By Donna Lednicky | Director of Marketing and Development
A New Exhibition at TAEC Features Photographs and Videos Created by Ethnic Minority Women.
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.
Community Researchers chose their own topic to explore in their communities. Using photography and video, they documented an aspect of life that is important to them. You can view all seven videos created through the SOS programme on the SOS youtube channel. Two of our community researchers focused on ethnic handicrafts in their villages.
Meet Keolavanh, Community Researcher of Tai Lue Weaving
Keolavan, known as 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.
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