The links between colonial heritage and touristic placemaking are ubiquitous in settler colonial contexts. Colonial heritage is great fodder for placemaking, helping to advance tourism activity. Such heritages, commonly venerate the colonial past, harking back to the arrival of colonisers, memorialising their achievements, victories, and contributions to nation building. Aftermaths tied to this heritage, including genocide, land grabs and human displacement, are routinely ignored. The dichotomy between employing colonial heritage for placemaking, and the convenient disregarding of historical transgressions allied to them are central contentions.
On Friday, 10th of May 2024 at 5:30PM, Joseph Cheer from Western Sydney University will deliver his paper on this topic entitled Convenient Geographies of Heritage: Colonial Edifices, Placemaking and its Discontents. This is part of the Heo/Geo Lecture Series sponsored jointly by the University of the Philippines-Department of Geography and the Philippine Geographical Society (PGS) to advance critical thinking in spatial studies, geographic education and practice.
The employment of colonial heritage for placemaking is awkward, particularly when the decolonisation and justice agenda is actively foregrounded. Evidently, contemporary placemaking within a settler-colonial backdrop is an exercise in convenient memory making. Colonialists and the edifices that are constructed to memorialise their feats are lauded and safeguarded, while the full implications of their endeavours for first peoples, are usually papered over with narratives of discovery and nationhood. I confront two key questions: How can colonial heritage-based placemaking better represent the full implications of such heritages? Do tourists care about the more ignominious aspects of such heritages? Accordingly, Dr Cheer developed ‘convenient geographies of heritage’ as a heuristic to frame the placemaking and heritage nexus.
Dr Joseph Cheer is Professor of Sustainable Tourism and Heritage & Associate Dean International at Western Sydney University, Australia. He currently sits as co-editor-in-chief of the journal Tourism Geographies.
The Heo/Geo Lecture Series is a rebranded colloquium that combines the erstwhile monthly presentations of UP-Geography and PGS. Heo/Geo is a learning space where academic geographers, practitioners as well as scholars in related fields share their research findings and project outputs. The aim of Heo/Geo is to bring geography closer to students and civil society.
To participate in the webinar, please click this link to register. Or copy and paste this link to your browser: https://rb.gy/6ao9gh
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