The Director General of Cultural Heritage of the Canary Islands Government, Nona Perera, signed this Friday morning the document initiating proceedings for the silbo gomero (the whistled language of La Gomera) to be listed as an Intangible Asset of Cultural Interest in the category of oral traditions and expressions across the Canary Islands.
As required by the procedure for its declaration, and having gathered the necessary reports from experts, the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage is opening proceedings on its own initiative to extend its listing as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) to the whole archipelago, as requested by the community of silbo gomero practitioners through the island's Cabildo.
This intangible asset already carries the World Heritage seal awarded by UNESCO for its exceptional value as an example of human creative genius, endowed with great technical and aesthetic complexity as a communication system designed to aid survival, as well as for its status as an expression of the popular culture of a territory.
Nona Perera, Director General of Cultural Heritage, explains that "this is an unusual case. Even before opening the file we gathered a range of reports from specialist individuals and institutions. Now we must follow the formal procedure, which requires further reports to be obtained from advisory bodies, so that they can be submitted to the Technical Committee and subsequently to the Historical Heritage Council of the Canary Islands, whose report is binding for the declaration to be made by the Governing Council."