This week, the city of Esquipulas, Chiquimula, is hosting a training workshop on participatory inventory methodology as advocated in the 2003 Convention in the framework of the project ‘Strengthening national capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in Guatemala’, and thanks to the generous contribution of Azerbaijan. Thirty participants from the Ministry of Culture and Sports, local municipalities, civil society and local communities will discuss both the theoretical and practical aspects of how to carry out a community-based inventory of intangible cultural heritage. Following this one-week training, there will be a pilot inventory activity in the eastern region of Guatemala.

This activity is a continuation of the work carried out in the western region of the country during the first phase of the project. In July and August, four working groups composed of community youth and municipal officials from Santa Apolonia, undertook fieldwork with artisanal communities. They gathered information, carried out the mapping process and established a registry of the different pottery techniques as well as associated sociocultural practices. The Municipality of Santa Apolonia submitted the final report for the Santa Apolonia pottery pilot inventory to the Ministry of Culture and Sport in August as a conclusion to the first successful stage of a community driven exercise as part of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage of indigenous populations in the region. Following the inventory phase, the project will continue with a focus on developing safeguarding plans.