Starting an Indigenous Cultural Heritage Initiative

This section will support Indigenous People in starting an ICH initiative. An ICH initiative is an activity or set of activities designed to steward an Indigenous community’s or Nation’s cultural heritage. Starting an ICH initiative creates opportunities for Indigenous Peoples to control and care for their own cultural heritage.

This section covers the following topics:

As ICH Toolkit users work through this section, they can consider the following questions:

  • What are your community’s priorities for protecting, revitalizing and celebrating ICH?
  • If you had to create one small-scale ICH initiative, what would it be?
  • What is one change your community can make this year through an ICH initiative?
  • How could an ICH initiative benefit your community or Nation today and in the future?

When starting an initiative, it is important to remember that each step may seem small, but they all contribute to the long-term goals of your community.