Call for Nominations: 11th Golden Shield Heritage Awards in South Africa

Deadline: 31-Jul-25

The National Heritage Council (NHC) of South Africa will host the Golden Shield Heritage Awards, an initiative aimed at honouring individuals, groups, and institutions who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to promoting and preserving the country’s diverse heritage.

Award Categories

• Preferred Heritage Destination:
  • Nominees in this category can, for example, be a heritage site, museum, leisure facility, interpretation, Centre, etc. that offers visitors an exceptional experience of cultural heritage and history of South Africa.
• Young Heritage Activist:
  • Young persons not older than 35 years may be nominated in this category. The nominee must have a proven track record of passionately contributing to heritage awareness within their community or on a national level.
• Voice of Heritage:
  • This category recognises individuals or institutions that publish books, articles, magazines, websites, or produce videos, documentaries, songs, digital games, and other media to document and promote heritage in an accessible manner.
• Heritage Journalism:
  • This category recognises journalists and media houses in print, broadcast, online or digital media that report about heritage and culture in South Africa. The Journalists/Reporters eligible for the award may be working for a media company or as a freelancer.
• Corporate Heritage Management:
  • Any private business that has incorporated heritage into part of its business is eligible to be nominated for this category. This may, for example, include the way the company preserves its history or history of products, the company’s commitment to fund heritage projects of communities, made other resources available to heritage development, protection and promotion, etc. The size of the business does not matter, nor does the scale of the project.
• Liberation Heritage Steward:
  • The liberation struggle history of South Africa is a critical part of how our people’s freedom was taken away and democracy was gained. Many citizens, organisations and companies have voluntarily taken the responsibility to protect the South African flag from being auctioned, the original Freedom Charter from being shipped out of the country and many other credible initiatives.
• Heritage Education:
  • This award will recognise persons in all professions as well as organisations and/or academic institutions. The work may include research on any subject of heritage that educates other people about South African heritage and culture.
• Heritage Social Media Influencer:
  • This category recognises any individual who selflessly promotes and influences his/her social media followers about SA culture and heritage through any of the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Instagram or YouTube.
• National Living Treasure:
  • The nominees must have promoted and advocated the significance or revival of Intangible Cultural Heritage over years. The award recognises an elder who is highly involved in transferring traditional art forms such as rug weaving, basketry, storytelling, pottery and design, as well as other forms that are considered intangible, to the young generation.
• Honorary Categories:
  • The NHC will honour distinguished citizens in the following categories, which are not for public nomination:
    • Lifetime Achievement Award
    • Ubuntu Honour

Objectives

• The primary goal of the Golden Shield Heritage Awards is to:
  • Recognise individuals, groups, or organisations/academic institutions for their meaningful contributions to the preservation, promotion, conservation, and/or interpretation of South Africa’s cultural and natural heritage.
  • Highlight and reward best practices in heritage promotion and management.

Selection Criteria

• Nominees must meet the following criteria:
  • Individuals, groups or organisations that have made worthwhile contributions to the preservation and promotion of the county’s cultural and natural heritage;
  • Nominees (Individuals/organisations/institutions which may include municipalities, management authorities, conservancies, academia, institutes, etc.) must still be active, or have left an unforgettable mark/record within the heritage sector, through promoting and protecting heritage, etc.
  • Contribution can be through active physical promotion, preservation and protection of cultural heritage, or it could be through financial support;
  • Nominees must be South African citizens; however, their contribution should be that of promoting, protecting and preserving the South African Heritage.

For more information, visit NHC.