Episode 16: An Equitable Future for Conservation with Bianca Gonçalves
The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) considers sustainability through a more holistic paradigm including many themes concerning social, economic, and environmental impacts.
Combining many of these themes, Roxy speaks with Bianca Gonçalves, an independent paintings conservator, about her lived experience in Europe, Australia, and Brazil and how it has impacted her perception of the conservation field. Using two recent reports from AIC/FAIC, they discuss some of the current social roadblocks to a thriving and sustainable conservation field.
Economic inequality is a reoccurring theme throughout the conversation, concerning pre-program and post-graduate professionals’ experiences outlined in the reports. Starting with a more equitable path to education or training, regardless of economical status or racial background, will help the profession shift into a more diverse community of voices and talents. Heritage belongs to everyone, so everyone should be allowed equitable access to joining the field of preservers of heritage.
Bianca brings up a tantalizing question about how gender bias in the current worldview could be impacting the health of our female-dominated profession: “If more men entered the profession, would wages and recognition be increased?” If we cannot sustain ourselves financially, more people will leave the field to only the select few who can afford to stay due to other means, leading to a less diverse community in the profession.
She calls for membership institutions like AIC and Icon, to continue to advocate for our field on a national and global scale and that the field must pivot to an environmentally sustainable paradigm in order to validate it further in the public eye: It showcases that we are a profession already ahead of most industries when it comes to prioritizing people and planet and that we can contribute in lasting ways which is worth funding.
Highlighting that geographic and economic context can have a radical impact on the problem-solving nature of our work, she describes how resourcefulness, creativity, and a willingness to challenge the status quo can lead to significant positive shifts in our field’s capacity to be environmentally sustainable.
We cannot grow as a profession without expanding our idea of what the profession could encompass, who could help it grow in ways that would benefit both people and planet, and convincing the general public that our field is worth investing in.
Resources:
- Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
- Projeto de Lei PL 1183/2019
- FAIC Compensation Survey
- ECPN Expectations and Realities Report
- The European Green Deal
- Atelier CurArte Green Conservation- Bianca's website
- GoGreen Project
- KiCulture
- "The gender pay gap is smaller in occupations with a higher ratio of men: Evidence from a national panel study", 2022