Culture, Climate and Sustainability
About
Culture, Climate and Sustainability shapes our collective capacity to care for collections and sites. This group draws on technically innovative and preventive conservation strategies, and time critical responses for collections and sites at risk. Our applied solutions engage with situated and culturally relevant practices of caretaking, and encourage us to reflect and build collective knowledge on the uncertain threats and loss of heritage. The group aligns its activities to the 2030 sustainability development goals and the global, urban, regional and localised contexts and infrastructure where collections and sites are most valued. Our community of scholarship has significant benefits for enhancing the Asia Pacific regions collection risk reduction strategies and adaptive capacity to secure access and built resilient collections and cultures as our climate transforms.
Projects
Building community resilience post natural disasters - Australian Flood Recovery
In 2022, the University of Melbourne’s Grimwade Conservation Services ran a four-week pilot project responding to the Australian flood emergency, testing new ways to support regional and remote communities in recovering flood-damaged personal items and small collections. The project combined remote resources and online consultations with onsite remediation in severely affected areas such as Seymour and Maribyrnong, alongside national information sharing through councils and media. Delivered with local partners and student conservators, the initiative provided free expert support, highlighted the role of conservators in protecting cultural heritage, and informed future disaster recovery efforts.
Natural disasters and National Cultural Treasure recovery and reconstruction – The Philippines
In recent memory, the 2013 earthquake and typhoon in the Visayas region of the Philippines stands as one of the most devastating disasters. In collaboration with the National Museum of the Philippines and community members, we examine and share our lived experiences of natural disasters and cultural heritage recovery to generate ideas around cultural heritage management, its associated uncertainties, and adaptive processes.
Museums and collections for all: collection care and conservation in Indonesia
We examine collection care and heritage conservation methods informed by the situated community issues, the tropical climate, and focus on Indonesian artworks. With Institut Konservasi our research has stimulated wider discussions on sustaining collections and the role of museums in contemporary Indonesia and globally.
The See Yup Temple 四邑關帝廟: Chinese Australian collections, recovery, conservation
On 17 February 2024 a fire devastated Melbourne’s 1856 See Yup Temple, severely impacting the building and its material culture, and the Chinese community. As an active site of continuing worship, this Australia Research Council Discovery Project interrogates disaster recovery, conservation and memory making in the heritage sector. It aims to develop new insights on global connections of migratory heritage, material knowledge of understudied collections, risk reduction and care taking, and old and new technologies.
