(CS4.4) 1 by 1, 2 by 2: How Small Organizations Can Improve Representation in Built Heritage Preservation

This presentation will explore how the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia has taken steps to promote and facilitate the registration of the built heritage associated with groups who are drastically underrepresented in the municipal and provincial registration lists of Nova Scotia. This work was undertaken to both help facilitate the preservation of the built heritage which tells the stories of those previously left out of built heritage preservation efforts, as well as to acknowledge that these communities been largely excluded from the economic benefits of registration that come from access to grants for built heritage preservation and increased tourism and business activity associated with areas that are publicly acknowledged as being historically significant.

The approach taken combined finding buildings whose stewards were interested in having us draft their registration applications and then working with those stewards to help us reach out to other community members. In reaching out to the broader community we provided information through workshops, meetings and one-on-one conversations as to how we provide support for built heritage preservation and how built heritage preservation is directly connected to broader goals that were expressed by community members, including but not limited to: maintaining affordable housing, cultural preservation, youth engagement and promoting economic sustainability. The result has been not only the registration of structures and knowledge gained on both sides, but also the developing of new, hopefully long lasting, relationships between the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia and communities whose structures our organization has not previously actively worked to preserve.

The presentation will focus on how this approach worked and why it is an example that is worth considering for replication across the country, particularly for smaller organizations with limited human resources. It will also address the challenges we faced and how we approached them. The goal is to provide a practical example for organizations and individuals, as to how they can work to address erasure and underrepresentation in built heritage. The story I will tell is about doing work that counters erasure and previous cultural biases in built heritage and actively working to create trust and ensure all communities and built heritage stewards are at the forefront of the work and have access to the information and skills that have previously been easily accessible to only a small portion of the population