OWNERSHIP, CREDIBILITY AND CONTROL OF FOLKLORE OF PLACE

OTHER FORMS OF HERITAGE

We can learn a lot from the 'valorising, conserving and developing' of heritage places and items. Not least of those lessons is that both good and bad things are happening in the areas of environmental, built, moveable and Indigenous heritage. Places and items are being protected and conserved every day but only in the face of frustrating and divisive issues that include:

Assertions that the attribution of some heritage values lacks credibility;
Resistance to the attribution of heritage values by outsiders;
Resistance to the removal or curtailment of perceived development opportunities and/or economic gain;
Objections to increased development costs linked to heritage registration;
Disinterest in, or antagonism to, heritage on the part of some individuals who are responsible for its protection in a government, local government, corporate or private capacity;
Unintentional or covert destruction, desecration and vandalism of places and items of heritage value;
Theft or damage occurring as a result of identification; and,
Constant shortages of funds to identify, record, conserve, interpret and protect heritage places and items.

VALORISING FOLKLORE

When it comes to valuing folklore of place, we need to acknowledge that only a minority of people will ever recognise or respect the heritage significance and provenance of folklore. To assume anything else, one has to ignore the evidence that exists in the other areas. Education programs and prosecutions have not stopped plagiarism. Nor have those things stopped the desecration, destruction, pollution and vandalism of heritage places and the environment. Any attempt to 'valorise' Australian folklore of place will therefore need to acknowledge that many people will either ignore or oppose an attempt to regulate the use of folklore.