Everything we know will one day disappear. We implicitly know this – we have developed systems and rituals to say goodbye – from waste management systems for our unwanted things to funerals for our beloved family members.

Despite all this, we have set a goal that heritage – from archaeological sites to automatically protected buildings – should last forever. This position has grown increasingly unrealistic due to climate change, budgetary constraints, and the shear amount of heritage we must conserve. A situation that is true everywhere but is especially acute in Svalbard. This talk builds on recent ideas in heritage studies to suggest how we can responsibly say goodbye to heritage, how it can look like, and what meaningful conversations can that open up. Svalbard, with its small community, quick access to local and national authorities, and highly educated and highly creative population can be a leader in experimental approaches for addressing heritage management in the age of unprecedented loss.

Anatolijs Venovcevs is the researcher in historical archaeology at the Svalbard Museum (which may not necessarily share all of his ideas). Previously, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oulu in Finland looking at fungal ecologies that grow in World War II ruins and received his PhD in contemporary archaeology at UiT: The Arctic University of Norway where he looked at the ongoing, involuntary legacies of single industrial mining towns in Norway, Canada, and Russia. His interests include mushrooms, fermentation, things that don’t fit neatly into normative understandings of heritage, and long walks through beautiful landscapes devastated by modernity. 

Where: Svalbard Museum, Vei 231 - 1, Forskningsparken SJ, Longyearbyen 9170

When: Thursday 11 December, 18:00 - 19:00

Please note: this lecture will be hosted in English