Chairperson, hon members, addressing the UN General Assembly in October 1976, the then President of the ANC and great patriot and internationalist, Comrade O R Tambo, spoke about the contribution of the student uprising in helping to free South Africa. In the same speech he projected the vision of the ANC for a future South Africa. He said:
Like all other patriots, we love our country and its peoples - all its peoples. It is a varied land of snowcapped mountain peaks, of deserts and subtropical greenery covering vast mineral resources. Its warm seas to the east and cold ones to the west contain also large animal and mineral resources.
Our peoples, with their varied cultures which are continuously mingling and interacting to their mutual enrichment, exhibit, despite their conditions, a great love for life and a sensitive joy in the creative and humane endeavours of the peoples of the world, without exception.
These ordinary, industrious and peaceful people want to revolutionise themselves and their country.
It is this selfsame spirit described by Comrade O R Tambo that characterises our people today. It is indeed our great love for life and a sensitive joy that enables us to share our stories and to value our cultural expressions.
It is precisely our commitment to the creative and humane endeavours of the peoples of the world that has propelled us to want the story of our people, our nation and our national living human treasures to take pride of place in the narratives of the world, as our contribution to our own development, and as part of world culture.
It is in this context of drinking from the fountains of history and learning from the men and women of practical wisdom in our communities, who gave birth to us, that we are embarking upon an initiative to honour and celebrate our living human treasures.
Celebrating South Africa's living human treasures - the custodians of our intangible cultural heritage - is an initiative of the Department of Arts and Culture to draw attention to the role played by our living legends and to seek to protect and preserve this knowledge and to transmit it to future generations.
Intangible cultural heritage covers a wide range of cultural manifestations, which include oral traditions and expression, language, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature, the universe and traditional craftsmanship.
Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, defines living heritage as being -
... transmitted from generation to generation. Culture is dynamic and is constantly being recreated in response to changes in the social and cultural environment. It provides individuals, groups and communities with a sense of identity and continuity and constitutes a guarantee for sustainable development.
However, due to globalisation and the technologies associated with it, heritage broadly and living heritage in particular are facing significant pressures. These pressures have resulted in people no longer practising and transmitting living heritage.
Cultures, once thriving, now face restriction and possible destruction. Ways of life that emphasise ubuntu and communalism have to compete with the individualism that comes out of highly materialistic societies that profit by and propagate through accumulation.
In order to address some of these realities, in 1993 the Republic of Korea proposed to the executive board of Unesco the establishment of a Unesco Living Human Treasures Programme. The board adopted a decision inviting member states to establish such systems in their respective countries. The purpose of establishing Living Human Treasures Systems is to preserve the knowledge and skills necessary for the performing, enactment or re-creation of intangible cultural heritage elements with high historical, artistic or cultural value.
In 2007, the Department of Arts and Culture embarked on the process of the ratification of the 2003 Unesco convention on intangible cultural heritage.
At the same time, the department began drafting a national policy on South African living heritage. The key objective of the policy is the safeguarding of living heritage, but it is also aimed at ensuring compliance with the convention once it is ratified. The draft National Policy on South African Living Heritage provides for the establishment of a national Living Human Treasures Programme as part of the protection, promotion and transmission of living heritage. The policy argues that the recognition of living treasures, as well as the encouragement of their role, will protect, preserve and promote living heritage.
The policy outlines the following selection criteria, namely the value of their skills as a testimony of human creative genius; the character and reputation of such individuals in their community; the risk of their knowledge disappearing; the ability to transmit living heritage; and the recommendation by the community.
The policy also makes provision for the posthumous recognition of living treasures, where strong recommendation is made by the bearer communities and where the strength of the criteria listed above is applicable. According to the policy, being a national living treasure is a lifelong status.
In this way, we shall recognise the value and importance of human agency in the transmission of norms, values and skills in society. The arts, culture and heritage sector is full of such distinguished individuals.
Unfortunately, due to a myriad of reasons, most of these individuals pass on without transferring their outstanding skills to other people. The department wants to arrest this and help to create the conditions for a seamless passing on of knowledge to future generations.
The department will host a national seminar on living human treasures on 30 September 2010 - and you are all invited, hon members. The main objective of the seminar is to start a national dialogue that will expand and further elaborate on the concept of living human treasures as articulated in national policy.
As from next year my department, in collaboration with other spheres of government and the provinces in particular, will begin identifying these living human treasures in a systematic and transparent manner.
This programme has the potential to significantly contribute to the outcome of one of government's priorities and programmes of action, which is the improved quality of basic education, as well as Outcome 5, which is a skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path.
The Department of Arts and Culture is embarking on this project as a result of its significant potential to contribute to human development and job creation. This project also simplifies and puts a face on otherwise esoteric concepts of living or intangible cultural heritage. Another objective of the project is to bridge the intergenerational gap so that the youth of today can benefit from this knowledge and so that the elders are accorded respect and honour for the possession of this knowledge. In this way we can add value to contributions made over generations and take a long view of history and of sustaining development.
When we closely examine our intangible cultural heritage, we find there are many examples of contributions that need to make their way into our history books and be defined as part of our cultural wealth.
In the arena of literature and literary heritage, the Department of Arts and Culture has reprinted 27 titles by authors such as Sibusiso Nyembezi, O K Matsepe, A C Jordan, M L Bopape, T N Maumela, S P Lekabu and Samuel Mqhayi, who have made an indelible contribution to our cultural wealth. Many of the books were written in indigenous languages. The books are both informative and substantive, making younger readers aware of the literary merits of these writers. The next phase of this project is to identify more texts that need to be made available, as well as writings by our national living human treasures.
In the area of craft, traditional crafters are very important as the bearers of culturally specific craft products and skills that have been carried down through the generations in diverse communities around South Africa. Many of these craft products have meaning and significance to specific groups, like basketry, blanket-making, beadwork and clay pots, to mention but a few. We need to increase the contributions of these living human treasures in the crafts industry to take them to even greater heights.
In order to recover the indigenous music of the past, with the use of traditional instruments, the department has partnered with three institutions, namely the University of Fort Hare, the University of Zululand and the University of Venda, to do research in this area and to preserve and promote this musical culture.
An important method of preserving and amplifying our heritage comes through oral history as well.
Lastly, at the end of Women's Month we honoured women in the arts with awards. The event was at the State Theatre, and it included a reproduction of some of their musical products, like those of Miriam Makeba. There are many others.
We were able to recognise as national living women treasures the likes of Dorothy Masuka, Abigail Kubheka, Nothembi Mkhwebane, the Mahotella Queens, Thandi Claassen, Miriam Tlali, Esther Mahlangu, Busi Mhlongo, and Sis Dolly Rathebe, to mention but a few. [Time expired.] [Applause.]