Creative heritage as contemporary collecting: the role of performing arts and cultural memory in migrant heritage preservation

The creative arts have a significant, yet currently under-utilised role to play in the collection, preservation, and presentation of tangible and intangible heritage both within and beyond institutional frameworks. The emerging method of creative heritage provides a novel approach to this, inviting communities and artists to respond to heritage collections through creative practice. This article outlines the ongoing development of the method through its application in research with migrant communities and heritage collections in Queensland, Australia. Working with three local migrant communities, the research sought new performance pieces from artists with Ukrainian, Iranian, and Sri Lankan backgrounds. These pieces responded to both heritage holdings and collection gaps in Queensland collecting institutions regarding migration and settlement. The creative heritage approach is offered up here for its potential use as a contemporary collecting tool, one that is especially effective in engaging diverse communities who are marginally represented within heritage collections. The use of various artforms in this research provides further evidence of the significance of the creative arts as a catalyst for modified cultural heritage practices that focus on heritage futures, something urgently needed in the currently volatile social and political environment, globally.