International platform · 2007–2013
Cultural Heritage Connections.
Programme summary
Making an international field visible—and bringing its participants together.
From 2007 to 2013, CIE developed Cultural Heritage Connections within the Dutch Mutual Cultural Heritage policy framework. The programme combined research, country inventories, public meetings and a digital platform to connect projects, organisations and specialists working with histories shaped by colonialism, trade, migration and exchange.
The first inventories covered Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Suriname. Rather than treating these records as a static catalogue, CIE used them to identify relationships, gaps and possible partnerships across countries and professional fields. Australia joined the platform in 2012.
The programme was supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The platform was developed and managed by CIE and later continued under DutchCulture.
How it worked
Research became exchange
Each part of the programme helped turn dispersed information into an active international network.
Map the field
CIE documented projects, experts and organisations country by country, creating a shared evidence base.
Convene Heritage Days
Meetings in the Netherlands and partner countries tested the research and opened discussion about future cooperation.
Connect online
The interactive platform allowed users to find initiatives, contribute information and discover partners across borders.
Reflect critically
The 2013 evaluation recorded strengths, bottlenecks and recommendations for more reciprocal heritage relationships.
Heritage Days
The database was built through dialogue.
For each priority country, CIE aimed to organise a Heritage Day in the Netherlands and a counterpart meeting in the partner country. These encounters brought practitioners, researchers, policy makers and institutions together around the inventory. Participants corrected records, shared experience and identified possibilities for future cooperation.
Events also created space to question the policy itself. The 2009 Our Shared Heritage symposium at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town, for example, examined whether colonial heritage could become common ground—and under what conditions.
A contested term
“Shared” did not mean a single, agreed story.
The Dutch policy term was Mutual Cultural Heritage. CIE also used Shared Cultural Heritage, reflecting the terminology preferred by partners including those in South Africa. The choice of words was not cosmetic: meetings repeatedly raised questions about whose heritage was being defined, who held authority and how unequal colonial relationships continued to shape cooperation.
The programme therefore treated “shared” as a subject for critical dialogue—not as proof that histories, responsibilities or benefits were automatically equal. That principle continues to inform CIE’s work with communities and international partners.
Programme development
From catalogue to network
Research begins
CIE starts to map projects and organisations working with shared cultural heritage across the priority countries.
271 projects
The growing database demonstrates the scale of the field and creates a practical foundation for exchange.
286 project records
The inventory expands while Heritage Days and the Cape Town symposium bring the network into public and professional dialogue.
Public launch
More than one hundred national and international heritage professionals gather for the platform launch on 21 June.
Australian extension
An Australian section is launched in Fremantle, followed by Australian–Dutch Heritage Days in Australia and The Hague.
Evaluation and transition
A final research report records the programme’s achievements and bottlenecks; the platform later continues under DutchCulture.
Living legacy
A precursor to HeritageLab.
Cultural Heritage Connections established an early CIE approach to digital knowledge: document the work, keep relationships visible and make records useful beyond a single project. It also demonstrated that a platform gains meaning through the conversations, partnerships and critical questions around it.
HeritageLab builds on this foundation with community stories, collaborative methods, programme collections and richer links between people, places and practice.
Continue to HeritageLab ↗