| from the outback to the big smoke – valuing significance from Burra to Hong Kong |
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Burra is a small town; its population numbering only around 1,800. Located in South Australia 160 kilometers north of Adelaide, the town’s name has become synonymous world-wide with heritage preservation. It was in the historic mining town of Burra that members of Australia ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites) met to draft the guidelines that would come to guide international professional conservation practice. These guidelines came to be known as The Burra Charter: The Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance (1979). ICOMOS is closely linked to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which as its name suggests is in turn a body of the United Nations. ICOMOS is UNESCO’s principal adviser in cultural matters relating to world heritage and it operates both at international and national levels. A key focus for ICOMOS continues to be the preparation of charters that offer standards and guidelines for both heritage professionals and communities in general. These documents cover a vast array of topics including historic gardens, urban areas, underwater sites, wall paintings, managing heritage tourism, and how these all should be interpreted. The impact of The Burra Charter is way out of proportion to the size of this little town, and extends even to China, including here in Hong Kong. The Australians were consulted in the late 1990s by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Chinese State Administration for Cultural Heritage in their preparation of the Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China (2000). It is a reflection of the strength and universality of the principles presented in the Burra Charter that it continues to be cited in many if not almost all of the heritage impact assessments undertaken of Hong Kong’s properties and sites. The Antiquities and Monuments Office refers to it as key to its evaluation system, and it is referred to in in various heritage impact assessments including that for the Stone Houses at Junction Road (Kowloon), the Yaumatei Cinema (Kowloon), St.Paul’s Primary School (Happy Valley) and Old Tai Po Police Station (Tai Po). Cultural significance is the term used most frequently when assessing the values embodied in culture and heritage. The Burra Charter identifies cultural significance as meaning the aesthetic, historic, scientific, social or spiritual value that a place has for past, present or future generations. This is furthermore embodied in the place itself, its fabric, setting, use, associations, meanings, records, related places and related objects. Whilst these terms may seem abstract and difficult to identify, the standards identified in the Burra Charter and other subsequent guidelines, provide the structure for their application in almost any situation and location. They are now also extensively applied in assessing the significance of individual objects and whole collections. Historic significance may be the result of a site’s association with people, events, places or themes. It can be the result of an association with the famous and important, or with the everyday lives of ordinary people. Aesthetic significance may be most obviously derived from the architecture, the landscape or the objects related to the site, but it also relates to more abstract elements of style, craftsmanship, innovation, creativity and ambience. Scientific significance embodies the potential value for current and future research which the site provides. This value is importantly impacted by rarity, quality and representativeness. Often the most surprising value, and the one frequently underappreciated when assessing cultural significance, is that of social significance. This Burra Charter value places a site squarely within the context of a community or a group of people, and identifies the attachment they currently have to it. Their affection may be for social, spiritual or cultural reasons. Social value identifies how a place relates to a community’s sense of identity. It can only truly be understood by directly consulting those for whom the place is important, and this almost certainly will include more people than just the owner of a property or place. According to the Memorandum for Members of the Antiquities Advisory Board, Hong Kong (24 October 2011) the social value and local interest in the property can be summarised as: “Ho Tung Gardens, blending the Chinese and Western architectural elements, not only reflects the cultural characteristics of the Eurasian family, but also gives expression to a unique history, culture and value in Hong Kong, where the East meets and integrates with the West. Moreover, Ho Tung Gardens has strong associations with Sir Robert Ho Tung and his family, whose community leadership and close involvement in the development of social services are still evident in many places in Hong Kong. Being a Peak residence of Sir Robert Ho Tung, who was the first non-European to receive permission from the then Hong Kong Government to reside in the Peak area, Ho Tung Gardens is an important marker of a break of the racial policy in the early colonial days”.[i] This acknowledges that the property is clearly of value to the greater community in Hong Kong, particularly those on the Island, a point that appears to be lost on the current owner, the grand-daughter of the Sir Robert Ho Tung. Cultural significance therefore refers not just to the physical fabric or appearance of a place. Rather, it incorporates all the elements that contribute to its meaning, including context, history, uses and social and spiritual values. Identifying the significance of a site helps in fully appreciating it, as well as in helping to plan for its future care and use. Good decisions about retention, conservation and management depend on an understanding of meaning and importance. Identifying significant attributes allows a community to manage its cultural heritage in a way that best conserves and interprets its values. It seems that rather larger Hong Kong can do worse than look to the little town of Burra for a map to chart its course through the current heritage preservation dilemmas that now confront it. Ultimately there is much to compare a small rural town that has seen both boom and decline, with the declining grandeur of the Ho Tung Gardens on the Old Peak Road. Both are certainly cultural significant. Annette Welkamp 5 February 2012 [i] http://www.amo.gov.hk/form/156meeting/AAB156-26-Main.pdf |
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