Places Of Cultural Significance Research Articles

Women and Evacuation in the Second World War: Femininity, Domesticity and Motherhood by Maggie Andrews

Reviewed by: Women and Evacuation in the Second World War: Femininity, Domesticity and Motherhood by Maggie Andrews Wendy Ugolini Andrews, Maggie –Women and Evacuation in the Second World War: Femininity, Domesticity and Motherhood. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. Pp. 222. In 2017, a new memorial dedicated to Second World War evacuees was opened at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire following a campaign by the Evacuees Reunion Association (ERA). Analyzing this commemorative tribute, Maggie Andrews notes the ERA's tendency to privilege "negative myths of evacuation and the view that evacuees were victims of war." This narrative of victimhood is evident within the memorial design by Maurice Blik, which portrays figures of several children with "deliberately distorted" bodies. From this, Andrews concludes that the most common representation of evacuee experience in Second World War Britain can become one "in which maternal care is absent" (p. 176). Andrews sets out with the ambitious task to interrogate this assumption by reinstating women to the heart of Britain's evacuation story and exploring "the multiple, contradictory and messy histories of evacuation for mothers and women" who have tended to "slip out of focus" (p. 161). Andrews identifies the following core groups for analysis: birth mothers whose children were evacuated without them, women who were evacuated with their children, foster mothers, and paid and voluntary carers of evacuees (p. 5). This is a refreshing approach, not just because it turns the lens from the traditional focus on children's experiences to their mothers' experience, but also because it employs a broad definition of motherhood to recover a vast array of female wartime experience. At the same time, Andrews acknowledges that this is a regionally specific study, grounded in oral testimonies from Staffordshire and the West Midlands, thus ultimately providing "very English stories of evacuation" (p. 5). Andrews underlines how women were positioned as "natural" carers of children during the Second World War: "It was unquestioned that women had a biological imperative to 'mother' whether in homes or schools and hostels." [End Page 175] Overall, she argues that by incorporating ideas of biological, foster and social mothering, the practices of motherhood and domesticity were "stretched" by the demands of evacuation in wartime British society (p. 2). Evacuation began two days before war broke out and continued in waves throughout the six years of the conflict, ranging from the early days of the government's Operation Pied Piper scheme through the 1942 Baedeker raids on places of cultural significance and the appearance of VI and V2 flying bombs in the summer of 1944. The book provides a useful and detailed overview of evacuation planning, process, and implementation. It evaluates evacuation as a form of "nationalizing" hundreds and thousands of women as "motherhood increasingly came under surveillance," unpacking the new wartime relationship "between the nation and domestic homes" (pp. 31–32). The book examines the delicate relationship between billeting officers and potential hosts in reception areas, noting how complaints and resistance toward the idea of evacuation illuminated class prejudices. Indeed, Andrews goes as far as to argue that "portrayals of evacuees and their mothers as dirty, polluting, diseased with unclean habits, fuelled a discourse of towneyism, which has much in common with the racism of the 1960s and 1970s" (p. 34). She also illuminates the collapse of boundaries between the public and domestic spaces, noting how representatives of the state were making decisions that were once the prerogative of mothers and housewives (pp. 42–43). A fascinating chapter reflects upon the women who made the "tortuous decision" to send their children away from home to places of safety, demitting day-to-day responsibility for their children's welfare (p. 51). A survey carried out on mothers in Liverpool in the early months of the war indicated that "54% of women with all their children away are definitely made unhappy" (p. 57). Andrews sensitively considers the emotional impact of these decisions, showing how some women "determinedly battled to retain intimacy with, and control of, their offspring" (p. 52). She notes how some mothers sought work close to where their children were evacuated while others moved to reception areas to live "incognito," staying separately from their children. Other mothers were...

Management Challenges for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in Peri-urban Queensland

ABSTRACTIt is often assumed that places of cultural significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are protected under cultural heritage legislation such as the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 in Queensland. Such Acts are improvements on previous policies, which all but neglected Aboriginal cultural heritage. Nevertheless, the aims of policies developed at wider geographic scales, such as States within the Australian system, continue to be disconnected from the experiences of some local Traditional Owners. In this paper, we examine conflicts between non-local policy and on-ground management decisions for Aboriginal cultural heritage in peri-urban Queensland. We focus on the challenges of local Traditional Owners in peri-urban landscapes, basing our discussion on recent experiences conducting research on Indigenous land management in southeast Queensland. We examine three case studies: one in which colonial heritage values were prioritised over existing Aboriginal cultural heritage values, a second where local government failed to support a private landholder’s attempt to identify and protect a cultural heritage site, and a third where a cultural heritage site was protected but in a way that restricts the continuation of cultural practices. Developing more productive and equitable relationships between Traditional Owners and non-Indigenous decision makers, with regards to Aboriginal cultural heritage, requires new locally developed processes for engagement and we suggest how this could be achieved.

HID IN THE EARTH AND SECRET PLACES: A REASSESSMENT OF A HOARD OF LATER MEDIEVAL GOLD RINGS AND SILVER COINS FOUND NEAR THE RIVER THAME

This paper presents a new assessment of the hoard of five gold finger rings and ten silver groats found together near the River Thame, in Oxfordshire, in 1940. It proposes a refined date of manufacture for the exquisite reliquary ring and reports newly identified elements of its design, suggesting that it held a second relic. A holistic understanding of the landscape, topography, contemporary institutions, places and events is used to interpret the hoarded material. It is advocated that the hoarded rings and coins were probably the property of Notley Abbey, not Thame Abbey as has been thought, and that they were rescued from Thomas Cromwell’s Commissioners in 1538 for burial at a place of cultural significance. The paper also draws attention to some of the problems of interpreting and dating hoards and it emphasises the continuity of hoarding practice from prehistory into the later- and post-medieval periods.

Where Fanny Balbuk Walked: Re-imagining Perth’s Wetlands

Where Fanny Balbuk Walked: Re-imagining Perth’s Wetlands

The Venice Charter Down Under: Its Legacy in Landscape Preservation

In examining the Venice Charter, Australia ICOMOS found its principles to be universally sound but not applicable to an ancient landscape with only two hundred years of settler society. In response, Australia ICOMOS members created the Burra Charter to deal with conservation of places of cultural significance, and in the years since 1981, it has been updated to reflect contemporary practice and improved understanding. It does have relevance to large landscapes, and although its principles and planning steps have been followed for large publicly-owned conservation landscapes such as national parks, the challenge is to apply it to freehold landscapes with significant cultural heritage values. Landowners, farmers, managers, politicians, and planners need to be convinced of its relevance. This paper examines a methodology involving landscape art, history, and literature to supplement more standard land-use classification and heritage assessment as a way of generating wider public support.

Comparison of legislation concerning people with disability and heritage environment in Malaysia and developed countries

Heritage towns and buildings are invaluable cultural assets of a nation, and are extremely useful in manifesting place identity, and crucial in promoting tourism. These places of cultural significance should be made accessible to everyone including people with mobility or sensory impairments, the elderly, parents with small children and those who are temporarily disabled due to injury or illness. By creating a accessible heritage environment not only can you cater towards the increasing population of disabled people, but you could increase the number of cultural properties as resources of a nation through 'accessible tourism'. However the differences in implementation of barrier-free tourism for historic buildings and places are rather large between developed and developing countries such as Malaysia. This paper serves as preliminary study on accessibility of heritage environment in Malaysia. First, review of some related definitions, perception toward disability, and background studies in disability movement will be discussed to achieve better understanding of the increasing population of disabled people and how it would affect the development of infrastructure in the built environment. Second, it will look into existing legislation concerning heritage conservation and legislation on provision of access for the disabled in Malaysia and other developing countries. Finally, this paper seeks to find gaps between these legislations and conclude with some recommendations.

Otherness of Place: Game‐based Interaction and Learning in Virtual Heritage Projects

When we design digital places that represent the past using media such as game engines, it is all too easy to be taken in by the lure of technology and forget to concentrate on enhancing the user experience. In the case of virtual heritage, there are several important issues in the creation, construction or revocation of places of cultural significance. In this paper I will argue that while computer games do appear to be more successful learning environments than their critics give them credit for, the learning gained from using them is particularly dangerous in terms of the objectives of virtual heritage. I further suggest that computer games offer particular advantages over traditional virtual environment technology but that their typical modes of interaction must be re‐examined, especially in relation to the notion of place.

Historic cultural landscapes and emerging heritage values: and Australian perspective

Abstract The theme of the paper is the emergence in Australia of the recognition that rural cultural landscapes are important historical documents and form a significant part of Australia's cultural heritage. Attention is drawn to the special niche occupied by the pastoral landscapes of southeastern Australia through the historical construction of an Australian landscape identity in art and literature. An overview is given of the need to conserve exemplars of Australian rural cultural landscapes and of initiatives by government agencies and community groups such as the National Trust of Australia in cultural landscape conservation within a framework provided by Australian ICOMOS Guidelines to the Conservation of Places of Cultural Significance (Burra Charter).

A virtual diorama. Mapping archives in situ at places of cultural significance

Using the wooden church of Södra Råda as a case study, this article concerns new applications of technology to contextualise and activate archive material in situ at places of cultural significance. Using a combination of augmented reality and virtual reality, we describe a process of turning historical photographs and two-dimensional reconstruction drawings into three-dimensional virtual models that can be lined up to a physical space. The leading questions for our investigation concern how archive material can be contextualised, and how the result may be made accessible in situ and contribute to place development. The result of this research suggests possibilities for using historical photographs to faithfully reconstruct lost historical spaces as three-dimensional surfaces that contextualise documentation and offer spatial information.