Paper Short Abstract:

This paper responds to Britain’s 2024 ratification of UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) (2003). It showcases the ICH of Scotland’s Gypsy/Traveller communities, showing how ‘creative ethnology’ can bring academic insights into ICH and more meaningful dialogues with the communities who cherish it.

Paper Abstract:

In February 2024, Britain’s parliament ratified UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) (2003), and this paper showcases pioneering research that will lead to one of Britain’s first inscriptions on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO inscription means ensuring worldwide visibility of the ICH, encouraging dialogue, and recent theoretical approaches to the study of ICH stress the importance of emic experience rather than etic discourses (Kockel and MacFadyen 2019). I therefore introduce the panel to the emerging field of ‘creative ethnology’ where ICH is linked to close collaboration with tradition-bearers, synergies with other fields, and consciousness raising. Creative ethnology allows not only for the study of ICH from an academic perspective but fosters more meaningful engagement with the communities who cherish it (UNESCO 2024).

The paper focuses on the ICH of communities known to officials as ‘Gypsy/Travellers’. Now a legally recognised ethnic minority, these diverse communities have existed in Britain as distinct from mainstream society since at least the twelfth century (Kenrick and Clark 1999). Their itinerant lifestyles and working practices have resulted in distinctive yet marginalised sociocultural identities, and a deep reservoir of ICH. The contemporary communities continue to experience marginalisation, yet their participation in discourses around ethnicity and sociocultural inclusion is emerging (McPhee 2021; Conyach 2024). Some members of the communities self-identify as ‘Nacken’, and this paper demonstrates how dialogues with the communities can help us understand what it is that sets Gypsy/Traveller/Nacken (GTN) and their ICH apart.