PVT in Chiang Mai

The Indigenous Partnership has identified the access to autonomous communications media for Indigenous communities as a key instrument to achieve the respect of their cultures and their independence from the dominant knowledge systems leaded by western ideologies. Thus, it has sustained the organization of an eight days Participatory Video Training in February 2011 in Northern Thailand, conducted by Insightshare.The initiative was hosted by IKAP and IMPECT (two local indigenous organizations) and moves between a Karen village and the indigenous food festival in Chiang Mai. The Participatory Video was prepared by over 50 local community members that live in a deep valley of Southern Khasi Hills, has been presented at the Terra Madre meeting in Sweden (June 17th-19th 2011) by the community members themselves. The Karens, after years of fighting, have just gained a major concession from the Thai Government on the prohibition of traditional rotational agriculture. Eleven different tribes took part in the Chiang Mai Food Festival, where they represented their local and traditional dishes. These communities want to revive their traditional methods and local food systems in the 40 remote villages by using participatory videos and other media. Through the video resulted by the project, the community members show the traditional processes for growing local millet, for collecting a root for medicinal tea and for beekeeping.