Reconnections

Heritage, in its many forms and practices, is not just a representation of the past; it is also a connection or a reconnection with the past that is active and alive in the present. An understanding of this “doing” of heritage is more important than ever in differentiating national, official and authorized versions of it from its more local, voluntaristic and alternative forms. While the heritage of nations and dominant groups appears static and unwavering in its representational practices, repeating and reinforcing the same discourses, the heritage of communities of interest or place is provisional and fragile, and depends on the capacity of people to organize, to do things, to act and re-enact and to make itself meaningful in moments of encounter and engagement. And whereas official heritage is often highly materialized and monumental, with a tendency to presentism and an urge to legitimize identity and power, reconnection is a relatively new heritage, active in discovery and rediscovery, free from official gloss and more gentle in its politics of belief, attachment and participation. In this sense it derives its motilities from individuals and communities who are affected and emotionally engaged with an object, a place or an event that may not even be recognized or represented in the official-professional account of the past. This is a heritage in action, doing rather than being, and connected and seeking connection. Using an example drawn from groups “doing heritage” in northern England, this chapter delineates a heritage made in the present and for the future by people for whom the official version of national heritage is very much a thing of the past