Newport Restoration Foundation and the Department of Defense Announce Keeping History Above Water: Pacific

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The Department of Defense and the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) are proud to co-host the Keeping History Above Water® (KHAW): Pacific Workshop in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi on June 13th, 2024, at the Doubletree Alana Waikiki.

KHAW: Pacific is a free, registration-required workshop. Registration will open April 15th. Keeping History Above Water® (KHAW) was founded in 2016 by NRF to foster a global conversation focused on the increasing and varied risks posed by sea-level rise to historic coastal communities. KHAW programs, conferences, and workshops focus on protecting historic buildings, landscapes, and neighborhoods from the increasing threat of inundation. The KHAW: Pacific Workshop will serve as a forum for collaboration to proactively identify climate change solutions for the preservation of Pacific Island cultural heritage. Coastal inundation— which refers to sea level rise, storm surge, abnormally high tides, and persistent onshore winds and waves— is particularly detrimental to the physical and cultural heritage of Pacific Islanders and residents.

The inclusivity of KHAW’s community-focused engagements will develop and strengthen relationships among communities, partners, and experts in relevant fields. Community members, cultural practitioners, preservationists, public historians, museum professionals, archaeologists, planners, floodplain managers, engineers, architects, landscape architects, artists, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, government officials, property owners, resilience officers, and other stakeholders are invited to submit session proposals. All sessions must be directly related to the impacts of coastal inundation on cultural heritage, including built resources, archaeological sites, landscapes, traditional cultural properties, and the intangible heritage of the Pacific.

Presentation proposals should be submitted as Word documents to KHAWPacific@bah.com by 5 p.m. on April 10th, 2024. Sessions will be selected by mid-April 2024.

KHAW is an initiative of NRF focused on addressing climate change’s effects on historic communities worldwide. Since 2016, NRF has sponsored eleven KHAW conferences in communities such as Palo Alto, Charleston, and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Learn more about KHAW: Pacific here.