Navigating Heritage: Charting a Course to Narrative Equity

Abstract

Like other modern heritage conservationists in the United States, I seek a more holistic understanding of heritage places and a broader framework within which to operate – one that shifts the focus away from the built environment and that centers on people’s lives and attachments to heritage places. In response, this study presents a recalibrated heritage framework: one that centers individual narratives and elevates the importance of a landscape approach to heritage; that considers the built environment as a component element thereof, rather than the be-all and end-all of our work; and which demands that we constantly question existing interpretations of places within the context of their contemporary needs. The focus of my study is the need for a more expansive approach to curating the experiences of those who claim heritage landscapes, with the goal of cultivating more inclusive, representative and equitable narratives. I argue that prevailing narratives in heritage places all too often fall short of telling the full American story and perpetuate a limited, hegemonic perspective on how a particular heritage landscape has evolved. Our efforts to fully understand and interpret heritage places are severely limited by the failure to incorporate the full spectrum of perspectives and experiences through the curation of inclusive narratives. I propose an approach that centers storytelling in the context of the unfinished nature of cultural landscapes, and which incorporates principles of Critical Race Theory, as adoptable steps to achieve these new goals. I distill my recommendations into a series of guidelines to assist the heritage practitioner in the cultivation of narrative equity.