From the perspectives of ethnic minority women, Caregivers to Culture Keepers: Stories from Women in a Changing Laos shares the lives of women in Laos today. With photographs, documentary videos, and objects the exhibition explores themes of work, family, health, heritage and handicrafts as recorded by girls and women in Northern Laos.

Over a two year period as part of the Stitching Our Stories (SOS) project, young women from Hmong and Tai Lue communities in Luang Prabang learned to use digital media to record and reflect upon their lives in a rapidly changing Laos. From this collection of photographs, video clips, and interviews, TAEC and the international arts programme, PhotoForward, developed the Caregivers to Culture Keepers exhibition.

Eight SOS participants received additional training to become Community Researchers. With their new skills in media arts, they chose issues to explore within their communities. “Using photography and video, we were able to learn things about our family and our community that we didn’t know before,” says Chitthaphone Bounlidsavong, a university student and one of the Community Researchers.

The Community Researchers were integral in framing the exhibition themes, and along with the SOS participants provided the content for the exhibition. Seven short videos present interviews with women in the Hmong and Tai Lue communities on varied topics including a Hmong medicine woman, early childcare in Laos, Hmong batik, Tai Lue weaving, shamans, and Hmong embroidery. The videos provide a more in-depth look into the lives of women in Laos today.

From the perspectives of ethnic minority women, Caregivers to Culture Keepers: Stories from Women in a Changing Laos shares the lives of women in Laos today. With photographs, documentary videos, and objects the exhibition explores themes of work, family, health, heritage and handicrafts as recorded by girls and women in Northern Laos. Over a two […]