As South Africa commemorates Heritage Month, the National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) is pleased to announce its first Heritage Month virtual roundtable titled, “Our Living Heritage” scheduled to take place on Thursday, 30 September 2021 at 2 pm.
This year, Heritage Month is commemorated under the theme “The year of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke: Celebrating South Africa’s Intangible Cultural Heritage”. In line with the National Policy on South Africa Living Heritage, intangible cultural heritage or living heritage is defined as “cultural expressions and practices that form a body of knowledge and provide continuity, dynamism and meaning of social life to generations of people as individuals, social groups and communities”. Heritage and culture have the potential to bridge socio-historic divisions while bringing about cohesion and national unity.
The goal of this webinar is to continue the NAC’s momentum of engaging the arts, culture and creative sectors through virtual webinars. As our nation continues its fight against the global pandemic of COVID-19, we believe that it is our duty to highlight and sustain conversations related to the current epoch and its effects on the creative sectors. This roundtable discussion will bridge the gaps between cultural practitioners, whose collaborative efforts have been hampered by the pandemic.
The webinar will include panellists whose work promotes, safeguards and celebrates indigenous knowledge and intangible cultural heritage. Their work showcases the diversity of our collective cultural, linguistic and artistic expressions and highlights the importance of the unifying thread embedded in our collective histories and cultural practices.
Panellists will include beadwork artist Hlengiwe Dube; musicians Mbuso Khoza and Msaki; academic Prof. Sekgothe Mokgoatšana and; author Tiego Tjale. The conversation will be facilitated by NAC Council Member, Tshepo Mashiane.
The webinar will take place on Thursday, the 30th of September 2021 at 2 pm and will be hosted via Zoom and broadcast live on NAC’s Facebook page, ahead of Heritage Day, which is commemorated on the 24th of September.
RSVP’s can be forwarded to Gontse Mathabathe at gontse@nac.org.za by Tuesday, 28 September 2021.