Showcase: UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List

UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list recently added three more names to the lineup. Portugal's black pottery, Ukraine's Cossack songs and Uganda's traditional music, which is dying out in large part because it requires materials from endangered species. Luckily, now these three art forms are being safeguarded for future generations. When UNESCO decided to form a committee to safeguard heritage, it rescued nearly 400 art forms from cultural extinction. Now three more have been added to the list. UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage intergovernmental committee looks at challenges and threats against the preservation of our heritage, as well as bringing them into practice. When you say safeguarding intangible heritage, it's equal to safeguarding the community. Because if you don't have the community, you don't have heritage. So whatever we do in terms of safeguarding is protecting, helping the community to preserve their traditions, to document their traditions, to create the tools, you know, to better understand their traditions and continue the tradition. This year's inclusions include the songs of Cossacks, native to eastern Ukraine. They were known for their horsemanship and military skills. The songs are sung by communities of the Dnipropetrovsk region and speak about the tragedy of war and personal relationships. For us, the songs have semantic meaning. We explain to children what these songs are about. We try to renew their traditional pronunciation as far as possible. We always try to give them the understanding that basically they are the ones who will transmit Ukrainian Cossack culture to future generations. Portugal's five remaining potters fear that the black pottery process from the village of Bessales is under threat due to a lack of interest from younger generations to carry on the tradition. The way of doing it can only be transmitted in an immaterial way, orally speaking, telling when and how to do it, taking humidity into account. Is the weather good or not? Is this the time to fire it or not? If the wood collected is enough to make more smoke, all of this, even if it is written somewhere, is very much intuitive, passed along within the family from generation to generation until today. And that's what we are trying to preserve. Uganda's Madi Bolaya music and dance faces a different kind of problem. The music is still performed at weddings, but requires materials from plants and animals that are now endangered. The list was created 10 years ago in an effort to increase awareness of cultural practices under threat of extinction. But it seems the biggest threat is a waning interest from the younger generation, something UNESCO hopes to reverse.