Heritagization of Refugee Camps

The concepts of heritage and refugee camps appear to be in stark contrast, particularly in their fundamental spatial-temporal and cultural-political dimensions. Heritage is regarded as a valuable asset that endures over time, passed down to future generations, and serves as a tool for national education. Heritage becomes the mean to protect territories fixed within geopolitical borders that root states and their nations. Refugee camps, in contrast, are seen as temporary exterritorial spaces created for humanitarian purposes by international organizations within and beyond the realm of the nation-state. They embody the spatial configuration and materialization of transnational borders, threatening the stability of states with and within the camps’ fluid territories. While camps are often created with ephemerality and utility in mind, with the purpose to save lives, heritage is linked to endurance and substantial cultural value that must be preserved. This entry reflects on the relationship between heritage and refugee camps by examining processes of heritagization in two refugee camps related to different geopolitical contexts: the closed Galang camp in Indonesia created for refugees from Vietnam and the Dheisheh Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, which has existed for over seven decades. Heritagization of refugee camps, as shown in this entry, could epistemically and ontologically destabilize prevailing perceptions of heritage and camps. It becomes a contested political issue related to cultural, social, and material practices in which aspects of memory, lived realities, international relations, territoriality, and public interest emerge from specific spatial and material cultures and their sociopolitical roles and interpretations. As such, refugee camps are examined here as relational campscapes which their fluid political boundaries are constantly being redefined, including through their processes of heritagization.