ENCOUNTERS | Towards Decolonising Heritage Protection

Join Cultural Emergency Response (CER) and Egyptian partner Amany Abd El Hameed, an Egyptologist and heritage researcher, for a conversation on decolonising heritage protection and recognising the often-overlooked contributions of local communities.

Drawing on her project, Legacies of Labor: Digitizing the Archive of Qufti Workers (1943–2022), Amany will share her work to recover and preserve the histories of skilled Egyptian excavation workers whose knowledge and labour have been essential to archaeological discoveries, yet whose contributions have often gone unrecognised.

Through her experiences, we will explore how colonial narratives have shaped heritage protection, and how inequalities in recognition, opportunities, and representation persist today. Together, we will reflect on how these histories can inform more inclusive, locally-led approaches to protecting cultural heritage.