Heritage Is Not the Past: It’s the Story We Carry Forward
Heritage Is Not the Past: It’s the Story We Carry Forward
Heritage in Australia is often treated as something fixed—an artefact, a site, a moment frozen in time. But heritage is alive. It breathes through people, relationships, landscapes, and memory. It changes as communities change. It is shaped by power, identity, belonging, and the stories we choose to protect.
When we see heritage only as “the past,” we get it wrong. We treat it as something that sits behind glass. We remove it from community. We strip it of context. We turn it into a technical problem to be solved instead of a living system to be nurtured.
But heritage has always been a future-facing act. It asks:
What are we choosing to carry forward—and why?
Whose stories are we honouring?
How do we make decisions that respect Country, culture, and community?
This blog explores how heritage is shifting in Australia and why rethinking it matters.
1. Heritage Is a Relationship, Not a Database
Most heritage frameworks still rely on classification:
tangible vs intangible,
movable vs immovable,
state significance vs local significance,
prehistoric vs historic.
But communities do not experience heritage this way. Heritage is relational. Country, culture, story, memory, kinship, and practice intertwine. A place may hold:
ecological meaning,
spiritual identity,
storying,
kin relations,
resource significance,
ceremonial roles,
or teaching functions.
Heritage cannot be captured in a spreadsheet.
In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contexts, heritage is inseparable from:
Country as a living ancestor,
storylines,
songlines,
totems,
responsibilities,
seasonal knowledge,
and intergenerational teaching.
These aren’t “heritage values”; they are relationships.
The future of heritage management in Australia will require frameworks that honour this relationality.
2. Cultural Landscapes Are the True Unit of Heritage
Heritage is rarely contained to a single “site.”
It exists within cultural landscapes—the interconnected ecological, cultural, historical, and spiritual systems that shape a place.
Examples include:
saltwater Country shaped by tides, harvesting, and kinship systems;
rainforest Country shaped by seasonal foods, kin obligations, and ceremonial routes;
the Bunya Mountains, shaped for thousands of years by intertribal gatherings, trade, ceremony, law, and ecological stewardship.
These landscapes hold:
story,
belonging,
identity,
ecological knowledge,
governance,
and moral responsibility.
When heritage is disconnected from landscape, it becomes a technical exercise instead of a cultural one.
3. Heritage Is Future-Making
Heritage decisions — What we protect, what we record, what we restore — shape the identity and cohesion of future communities.
When we conserve something, we are not preserving the past; we are shaping the story that future generations inherit.
Heritage:
defines belonging,
strengthens cultural continuity,
invites people into place,
anchors identity in moments of change,
and supports intergenerational wellbeing.
This is why communities fight for heritage: not because they need nostalgia, but because they need continuity.
4. Anthropology Is Moving from Interpretation to Stewardship
Anthropology once focused on interpreting culture—“explaining” others. Those days are gone.
In contemporary heritage, anthropology provides:
1. Facilitation
Supporting communities to articulate their own stories and cultural values.
2. Mediation
Working across governments, planners, Traditional Owners, and developers to ensure meaning is understood.
3. Stewardship
Supporting culturally grounded decision-making that centres community governance, not external expertise.
4. Systems Thinking
Understanding the ecological and cultural systems that shape landscapes over time.
Anthropologists no longer “speak for” communities—they help create space, structure, and support for communities to speak for themselves.
5. Archaeology Is Becoming a Tool for Cultural Story-Making
Archaeology in Australia is changing quickly. Excavation and artefact analysis are important—but no longer sufficient.
Future-facing archaeology:
works in partnership with Traditional Owners,
integrates oral histories and storylines,
respects Indigenous data sovereignty,
uses non-invasive techniques where possible,
focuses on landscape-scale understanding,
supports cultural resurgence and education.
Archaeology is part of a much larger narrative: the story of people in place.
6. Communities Are Reclaiming the Right to Define Significance
For decades, significance assessments were defined by experts. Communities were “consulted,” but power rested elsewhere.
This is changing.
Communities now assert the right to define:
what matters,
why it matters,
and how decisions should be made.
Heritage significance is becoming:
community-informed,
culturally grounded,
oral-history-rich,
and reflective of lived cultural meaning.
This is especially relevant in contexts where cultural knowledge is held through:
story,
song,
kinship,
ecological practice,
or spiritual responsibility.
These forms of knowledge are not “intangible”—they are powerful, valid, and central.
7. Heritage Is Moving Beyond Protection Toward Regeneration
The future of heritage in Australia is regenerative.
This means:
restoring cultural landscapes,
reviving cultural practices,
rebuilding intergenerational knowledge transmission,
re-establishing community governance,
and reconnecting people with place.
Regeneration is not just environmental; it is cultural and social.
Heritage is shifting from:
“protect the object”
→ to “strengthen the relationship”“freeze this moment in time”
→ to “support cultural continuity”“record what was”
→ to “invest in what will be.”
8. Heritage Is Not Neutral—It Is a Story of Power
What gets preserved often reflects:
who had power,
whose stories were valued,
whose histories were documented,
whose cultural practices were recognised as “significant.”
Heritage is political. It always has been.
The future of heritage requires:
ethical reflection,
truth-telling,
acknowledgement of omission and harm,
and a willingness to re-centre marginalised voices.
This includes:
Indigenous communities,
migrant communities,
women,
working-class histories,
and queer cultural histories.
Heritage is becoming more democratic—and more honest.
Why This Matters Now
Australia is entering a period of social, environmental, and cultural complexity. In times of change, people seek memory, story, and connection.
Heritage offers:
meaning,
identity,
continuity,
belonging,
and a moral anchor.
It reminds us who we are, where we come from, and who we are becoming.
Heritage is not the past.
It is the story we choose to carry forward.
Download KŌTA'S Heritage & Cultural Landscape Methodology
If you’re interested in deepening your practice, download our Heritage & Cultural Landscape Methodology—a clear, grounded framework that integrates anthropology, cultural landscapes, community governance, and Country-led decision-making.