UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri Heritage Prize Goes to Australia’s Gunditjmara Community

Photo source: UNESCO

Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni awarded the 2023 UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes to the Gunditjmara community of Australia.

Also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, Gunditjmara are an Aboriginal Australian people living in southwestern Victoria in the Budj Bim heritage areas.

Established in 1995, the UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize rewards outstanding examples of action to safeguard and enhance the world’s cultural landscapes.

Photo source: UNESCO

The award has been named in honor of former Greek culture minister and actress Melina Mercouri, who promoted integrated heritage conservation during her term at the ministry. The UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize is awarded every two years and the winner receives an award of 30,000 US dollars.

Several territories of the Gunditjmara tribes, which extend over an estimated 7,000km2 area, including the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019.

Photo source: UNESCO

The judging committee recognized the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape as an “outstanding example of human interaction with the environment spanning over 6,000 years. The complex networks of aquaculture systems alongside traditional land and water management practices bear witness to the engineering skills passed on over generations”.

“It is now evident that the integrity and authenticity of cultural as well as natural landscapes can only be ensured and protected through the adoption and implementation of integrated sustainable management plans, based on a holistic and integrated view and management, which constitutes the possible option for sustainable long-term growth,” said Mendoni during the ceremony this week at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Photo source: UNESCO

In this direction, Mendoni referred to the joint UN, UNESCO and Greek government initiative to address the effects of climate change on cultural and natural heritage, which she said was also in line with Greece’s national strategy for the protection of cultural heritage from climate change.