Foundational programme · 2007–2013
Mutual & Shared Cultural Heritage.
Programme approach
A database was only useful if it helped people meet and question.
The programme began within Dutch Mutual Cultural Heritage policy, documenting projects, specialists and organisations connected through colonial and migration histories. CIE used “shared” where partners preferred it and treated the terminology itself as a subject for debate rather than a settled description.
The Cultural Heritage Connections platform became the programme’s central infrastructure. Its records were built through research, country inventories, Heritage Days and counterpart meetings that brought policy makers, practitioners, researchers and communities into direct exchange.
Programme components
Map, convene, reflect
Country inventories
Projects, experts and organisations documented across eight priority countries, later extended to Australia and other routes.
Heritage Days
Meetings in the Netherlands and partner countries used to test the data and discuss future cooperation.
Public platform
Cultural Heritage Connections launched in 2011 as a searchable international knowledge resource.
Critical evaluation
The 2013 final research phase recorded strengths, bottlenecks and recommendations for more equitable cooperation.
Network geography
Routes through the programme
The platform connected projects in Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Suriname, with Australia and further networks added later.
Cultural Heritage Connections
The database, public launch, research process and transfer to DutchCulture.
Open platform story ↗What did “shared” mean?
How CIE used the term critically and made questions of colonial history, authority and reciprocity part of the programme.
Read the programme summary ↗Heritage Days, Galle and field learning
Workshops and site-based programmes connected museums, maritime heritage, tourism, communities and shared-history debate.
Open the Galle project story ↗Collections and shared responsibility
The ANCODS return shows how shared-history policy also involved custody, access and the practical reunification of collections.
Open ANCODS story ↗Living legacy
From a project database to community knowledge spaces.
Cultural Heritage Connections established a CIE habit of making relationships visible across borders. HeritageLab continues that work with more emphasis on community control, storytelling, protected collaboration and connections across places, practices and ecosystems.
Continue to HeritageLab ↗