Activity 3 - UNESCO World Heritage list research

Step-by-step guide

1.What is the UNESCO World Heritage List? 

2.What are the 20 sites in Australia that are on the list?  

3.What are the criteria for inclusion? ( UNESCO World Heritage Centre - The Criteria for Selection) 

4.What are 10 world heritage listed sites you have heard of? 

5.What are 5 listed sites you’d most like to visit?  

6.How would World Heritage listing change the nature of a geographic site?  

7.What elements are required to be proven in an application to the world heritage list? 

8.An academic article notes: 

“Indigenous values are under-represented on the World Heritage List. Although nearly 10% of the 1092 properties on the World Heritage List are estimated to include the territories of Indigenous peoples (Disko and Tugendhat 2014: 3), less than forty have been inscribed for their Indigenous cultural values.” 

Source: Indigenous Knowledge and Resource Management as World Heritage Values: Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, Australia (researchgate.net)

9.Complicating or problematising the nature of the World Heritage list with this statement in mind, how might you make changes to the criteria for inclusion to be more respectful of Indigenous knowledge and culture?  

10.Watching this video, what specific criteria were referred to, and how did the landscape and cultural practices establish this site as appropriate for being added to the list? 

11.What changes would being added to the UNESCO world heritage list mean for a site like Budj Bim?