About the presentation: What happens when a person who grew up within the landscape of the Great Zimbabwe National Monument (a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site) becomes one of its professional curators? How is knowledge acquired through family, community, spirituality and lived experience negotiated alongside archaeological training and professional conservation practice? This lecture reflects on Munyaradzi Elton  Sagiya’s journey from growing up as a member of a local clan near Great Zimbabwe in southern Africa through studying archaeology at university to returning as an assistant curator and progressing to head of the Research and Conservation Centre. He examines the possibilities, tensions and transformations that occur when a local becomes a heritage professional, asking whether conservation can move beyond treating Indigenous knowledge as an “additional perspective” toward recognizing Indigenous ways of knowing as active participants in defining, interpreting and caring for heritage.