Arirang Culture Connect | London
The sticks are carved for shepherds in the Scottish Borders for sheep herding, a region that is also the home of the famous Border Collie, which was bred for the same purpose.
The United Kingdom has officially launched a new digital platform inviting communities across the country to submit proposals for inclusion in the national Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Inventories, marking a significant step forward in the documentation and safeguarding of living cultural traditions.
The initiative will establish four national inventories—one each for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—which will collectively inform the development of an overarching UK-wide ICH Inventory. This structure reflects the cultural and administrative diversity of the UK, while ensuring that regionally rooted traditions are documented within their own social and historical contexts.
Through the newly launched website, local communities, cultural groups, and heritage practitioners are invited to submit applications nominating cultural practices, knowledge systems, skills, and forms of expression that they themselves identify as part of their living heritage. Central to the programme is a strong emphasis on community consent and participation, ensuring that cultural heritage is defined, represented, and sustained by those who practise and transmit it.
Applications are currently open and will be accepted until 27 March 2025. During the submission period, the programme is being supported by a series of workshops and engagement activities designed to assist communities in understanding the inventory process and reflecting on how best to articulate and present their cultural practices.
The inventory initiative reflects an inclusive, community-led, bottom-up approach to cultural heritage policy. By prioritising local agency over top-down classification, the process recognises the diversity of traditions embedded in everyday cultural life across the UK’s four nations.
Chinewrde Morris, the first female dancers at Saddleworth Rushcart
At this early stage, the focus remains on outreach, awareness-raising, and encouraging broad participation. Further insights into the scope, character, and cultural significance of submissions are expected once the application period has concluded.
As the process develops, the UK’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory is expected to provide a strong foundation for future cultural policy discussions, while enhancing the visibility and recognition of community-based traditions that continue to shape contemporary cultural identities.
Contributed by
Joanne Orr
Joanne Orr is currently a distinguished Member of the International Advisory and Directors Board of both Culture Masters and Advocacy Alliance for Culture Masters(AACM).
She is a leading international expert in the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), with more than 30 years of professional experience in cultural heritage policy and practice. Formerly Chief Executive Officer of Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS), she played a pivotal role in advancing national awareness of ICH in the United Kingdom and led the successful accreditation of MGS as the first UK-based NGO under the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Her career includes senior leadership and advisory roles within the ICH NGO Forum, the UNESCO Scotland Committee, and the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund, through which she has contributed significantly to international heritage governance and capacity-building initiatives. She is also the author of Practitioner Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage, widely regarded as an essential reference for community-based approaches to heritage safeguarding.
Arirang Culture Connect plans to present follow-up coverage as developments in this initiative become available.