ABOUT

"Māori heritage is a living spirituality, a living mana moving through generations. It comes to life through relationships between people and place."

The Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS) is the leading international professional association for heritage scholars, educators, policymakers, activists, community members, and practitioners. Its members – 2000+ from 127 countries – are part of a vibrant global community that aims to transform how we see, study, and engage with heritage.

In December 2026 the biennial ACHS conference will be held for the first time in Wellington with a focus on Aotearoa and the wider Moana Oceania. It will be hosted by the Museum & Heritage Studies programme at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington (THW), New Zealand’s leading tertiary programme for heritage research and professional training.

Aotearoa New Zealand is part of the Moana Oceania (Pacific) region – a sea of islands connected to each other by the moana, and by overlapping cultures, languages, histories of migration and colonisation, and contemporary environmental and geopolitical concerns. The heritage of Moana Oceania includes a broad range of Indigenous ancestral landscapes, threatened intangible and ‘natural’ heritage, as well as built heritage, cultural institutions, and sites of contact dating from the colonial period.

Scattered over 15% of the world’s surface, the region includes some of the lowest income countries in the world, and some of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, natural disasters, and the resulting loss of heritage. Other pressing heritage issues include Indigenous rights, colonial history, and the management of dissonant heritage; the contribution of heritage to sustainability, well-being, and equity; evolving institutions and systems that have Indigenous perspectives as a core component of heritage management; and funding challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.

Dr Charles Royal (Te Ahukaramū) argues that Aotearoa is at an historical threshold: moving from a period of intense focus on social justice and cultural revitalisation into a milieu of creativity and innovation while searching for a new language of identity and new ways of relating in an increasingly plural and complex world. Aotearoa is, then, an ideal place for an international dialogue about heritage as RELATIONALITY and associated issues such as climate change, Indigenous rights, repatriation, co-governance and collective action.