ICOMOS Aotearoa New Zealand
Te Mana o Nga Pouwhenua o Te Ao
ICOMOS AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND
Established in 1987, ICOMOS Aotearoa New Zealand/Te Mana o Nga Pouwhenua o Te Ao is a professional organisation for the support and advancement of individuals and organisations engaged in the conservation of places of cultural heritage value.
ICOMOS Aotearoa New Zealand is the New Zealand national committee of ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites. ICOMOS is an international non-governmental organisation of heritage professionals engaged in the conservation of places of cultural heritage value and dedicated to the conservation of the world’s historic monuments and sites.
The ICOMOS New Zealand Charter, Te Pumanawa o ICOMOS o Aotearoa Hei Tiaki I Nga Taonga Whenua Heke Iho o Nehe is a set of guidelines on cultural heritage conservation, widely used in the New Zealand heritage sector and a recognised benchmark for conservation standards and practice.
LATEST NEWS
"Heritage Counts"
Heritage specialist David Bade recently gave a fascinating talk to the Auckland Heritage community, titled "Heritage Counts". David lead a discussion on the programme he's developed for Auckland Council to understand and account for each year's statistics in historic heritage.
ICOMOS's AGM 2026
Because ICOMOS will be supporting the conference of the Association for Critical Heritage Studies, to be held in Whanganui-a-tara Wellington on 29 November-2 December (see below) we will have a brief on-line AGM on Wednesday 7 October
Reflections on the development of the 2025 ICOMOS Gunma Declaration on Heritage Ecosystems
Board member Simon Kieser has authored a paper in the International Journal of Cultural Property:
Keiser, S. 2026. “Critical Reflections on the Development of the Gunma Declaration on Heritage Ecosystems: Challenges, Contradictions, and Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples.” International Journal of Cultural Property 33 (2026)
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0940739126100332.
This recently published commentary reflects on the development of the 2025 ICOMOS Gunma Declaration on Heritage Ecosystems and examines its implications for Indigenous Peoples, heritage governance, and the implementation of human rights-based approaches within the World Heritage system.
The article welcomes the Gunma Declaration as an important and potentially transformative development. For the first time within the World Heritage system, Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and natural heritage are explicitly recognised within discussions surrounding heritage authenticity and heritage ecosystems. The Declaration also recognises the interconnected relationships between peoples, culture, nature, and intangible heritage, helping to bridge longstanding divisions within global heritage governance.
Newsletter - December 2025
Enjoy our latest quarterly newsletter
ICOMOS Conference 2026
This year we are not having a dedicated conference.
Instead we are joining the conference of the Association for Critical Heritage Studies, to be held in Whanganui-a-tara Wellington on 29 November-2 December.
For more information visit the conference website