1st Edition
Climatic and Environmental Threats to Cultural Heritage
Climatic and Environmental Threats to Cultural Heritage examines the challenges that environmental change, both sudden and long-term, poses to the preservation of cultural material.
Acknowledging the diversity of human cultural heritage across collecting institutions, heritage sites and communities, the book highlights how, in Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the quest to preserve such precious knowledge relies on records and narratives being available to inform decisions now and into the future. Bringing together a diverse range of stakeholders who have an interest in – and responsibility for – the care of cultural heritage material and places of cultural heritage value, the book explores their thinking on and actions in relation to issues of climate change and environmental risk. Sloggett and Scott highlight the stakeholders’ shared interest in drawing on their expertise to meet the challenges that environmental change brings to the future of our cultural heritage and our cultural identity. Based on the understanding that this global challenge requires local, national and international co‐operation, the book also considers how local knowledge can have international application.
Climatic and Environmental Threats to Cultural Heritage will be of interest to those engaged in the study of heritage, conservation, archaeology, archives, anthropology, climate change and the environment. It will also be useful to practitioners and others attempting to understand the effect of environmental change on cultural heritage around the globe.
Introduction; Chapter 1 The Story of Climate Change: Narratives as influencers; Chapter 2 Finding unexpected data from the historical record; Chapter 3 My Country is Changing: Indigenous perspectives on climate change; Chapter 4 Climate change and rock art: a valuable resource at risk; Chapter 5 Oral histories of natural disasters in Timor Leste; Chapter 6 Changed responses to the changing threat of climate-induced fire and drought; Chapter 7 The Local in the Global: community impact and response; Chapter 8 Issues for Institutions: the imperative for heritage organisations to lead the way; Chapter 9 Conservation Education and Climate Change: What would a resilience-based conservation curriculum look like?; Epilogue; Index.
Biography
Robyn Sloggett is an internationally recognised expert in Cultural Materials Conservation. She holds the Cripps Foundations Chair of Cultural Materials Conservation and is Director of the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation. She has qualifications in Art History, Philosophy and Cultural Materials Conservation. Her work has been recognised by a number of national awards including as a Member of the Order of Australia. In 2021 she was awarded the Marles Medal from the University of Melbourne, which recognises excellence in research impact and was awarded for 'interdisciplinary, cross-cultural research in arts conservation and the significant impact it has had on the communities with who she has collaborated.'
Dr Marcelle Scott is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Grimwade Centre for the Conservation of Cultural Material where her research focuses on conservation theory, ethics, and pedagogy. She draws on her extensive industry experience to research, develop, and deliver interdisciplinary and people-led models of cultural materials conservation. Her current research focusses on work-integrated learning and community-based conservation partnerships and programs. She is a recipient of the AICCM Medal, Professional Member of the AICCM, and Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC).
