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October/November 2014

Just in time for the start of the high season, we have opened our newest exhibition, Caregivers to Culture Keepers: Stories from Women in A Changing Laos. For our October/November newsletter we give you a glimpse of that exhibition, introduce two of our community researchers who contributed to it, and provide an update on the next phase of this ongoing project.

In this issue:

Caregivers to Culture Keepers Exhibition Opens at TAEC
Meet Keolavanh, Community Researcher of Tai Lue Weaving
Meet Pasong, Community Researcher of Hmong Embroidery
Community Researchers Selected for Map Your World
Kob Chai Lai Lai

Caregivers to Culture Keepers Exhibition Opens at TAEC

Over 70 guests joined TAEC in celebrating the opening of Caregivers to Culture Keepers: Stories from Women in a Changing Laos on 5 October 2014.

In 2012, TAEC and Photoforward, an international media arts programme, began a joint project, Stitching Our Stories (SOS), that engages women and girls from minority ethnic groups in Laos to become story keepers for their communities. To date, 28 participants have learned about digital photography and video and used these tools to explore and document their cultural heritage.

TAEC features their work in our newest exhibition, Caregivers to Culture Keepers: Stories from Women in a Changing Laos. You can visit the online exhibition to learn more about SOS and the women and girls behind the camera. Produced in partnership with PhotoForward, the exhibition features videos, photos, oral histories, and cultural artefacts showing the diverse and changing roles of women in Laos today.

Meet Keolavanh, Community Researcher of Tai Lue Weaving

Keolavanh, known as Keo, is a high school student and community researcher for SOS.

Keo helps her family sell Tai Lue handicrafts at the Night Market in Luang Prabang. To document and learn more about the tradition of Tai Lue weaving, Keo interviewed weavers in her home village of Ban Phanom and created the short video, Tai Lue Weaving: Culture, Craft, and Identity.

Women weavers in Ban Phanom stress the importance of knowing how to weave as part of Tai Lue identity. Traditionally, men will set up the looms and women create the weavings. Girls first learn to weave simple, smaller pieces from more experienced weavers. The first weavings a girl makes will have few or no motifs. Older weavers pass down the skills and motifs to girls and young women through practice, as designs and methods are not written down.

Keo says, “I was taught Tai Lue weaving when I was young, and through my research, I learned many more things about our traditions and techniques that I want to share with the next generation.”

Meet Pasong, Community Researcher of Hmong Embroidery

As an intern at TAEC for the past 16 months, Pasong helped to prepare artefacts for the newest exhibition. For the SOS program, she decided to explore Hmong embroidery, a skill she has been learning since she was a young girl. Through interviews with her mother and grandmother, Pasong's video, My Mom and Traditional Hmong Embroidery, shows family heirlooms and Pasong's discovery of rich traditions in her family.

Pasong says, “I've learned many things about Lao ethnic groups, embroidery, and my mother's life through this project, and I'm excited for visitors to see our embroidery and hear our stories.”

Pasong's mother created a fabric doll and baby carrier for the exhibition.

Community Researchers Selected for Map Your World

The Map Your World project recently awarded five Nexus 7 tablets to TAEC to support our community research. Map Your World is a global community of youth who strive to better understand and improve their communities using new mapping technology. In addition to collecting and posting specific information, project participants around the globe can share their stories, challenges, and successes to learn from each other.

The tablets provided by the Map Your World project will extend the scope of the Stitching Our Stories programme. Our community researchers, ethnic Tai Lue and Hmong women, will examine the impact of handicraft initiatives in their home villages. Specifically, we will focus on current handicraft practices and techniques (embroidery, weaving, mulberry papermaking) and the impact on the family and community of increasing handicraft demand from tourists. We hope to better understand the impact of rapid change on ethnic minority communities in Laos, especially as focused on issues of cultural heritage and economic empowerment for the women in Tai Lue and Hmong villages near Luang Prabang.

Kob Chai Lai Lai!

Thank you to L’Elephant Restaurant for sponsoring the preview event at TAEC!

We'd like to extend special thank yous to our many friends in Luang Prabang who collectively donated over $600 to benefit Stitching Our Stories and Community Researchers at TAEC. These donations will provide small stipends and transportation support for our researchers to help them continue their research and documentation about ethnic minorities in Laos.

Donate Now

Donations from individuals help to support the ongoing research, preservation, and educational work of TAEC as we seek to preserve the cultural diversity of Laos. US-based donations are fully tax-deductible!

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Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre

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