Greece’s Culture Minister Lina Mendoni has awarded the ‘2023 UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes’ to Australia’s Gunditjmara community.
They were awarded for their community’s outstanding preservation efforts in the Budj Bim heritage areas.
The ‘2023 UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes’ was originally established in 1995 to honour the former Greek Culture Minister and actress Melina Mercouri. It comes with prize money of $30,000 USD.
Speaking at the award ceremony in Paris, Greece’s Cultural Minister Lina Mendoni addressed the importance of having sustainable management plans.
“[The award] brings to the forefront of international attention brilliant examples of effective management of cultural landscapes around the world, but also by honouring people who excel in providing ideas and inspiration that can serve as examples,” Minister Mendoni said.
She also expressed her gratitude to all participants who nominated for the prize.
“Most importantly, I would like to express my congratulations to the recipient of the 2023 Award, the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape in Australia, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019. Let this award be the foundation stone for more successes in the future.”
