2026 ACT Region Heritage Symposium – Call For Abstracts

Everyday Heritage: Conviviality, Creativity, Care

This symposium celebrates how heritage is lived, loved and created through everyday life in the ACT region by exploring the themes of conviviality, creativity and care.

Conviviality: how do food and drink and community feasts and celebrations connect people, transmit culture and shape everyday heritage?

Creativity: from design to craft traditions, to contemporary art interventions that reimagine heritage for new audiences, what place does creativity play in shaping our experience of everyday heritage?

Care: how do caring relationships shape everyday heritage? This theme includes family and community histories, visitor interpretation, intergenerational knowledge, and the work of caring, for places, objects, and traditions.

We welcome submissions for 10-20 minute papers that relate to these themes. Submissions might address intangible and tangible cultural heritage, food heritage, contested heritage, and creative approaches to interpretation and conservation. Submissions might explore local, national, or international contexts, but should reflect on how they relate to everyday heritage in the ACT region. Please include:

Name and affiliation (as you would like it to appear on the program)
Title
Abstract – max 250 words (The abstract should make clear the connection of your presentation to the themes of the event)
Choose: Student / nonstudent
Choose: 10 / 20 mins

Email abstracts to: info@nationaltrustact.org.au by no later than 30 June 2026.

Featured speakers will include:

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Dr Kate Bagnall

Dr Kate Bagnall

Dr Kate Bagnall is a social historian whose research explores the intersections of migration, family and the law in Australia’s past. With a particular interest in Chinese Australian history, Kate works closely with community and family historians to enrich and broaden public understandings of migrant history and heritage. She is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Tasmania.

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Dr Madeline Shanahan

Dr Madeline Shanahan

Dr Madeline Shanahan is the Director of Underground Heritage and an expert member of the ACT Heritage Council. With more than two decades of experience in heritage, she is the author of a range of publications on food and identity, including the recently released Archaeologies of Food in Australia (Sydney University Press). Her research focuses on food, recipe books domestic life and ritual.

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Ashley van den Heuvel

Ashley van den Heuvel

Ashley van den Heuvel is a Lecturer for the Culture and Heritage Major in the Bachelor of Arts at the University of Canberra. Ashley’s research focuses on visual culture, technology, and heritage interpretation, informed by her cross-cultural experiences and care for the past. She is from the South Coast of New South Wales (Walbunja/Thaua).