WAC-7 concluded on 18 January 2013 with the ever-exciting and engaging Plenary Session, a general business meeting at the end of every major WAC Congress that presents, for consideration by the WAC Council and Executive, matters arising from the academic proceedings. Professor Peter Stone, the 2013 recipient of the Peter Ucko Memorial Award, chaired the WAC-7 Plenary, which was attended by over 100 participants.
In total, 14 resolutions were brought to the Plenary. The topics of resolutions ranged widely, reflecting the missions and interests of WAC, the diverse themes of WAC-7, and pressing concerns in the world of archaeology and cultural heritage today. After more than two hours of debate, nine resolutions were passed by a show of hands of attendants of the Plenary. As the Plenary is not an official decision making body of WAC, all resolutions passed were sent to the Council and Executive for consideration, so that they might be adopted as WAC initiatives or policy.
Below, you will find a list of formally approved WAC-7 resolutions – this list will be updated as additional resolutions are discussed by the Executive.
Resolution concerning the relationship of archaeology and archaeologists with extant custodial and affiliated communities
–Proposed by Neel Kamal Chapagain (Nepal) and Michael J Kimball (USA), and derived from a WAC-7 session titled “The Past is Living in the Present.”
The archaeological community increasingly engages with local communities through research and educational activities including public outreach. The World Archaeological Congress supports works presented at various sessions of WAC-7 in Jordan, as well as and institutional attempts such as ICCROM’s Living Heritage Approach, which exemplifies principles, methods, and theoretical frameworks for properly valuing and engaging with unique world views and knowledges possessed by local communities. These approaches illustrate the vital importance to custodial communities of such world views and knowledges. In recognition of this, WAC encourages systematic efforts to develop a scholarship of community engaged archaeology through which such work can be documented, problematized, and improved with the goal of achieving holistic knowledge, participatory research, sustainable community development and management of archaeological heritage.