Organized by the ACCR in December 2022, the Meetings of Goutelas honored the variety of stories in the appropriation and valorization of heritage, thus (re)giving a main place to the inhabitants. The ACCR wishes to promote this approach for the benefit of a shared heritage in the spirit of the Faro Convention.
Interviewed by the media communicant.info, Sarah Wasserstrom, in charge of coordination, programming and cultural action at the Château de Goutelas, highlights a key element of the notion of "cultural rights": the need to build a collective voice.
"In the case of this heritage community approach, we are in a partnership approach: the people we approached were not 'publics' but resource persons." Sarah Wasserstrom
/ A partnership approach to heritage
The inhabitants experience the heritage through the prism of their daily use as well as the emotions, sensations and stories that are linked to it. From this singular experimentation comes a unique relationship with the places that becomes a source of narrative. The collection and sharing of these multiple narratives allows us to reflect the daily life of the community that recognizes itself in them and thus to vivify the heritage.
People are considered as bearers of knowledge, who enrich and update the heritage thanks to the emergence of new narratives, and not only as target audiences. It is a question of moving from the conception of a passive public to mobilized and invested inhabitants.
/ Thinking about social inclusion through heritage
In this process of developing a heritage community, the equal value of stories and the importance of giving everyone a voice are fundamental values. It is in this perspective that a walk around the heritage highlighting the role and place of women in the Château de Goutelas, until now invisibilized, was proposed to the participants of the Mettings de Goutelas in December.
In this interview, Sarah Wasserstrom comes back on the methodology used by the Château de Goutelas and the SCOP Les oiseaux de passage to elaborate this walk:
"I would say it's a back and forth. The place must show a willingness to open up, but it must also go outside the walls. This is what we did in Goutelas. We went to see the women we wanted to involve in the implementation of this matrimonial stroll in their homes or in the place where they work... Going to meet people, meeting them "in their element" was an important point."