DEFINING AND MEASURING "HERITAGE HEALTH"
-- a departure point for discussion -
from
Bill Hanable
Oregon Heritage Commission
Communities are formed because of shared interests, with community members
combining to achieve that which is difficult or impossible to do on an
individual basis. Communities may be geographically or thematically centered,
are sometimes multi-centered, and can be local, regional, statewide, national
or even transnational in scope. Heritage advocates generally believe that
preservation of, access to, and understanding of a community's past is
essential to its present and future well being or health.
Despite that belief, we rarely talk about non-fiscal standards for what
communities should do with regard to their heritage. At this year's Joint
Oregon/Washington Heritage Conference, which will be held in Portland and
Vancouver on September 28 to 30, there will be a discussion of how to define
and measure a community's "heritage health." Heritage proponents need to
establish that definition and articulate those measures so that they can help
community leaders understand what should be done about heritage and how well
it is being done.
As a departure point for discussion, I suggest that heritage activities in a
community should at least include: care for, assurance of accessibility to,
and interpretation of (1) written records, published and unpublished; (2) oral
traditions; (3) culturally significant three-dimensional objects; and (4)
culturally significant districts, sites, buildings, and structures.
How, and to what extent, a community chooses to undertake the fundamentals of
heritage activity usually are and should be community decisions. Whether, and
to what extent, a community chooses to undertake these fundamentals can be
measures of its heritage health.
The primary heritage health measure can simply be whether or not all vital
elements of a community's heritage are addressed. Secondary heritage health
measures might examine to what extent heritage activities undertaken are able
to conform to generally accepted professional standards.
Consensus on and dissemination a definition of heritage health and its
measures can be effective tools for public leaders and heritage advocates as
they work to achieve present and future well-being for their communities. To
participate in the discussion that must precede that consensus and
dissemination, plan on being at the Joint Oregon/Washington Heritage
Conference.
For more information about the conference, contact the Heritage Resource
Center, Washington State Historical Society, 211 West 21st Avenue, Olympia, WA
98501 (telephone 360-586-0219) or the Oregon Heritage Commission, 1115
Commercial Street NE, Salem, OR 97301 (telephone 503-378-4168 ext. 299).
Information is also available on the Oregon Heritage Commission web site at
http://www.prd.state.or.us/ohc.
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