It’s known as the giver of life; it’s exchanged as a highly valued form of cultural respect, it’s also worn in all it’s woven glory during Samoan ceremonies, and now the Ie Samoa or fine mat has been nominated to be listed as an intangible cultural heritage artifact with UNESCO.
This was confirmed by UNESCO Director in Samoa, Ms Nisha, who told Talamua Online that the Committee on Intangible Heritage will meet and look at the nomination and if it meets the criteria the Committee has set down for recognition, it will be inscribed on the UNESCO list.
Members of the Committee are selected from various countries to look at all nominations and will meet in Paris in July this year.
The submissions that best meet the criteria get nominated for inscription.
Samoa is a signatory to the UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage which recognizes traditional knowledge and art forms associated with traditional knowledge as a living practice and knowledge that continues to grow and evolve.
Ms Nisha explained the nomination criteria is based on a number of related aspects such as the knowledge, universality and value of that knowledge.
“But the main objective is to safeguard the art form and visual knowledge for future generations, to ensure that it contributes to the global mutual understanding, cultural exchange processes, and that it has something that builds the universal principles of co-existence and diversity,” she said.
