Mukdahan Cultural Rights Stakeholder Engagement Meeting
October 27, 2011
This stakeholder engagement meeting invited participants to think about rights to maintain their cultures as well as rights to recognition, to feel good about their ethnic identities. The meeting aimed to engage the representatives of ethnic groups in Mukdahan who have participated in the 3 provincial Cultural Office initiative to promote Mukdahan cultural diversity. It was an opportunity for ethnic groups in Mukdahan and neighboring provinces to learn about each other’s projects and activities and to form a coalition/network.
Kandrim Music Documentation Project
December 2011 – April 2012
This project aimed to document intangible cultural heritage among Khmer speakers in northeastern Thailand, specifically in the provinces of Buriram, Surin, and Srisaket. It focused on traditional forms of kandrim, an art form that is quickly vanishing as aging musicians pass away. The project recorded not only the musical output of elder kandrim masters, but also extended interviews with musicians, documenting insights, philosophies, cultural beliefs, individual histories, and even the fashioning of musical instruments.
Community Participation in Safeguarding the Intangible Meanings and Values of the Khmer Sanctuaries in Phnom Rung Historical Park
February 27-28, 2012
This forum aimed to create an arena for public dialog about the meanings and values of the Khmer sanctuaries to local community residents living in the Phnom Rung Historical Park. The forum participants shared their beliefs, memories, oral narratives and practices associated with the Khmer sanctuaries and discussed how to safeguard these beliefs and practices for future generations. Local communities were also invited to participate in a cultural mapping activity, to identify sacred sites, pilgrimage routes, and places of memory in the local landscape.
Phuket Mobile Forum
May 23, 2012
In collaboration with Dr. Narumon Hinshiranan, a researcher at the Social Research Institute Chulalongkorn University and a director of the Andaman Pilot Project, the Culture and Rights organized a mobile forum in Phuket. This forum served as a platform for exchanging knowledge on how rights-informed approaches to management of cultural sustainability and development in other parts of Thailand might be of use to community leaders, local resources people and government officials in Phuket.