oldest publishers of educational and pedagogical literature in the country, were urged to remove the ‘incorrect’ references to Ukraine and Kyiv from all school textbooks. ‘Mediazona’ talked with the editors of the publishing house about how the ‘cleansing’ of history, geography and literature is going on.”
Just Security: How Can We Protect Cultural Heritage in Ukraine? Five Key Steps for the Int’l Community. “…if past is prologue, accountability alone will not act as a restraining factor to Russian attacks upon Ukrainian civilians, civilian infrastructure, and cultural institutions. With this sober reality, Ukrainian cultural workers have taken steps to protect important cultural sites and museum collections. They have received an outpouring of support from the international cultural community. As the war enters into its third month, and Russia prepares for an expanded campaign in eastern Ukraine, there are five considerations international policymakers and donors need to consider for protecting the country’s culture.”
Stanford News: Stanford student fights for Ukraine’s history, truth in Russia’s disinformation warfare. “Barely a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, Catarina Buchatskiy packed her bags in her Stanford dorm room to go help. As she planned her trip, she wondered how to best prepare for life in a warzone: Would her red backpack make her a target? What shoes would be better for running in, in case she needs to sprint for shelter? Since March 5, 2022, Buchatskiy, who has taken a leave of absence from her studies, has been crossing from Poland into Lviv in Western Ukraine to mobilize supplies that would help museums and other cultural institutions safeguard Ukrainian heritage from destruction.”
