Gunditjmara Community Awarded Prestigious UNESCO Prize

18 November, 2023
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The Gunditjmara community has been awarded the 2023 UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes.

The 2023 edition of the UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes has been awarded to the Gunditjmara community for its long-standing efforts to safeguard and manage the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, a property inscribed on the World Heritage List since 2019.

The judging panel recognized the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape as an outstanding example of human interaction with the environment spanning over 6,000 years. The community’s effective management of the landscape shows that cultural and spiritual linkages with the natural environment can offer solutions to tackling contemporary challenges such as unplanned infrastructure development, depopulation, changes in traditional lifestyles and climate change.

Funded by the Government of Greece and named after the late Greek Minister of Culture and actress Melina Mercouri, the Prize is awarded every two years to an individual, institution or non-governmental organization that has made innovative and outstanding efforts to protect and manage cultural landscapes.

More about this wonderful acheivement is available on the UNESCO website.

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