AUSTRONESIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE Historic Preservation and Archaeological Conservation in the Western Pacific

The idea of shared cultural heritage is significant today for many who speak languages of the widely-dispersed Austronesian language family and who are bearers of a set of related island cultures found extensively in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Shared heritage is an emerging issue throughout the region from Taiwan to Rapa Nui (and even Madagascar to the west), and from Hawai'i to New Zealand. In this paper, cultural heritage is considered in relation to 'historic' or 'heritage' preservation and archaeological conservation. Historic preservation includes a set of concepts related to conservation of materials from the past and their interlinked interpretations that we value today and selectively re-use. Since the 1970s, archaeological work done in the chains of small islands representing Micronesia in the west central Pacific has been adding to our understanding of the origins and adaptations of early Austronesian colonisers beginning some 3,000-4,000 years ago; it has also provided training in historic preservation at the local level. Illustrations, primarily from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, reflect some of the developments in historic preservation in that area.