NICH Launches a Portal to Belize’s Cultural Heritage

Today, the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH), through the Institute for Social and Cultural Research, in partnership with cultural stakeholders released the Belize Living Heritage Website. The online portal is dedicated to promoting the cultural skills, traditions, and knowledge that are transmitted, continuously practiced and safeguarded in communities across Belize. Here is Duane Moody with a report.

Duane Moody, Reporting

The National Institute of Culture and History today launched the Belize Living Heritage website in an effort to safeguarding Belize’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage. It is being done in an effort to protect the cultural diversity of Belizean communities. It also contributes to social cohesion and encourages a sense of identity.

Sapna Budhrani

Sapna Budhrani, President, NICH

“The Institute for Social and Cultural Research and the National Institute of Culture and History have been actively curating and developing this site on behalf of our communities since September of 2019. And while the ISCR/NICH moderates the site, this dedicated portal will be accessible by members of different communities and will act as an avenue for all to share credible information as well as ongoing activities within each community related to the preservation of our living heritage. This is a start and I look forward to the continued development of positive networking amongst our people in the arts, culture and history.”

The website highlights grassroots work that provides access to an inventory of language, music, clothing, food and artistic pieces from the various cultures across the length and breadth of the country. Belize’s Living Heritage is defined as a repository for educational resources that have been developed.

Nigel Encalada

Nigel Encalada, Director, Institute for Social & Cultural Research, NICH

“This work, in addition to the much longer tradition in Belize of preserving and conserving our Maya archeological heritage—and now recently our colonial build heritage—which in our terms we call tangible heritage is a step forward. It is now a focus not on the tangible heritage but now an equal focus on the intangible heritage of Belize. This work, of course in our tradition was undertaken by the Institute of Archeology and in 2011, the Institute for Social and Cultural Research was assigned the role of being the focal point agency for implementing the convention in Belize.”

Duane Moody for News Five.