Cultural Resources Management
(CRM)

Cultural resources management: consists of the various processes whereby cultural resources (tangible and intangible) are evaluated and managed to maintain and maximise their benefit to the community and individuals. In particular, this involves the communication of information from one generation to the next. In a stable society, these processes are taken for granted. There are social institutions in place to ensure this transfer and maintenance of information, such as schools, meeting spaces, places of worship, work habits, work songs, competitions, story telling, etc. With displaced peoples many of these institutions have broken down or become dysfunctional, or they have been taken over by the institutions of the dominant culture, therefore ensuring cultural resources transfer of a different kind. Through a process of awareness raising, training and support, communities can rebuild social institutions to revitalise their management systems (e.g. a community can work with the Government to create schools that assist in the learning of traditional skills, use museums as heritage learning centres, etc).