The definition of World Heritage Cultural Landscapes: a Dialogue with Oceania

This paper observes from a political and theoretical perspective the position of New Zealand within the World Heritage Convention framework, and specifically the mutual influence of Western conceptions and those coming from the Asia Pacific in redefining the notion and the regulation of World Heritage Cultural Landscapes. The first section presents an overview of the historical developments of the cultural heritage preservation programs of the World Heritage Convention (WHC hereon) and the global challenges it is called to address in the light of the contemporary imbalanced geographies, issues of representations and shifting conceptualizations of the concept of heritage itself. The core of the paper focuses on the achievements of two major political bodies for heritage matters, ICOMOS New Zealand and Department of Conservation: the former, in bringing forward a progressively more original interpretation of the international ICOMOS Venice Charter; the latter, in promoting the role of New Zealand on a global scale, peaked in the first WHC General Assembly (GA) hosted in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2007, when the 5th C of Community was added to the strategic objectives of the World Hertiage Committee. The third section presents the role (and related controversies) of New Zealand as a pivot for the agency and capacity building of the whole Pacific with the Pacific 2009 Action Plan. The conclusion discusses the findings and identifies a twofold movement between the national and international level, and between Western political framework and local Maori values, further observing how these tensions have been incorporated in the contemporary developments of the World Heritage Convention.