UNESCO GCC and Yemen Office concluded a workshop on the 2003 Convention for Qatari professionals
Doha –A workshop on Preparation of Nomination files and International Assistance was successfully concluded today. This workshop was organized by UNESCO Office for the GCC and Yemen in collaboration with the Qatari National Commission for UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
This is the second capacity-building workshop on the principles of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage that was offered in 2021 to officials from the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and to Qatar Museums Authority professionals. It was tailored to enhance participants’ role on the process of selecting elements with the participation of communities and preparing those elements for the nomination process for the two lists of the Convention, namely the representative List and the Urgent Safeguarding List.
The participants developed inventory work, prepared candidature files for the lists of the UNESCO 2003 Convention, developed safeguarding plans and participated in the development of national cultural policy for Intangible cultural heritage.
The practical part of the training material was tailored according to two possible elements:
-The Jalwa is celebrated before the wedding ceremony. It is mostly restricted to women. This event is still held by many Qataris, in which the bride and women wear special and traditional clothes, the celebration is accompanied by traditional songs and dances.
-Garnga’oh which is considered as an important tradition in the Gulf area to motivate children to fast during Ramadan, is celebrated in the middle of the month every year. Sweets and nuts are distributed to children accompanied with traditional songs. This celebration is not limited to the little ones, but a large spectrum of Qataris and expatriates are engaged in this occasion.
This experience placed participants at the center of the learning process on the subject of intangible cultural heritage was very exciting, as some of the participants showed a great passion for learning and interaction despite that it was online. In fact, they were eager to learn about the 2003 Convention as most of them had very little knowledge about it. They received the workshop with lots of curiosity and enthusiasm, as they felt that they were acquiring new knowledge that may have impact on their work.
The workshop helped the participants to realize the importance of the involvement of community members as a vital part in the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.