I'm a paragraph.

Cultural heritage is no longer just about preserving ruins, relics,

or revered buildings. It is alive, unfolding daily in song,

language, ritual, and memory. Of all its forms, intangible

cultural heritage, our shared "way of life" is the most fluid,

fragile, and foundational. It shapes who we are, where we

belong, and how we make sense of the world. In Australia, a

continent that holds one of the longest continuous cultural

records on Earth, this heritage has been both powerfully

resilient and historically denied. Its story is one of ancient

continuity, colonial rupture, and contemporary reclamation.

UNESCO defines intangible cultural heritage (ICH) as the

practices, knowledge, and expressions passed down through

generations, oral traditions, performing arts, rituals, social

customs, and traditional ecological knowledge. These are not

museum pieces but living expressions that bind communities

together. ICH is culture in motion, with a heartbeat, and it is

most often noticed only when threatened.

For many Australians, understanding heritage once meant

grand buildings or battlegrounds, tangible remnants of colonial

pride. That view has evolved dramatically. Today, heritage

includes Indigenous languages and stories, sacred sites,

Dreamtime cosmologies, and ceremonial dances. Yet despite its

growing recognition, ICH remains a contested terrain, shaped

by histories of suppression, survival, and a yearning for

belonging.