The Sinterklaas festival will again be included in the national inventory for intangible heritage ‘in the future’. This is confirmed by director Saskia van Oostveen of the Netherlands Intangible Heritage Knowledge Center (KIEN) after reports from the A.D about this.
Again, because the celebration has been on that list before. In 2015, the Sinterklaas festival was included on the list for the first time, with, in addition to the saintly man himself, also Zwarte Piet. The latter was the reason for KIEN to remove the party from the list in 2022.
1At first yes, then not and now yes again – what about that?
The previous registration for the December festival was made on the recommendation of the Saint and Pete Guild foundation. That organization attaches great importance to Zwarte Piet and writes on his website to find that there is “no evidence of any form of racism.”
When the party was put on the list in 2015, the debate about Zwarte Piet was already in full swing. A year earlier, a United Nations working group concluded that it was an “expression of racism” and the municipality of Amsterdam was the first to introduce soot sweepers at the arrival. Shopkeepers removed the caricature from their wrapping paper and decorations, and Zwarte Piet disappeared from view on TV.
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When registering, the Guild saw a role for itself to “take the sting out of the debate”. But in the years that followed, KIEN saw that the foundation mainly wanted to hold on to Zwarte Piet and paid insufficient attention to people who thought differently about this and who felt hurt by the figure. The variant of the Sinterklaas celebration as envisaged by the Guild “no longer complies with the ethical principles of the international UNESCO treaty for intangible heritage”, said KIEN in 2022 upon delisting.
2What has changed now?
Previously, heritage was only included on the inventory list if it was reported by a practitioner. “As a result, we missed things,” says director Van Oostveen. For example, the old Sinterklaas quotation came from one foundation, and the many variations in how people celebrate at home were not reflected in it. At the same time, there were also celebrations that were widely celebrated, but had no organization that could register. For example, she mentions Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr.
KIEN is now working on a revision of the complete heritage list. “We no longer want to tell the story of one person,” says Van Oostveen, “but to give a more general description of a phenomenon and show different perspectives on it.”
The Knowledge Center also continues to speak to the practitioners themselves, with an eye for the diversity that can exist. “Mr. By consulting experts, she wants to form the broadest possible picture. But, the director acknowledges, “we can never represent all perspectives.”
According to Van Oostveen, the Saint and Pete Guild will not play a role in the new listing. “They paid too little attention to the ethical principles. It is important that we speak to people who have respect for those who think differently. The figure of Zwarte Piet is really offensive and can therefore not be included in the inventory.”
3When will Sinterklaas be on the list again?
“We are not working on it at the moment,” says Van Oostveen. “There are more than four hundred things in the inventory that must first be described. Then we will see what we are still missing, I expect that will be sometime next year.”
4What actually is the heritage inventory?
The list provides an overview of hundreds of diverse traditions, customs, rituals and crafts in the Netherlands. The Dutch pastry stall with oliebollen is there, but also the April 1 joke, the Helmond dialect, Pride Amsterdam, Keti Koti and numerous fairs, flower parades and annual markets.
This gives them more visibility, says the director of the Knowledge Center. “It is one of the ways to keep a tradition or custom alive in a dynamic way.” KIEN offers support here, for example by offering training in recruiting volunteers or sponsorship.
A listing is also a requirement to be included on the international UNESCO list for intangible heritage. But this is preceded by a tough selection procedure. Of the more than four hundred customs in the national inventory, only five are now on the international list.
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