Resisting clearance and reclaiming place in Cyprus’ state forests through the work of heritage

ABSTRACT

The British took over administrative control of Cyprus in 1878 and three years later all uncultivated land was converted into State Forest. The removal of people from the forest over the following 60 years had long term social impacts—clearance is manifest in the absence of a connection and knowledge of the forest and its past inhabitants. This paper explores how clearance is resisted in rural Cyprus through the practice and performance of heritage. It is derived from the community-engaged Pathways to Heritage Project that sought to understand the places and practices of significance to the village of Nikitari located on the outskirts of the Adelphi State Forest, Cyprus. I focus on two stories of resistance. Elder Panayiotis Alexandrou Loppas grew up in the forest and spent his life resisting clearance through visiting his places of significance and performing memory. He reworks the past in order that he and his ancestors are remembered into the future. Teachers and pupils of the Asinou Regional Primary School chose the abandoned village of Asinou as the anchor for a new school identity. Their research transformed this forgotten place into a heritage site while setting the foundations for a new regional identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Resistance
• Cyprus state forest
• community-engaged research
• unofficial heritage
• performing memory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 657370.

Notes on contributors

Erin S.L Gibson

Erin S.L Gibson has recently held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow in Archaeology at the University of Glasgow, Scotland (2016-18) where she maintains affiliate researcher status. She is an associate member of the Centre for Environment, Heritage and Policy at Stirling University, Scotland and holds adjunct status in Anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada. Her community-engaged research draws on ethnographic and archaeological techniques to address heritage-making in contested landscapes (Canada, Cyprus).