Background

For 30 years, at international events and meetings, members of heritage interpretation associations have aspired collectively to strengthen global understanding and cooperation among the organizations and their members. Key documents include:

• The Banff Declaration which resulted from the first World Congress on Heritage Presentation and Interpretation held in Banff, Alberta, in 1985;
• The Honolulu Charter which resulted from the Congress of Heritage Interpretation International held in Honolulu, Hawai’i, in 1991;
• The Freiburg Declaration which resulted from the first annual conference of Interpret Europe held in Freiburg, Germany, in 2011;

By combining the best of all three in a contemporary context, a draft Memorandum of Understanding was prepared.

Thereafter, several related debates took place:

• At the NAI annual conference in Denver CO in 2014;
• At the NAI international conference in Montreal, Canada in 2015;
• At the Interpret Europe conference in Kraków, Poland where three key targets were set for any global alliance of interpretation associations.

Following that, a draft document was prepared by a small, representative group for wide consultation.