Heritage Seychelles |07 May 2005

The programme is about cultivating and coordinating a greater public engagement in safeguarding and developing our cultural heritage.

Heritage Seychelles targets the general public.  It aims at instilling in our nation a greater sense of concern and appreciation for our cultural heritage.  Through this programme one will not only discover the diverse components of the Cultural Heritage of Seychelles, but more importantly make use of them to meet our present needs and the needs of generations to come.

Seychelles has a rich and unique culture created through contact and fusion of peoples of African, European and Asian origins. 

It took only two centuries for the birth and growth of that culture which is essentially the transformation, assimilation and adaptation of different aspects of various cultures.  This created the process which, to many, is known as Creolisation.

Heritage Seychelles, as a programme which fundamentally seeks to refuel the adaptation and transformation character of the "Creolisation" process, comes right on time.  It comes at a time when Globalisation is advancing both rapidly and widely and we are faced with the challenges of embracing it or perishing in it.

Knowing that the Globalization is inevitable and that social evolution brings inexorable changes in our way of life, Heritage Seychelles can be a means of shielding our fundamental values and the identity of our nation from devastating impacts of foreign cultures.  Also Heritage Seychelles can be a catalyst by activating the ingenuity of our nation to adapt and transform in order to meet our needs and that of others too.

New and sustainable developments in countless areas, as for example, in music, architecture, cuisine, literature, crafts, dance, theatre, fashion etc.. can be inspired and envisaged from our rich cultural heritage.  In that respect Heritage Seychelles can be viewed as an unending workshop to generate, nurture and manage spontaneous and creative response of the general public in the process of embracing new developments.

The National Heritage Division will ensure that the programme is run in an organized manner, in order to entice creativity, and stimulate dialogues between different age groups.  In the process of attaining these goals not only will an environment conducive to strengthening national identity be created, but also an opportunity will be provided to consciously embrace our cultural heritage as a resource for our future.

People of all ages can participate in the Heritage Seychelles programme, either individually or in groups.  They can choose to participate in doing research, in preservation and animation projects, in creating various products and in disseminating the various work created.  But they will need to register their participation before hand by completing a special form. 

The form can be collected at the National Heritage Division at La Bastille, at the National Library, at the Kreol Institute or it can be posted, or e-mailed to applicants upon request.  Once this formality has been completed, special training will be given to participants to facilitate their involvement in the programme.

At the moment the focus is on an information campaign to sensitize the public on the Heritage Seychelles programme.  To achieve this a variety of means will be used, including TV, newspaper, radio, posters, banners, letters, meetings. 

To-date special information leaflets in Kreol have been produced and distributed in a "Blitz" in Victoria on February 28, 2005, in commemoration of Mother Language Day.  English and French versions of the leaflets will soon be available for distribution.  So be on the watch out and register your participation promptly. 

Meanwhile if you wish to know more about the Heritage Seychelles programme please feel free to call the National Heritage Division on 321333 Ext. 8150, 8164, 8270 or 376351. 

Marcel Rosalie
National Heritage Division