Editor’s Note: November 2009

• Posted on November 16, 2009

The Platform was officially launched at the Cape Town Castle on 12 November. We had excellent attendance, the Bow Heritage Agents created beautiful music and Sello Hatang spoke eloquently of the crisis in the sector. We received strong messages of support across South Africa and from as far afield as India, Papua New Guinea and Panama. People commented that the AP has indeed brought back to the sector some of the democratic excitement of the 1990s.

This month, as we start to celebrate the 16 days of activism against gender violence, Heike Becker continues the discussion about cultural practices and human rights. Now that we are six shopping weeks away from the January sales, the excitement about 2010 and what it means for the heritage sector is mounting – or is it? What are we actually doing about heritage tourism opportunities in 2010, asks Elizabeth Ouma in her blog. Niall McNulty tells us about some of the projects happening in KZN over the next year.

In 2010 we will not only have a world cup, but – hopefully – a national digitisation policy. The process takes place against a backdrop of some concern about access to archives, camera use by researchers and digital copyright. We speak to those issues in our blog, “Feeling the pulse of the sector”.

In celebration of 2010, we will be offering students and young professionals prizes of R1000 for the best blog or meeting report for the Platform, and book prizes for the best book review posted on the Platform. Submissions received until 15 February 2010 will be posted on the website and the winners will be announced at the end of February.