CONFLUENCE
Since 2019, EITV Festival of Music has started Confluence, a conference on music around a chosen theme. Since then, we have had three Confluence and they have covered aspects that are often overlooked or not talked about in the music scene. These were themes such as music education, intellectual property rights, and accessibility. These conferences brought together educators, policy makers, musicians, students, researchers and music enthusiasts in one room to discuss the current state and the future of music in Nepal. As a festival, we are committed to continuing these discussions and using the festival as a platform for these important conversations to take place.
CONFLUENCE 2024
Theme: Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage
10:30 AM - 12:45 PM 📍 Netamadu Ajima Dya Chhen, Naradevi, Kathmandu
We, at Echoes in the Valley, strive to safeguard, revitalise, and celebrate Nepal's rich, intangible music heritage. In recent years, we have actively been working towards establishing international networks to connect with stakeholders around the globe who share similar interests towards the preservation, safeguarding, and enhancement of traditional music in their own environments through educational and artistic practices. Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage connects with the UNESCO 2003 Convention on Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage and brings together international and Nepali stakeholders to discuss local and global perspectives that underline the processes of ICH revitalisation with a particular focus on musical practices. The conference aligns with Echoes in the Valley’s aims of acting in the field of ICH, bridging the national and international stakeholders to a collaborative global network that strengthens and supports the capacity building of the participating organisations locally and globally.
The conference consists of presentations by representatives from two NGOs accredited for UNESCO’s 2003 Convention on Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage: Mr Matti Hakamäki, a member of the Executive Board of Unesco’s ICH NGO Forum and a director from The Finnish Folk Music Institute and Director Alain Muneean from ABAIM, Mauritius. Professor Heidi Westerlund and Ms Pushpa Palanchoke will share perspectives to ICH that guide and underline a collaborative research project among Echoes in the Valley and the University of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland, namely AmplifyHer. Dr Monalisa Maharjan is a scholar focused on the indigenous practice of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and linking tangible and intangible heritage in Kathmandu; currently affiliated with the University of Heidelberg and has worked as a researcher at the UNESCO Chair for Intangible Cultural Heritage.
SCHEDULE
10.30 - 10.45 – Registration
10.45 - 10.50 – Echoes in the Valley Co-director Mr Riju Tuladhar: Opening words
10.50 – Alain Muneean: Intangible cultural heritage-based education in the context of overall development at ABAIM, Mauritius.
11:05 – Matti Hakamäki: Perspectives on the role and potentials of NGOs at the Unesco ICH work
11.20 – Heidi Westerlund & Pushpa Palanchoke: Cultural heritage and gender equality: The AmplifyHer project promoting a systems view
11.35 – Monalisa Maharjan: Placemaking since the ancient times: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Communities in Kathmandu Valley
11.50 - 12.05 – Commentary: To draw trajectories from global to local, the presentations will follow a commentary from the Nepali ICH experts and stakeholders
Shriju Pradhan (Division chief, Heritage and Tourism Department, Kathmandu Metropolitan City)
Nhooja Tuladhar (Head of Arts, British Council)
12.05 - 12:15 – Q&A
12.15-12.45 – Hi-Tea / networking
12:45 – Nyakhin Music by Abhaya’s group)
12:50 – Depart to Itumbaha (Festival starts at 1 PM)
PRESENTERS
Alain Muneean is Mauritian nurse-social worker, traditional folklorist for the past 40 years. Has been involved in the setting up, capacity building and running of culturally informed early childhood services, special education needs services and residential care services in Mauritius and the Indian Ocean region.
Pushpa Palanchoke is an applied-ethnomusicologist, is a visiting researcher at Sibelius Academy, Finland and a researcher for AmplifyHer. A recipient of prestigious Nepal Vidyabhushan & Chatra-padak, she is also founder of Folk Lok.
Heidi Westerlund is professor at the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. She has published widely in the field of music education, interculturality and democracy, and is currently leading the project ‘Transition pathways towards gender inclusion in the changing musical landscapes of Nepal’.
Matti Hakamäki is the director of Finnish Folk Music Institute, has worked as a musician, teacher, and a pedagogue of folk music from 2009.
Monalisa Maharjan is a post-doctoral fellow at Social Science Baha under Heritage at Placemaking. She is a global facilitator for the UNESCO's 2003 convention for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. She is a collaborator in UNESCO Chair in Intangible Cultural Heritage and Traditional Know-how, Portugal. She is also an executive member in ICOMOS Nepal.
Sewa Bhattarai is a journalist who has been writing about folklore and folk music for a long time, and also produces a podcast, Raithana Bhakha.
This year's Confluence will be jointly organized by EITV in partnership with Raithane Bhakha.
For queries, please write to echoesinthevalley@gmail.com
