Culture and heritage
The Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW (DECC) has a role in protecting and promoting the culture and heritage environment of NSW.
Culture is a way of understanding our world - the way we live in and remember our world, be it through expressions of song, music, dance, art, poetry or stories. It is how we relate to the environment and use medicinal remedies. It includes methods of learning and the acquisition of scientific knowledge. It is religion and how we understand the spiritual world. It is the way we behave and how we organise our families, communities, and society through social rules, customs, lore and laws; it is also language. Culture is what makes one group of people different from another. Cultures change and evolve just as animals and plants do - culture is a living thing.
Heritage is the environment, objects and places - both tangible and intangible - that we inherit from the past and pass on to future generations to use, learn from and be inspired by. Heritage is strongly linked to culture. Culture frames our understanding of the past and influences the decisions we make about what is worth keeping as our heritage. Our concept of 'what is worth keeping' changes over time - so heritage too is a living thing.
How DECC fits in
DECC has a responsibility to identify, care for, and promote the culture and heritage environment of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures in NSW. This can be achieved by returning cultural material and spirit to Country and helping Aboriginal people maintain and renew cultural practices and identity, and instilling a sense of purpose within the community. It is also important to identify, care for and promote the cultures and the heritage of others in NSW; and the cultures and heritage within our national parks and conservation reserves.
To achieve this, DECC works in partnership with other NSW Government agencies, for example, the Heritage Office and also with local government, catchment management authorities, communities and you! Our responsibilities are set out in the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974, NSW Heritage Act 1977 and the policies we use to carry out our culture and heritage assessments, conservation, and our return and renewal obligations to the people of NSW.
Through these pages of our website you can:
explore the cultures and the heritage of the peoples and environments of NSW.
visit places all over NSW that have culture, heritage and environmental values by searching for the location of valued objects and places
see details of the culture and heritage research carried out by DECC, its purpose and how it is applied
look at our work in fostering the cultural attachment people have to national park environments and look at our work in conserving the heritage places in national parks
- access the licence, permits and registers section which includes information on heritage registers, specifically the Aboriginal Heritage Information Mangement System (AHIMS) and the Historic Heritage Information Management System (HHIMS).