Intangible Cultural Heritage as a Tool for Community Empowerment: A Case Study of the Date Palm Festival in Siwa Oasis, Egypt

Abstract

This paper investigates how minority communities may be empowered through safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage, and developing internal and external values. A newly initiated festival called Date Palm Festival is used as a trigger for the community to recognize their heritage as identity. Data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and qualitative questionnaires with the key community members that was analyzed using content analysis. Results show that the festival presents an opportunity for the Siwans to recognise and value their intangible cultural heritage, as their culture began to gain social, economic and environmental value. The findings also suggest future improvements for the festival in at least three areas community empowerment, women‘s participation, and the power balance between community and the government.