With this manifesto, I will to focus on the work that heritage, both materially and conceptually, does. The aim is to propose conceptual and concrete actions on how heritage can be put to work in the process of reimagining and actioning the building of shared, fair, decolonised futures.
The manifesto conceptualises conservation as a practice of care; as caring for future worlds. Care creates a different perspective on conservation. It highlights the question “who is (not) being cared for, through caring for this heritage?” What is the work heritage does, and who benefits? Combining conceptual thinking on affect and care ethics, offers a way to rethink conservation ethics. Caring for heritage is about what the futures we colonise, imagine and make impossible. Our (re)design practices can’t remain practices of re-inscribing patterns of (un)belonging, we must challenge and change them. Caring, conserving, designing, are not inherently good, we have to recognise their political nature.