Helen Mears has been Keeper of World Art at Royal Pavilion & Museums (RPM), Brighton & Hove, since 2008, where she has oversight of the Burma collections, including a large collection relating to the Kachin region. The James Henry Green Charitable Trust in collaboration with RPM have engaged in many local research projects, particularly in relation to textile production and historical photography. Helen is currently working towards a PhD at the University of Brighton, in which she will reflect on perspectives on cultural heritage amongst overseas Kachin communities. In 2005-08 she was African Diaspora Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and has published two papers from this research, including ‘Museums, African Collections and Social Justice’ (with Wayne Modest) in Richard Sandell and Eithne Nightingale (eds.), Museums, Equality and Social Justice (Routledge, 2012).
Abstract: Counting the Days: The Kachin Ceasefire and the Emergence of a New Graphic Medium
Significant new spaces of civic interaction developed in the Kachin region following the signing of the 1994 ceasefire, enabling the emergence of a newly strengthened civil society. As noted in many chapters in this volume, the social changes that grew in relation to these spaces have been very important since 1994; they also help to explain the strength of popular resistance to signing a new ceasefire agreement since June 2011 in the absence of substantial assurances that political progress will follow. This chapter considers the role that a new local print culture had on representations of Kachin ethno-political identity in the post-ceasefire years, as this was an important element of that new civic space. This new digital print culture developed out of urban Kachin settings from 1994 onwards and grew in relation to the changes in digital technologies that started to become available. Looking in particular at how developments in local print technology and desktop publishing quickly led to new opportunities for civil–political interaction in Kachin society reveals a great deal about how Kachin society reconfigured and reshaped its understanding of itself during the years after 1994. Moreover, it did so in ways that were largely beyond the view of mainstream national politicians and yet today these issues continue to influence the political dynamics and outcomes of the region.
Areas of policy relevance in this chapter
The visual culture of transnationalism and diaspora
Museum work with 'source' and diaspora communities
Public policy on inclusive society through cultural organisations in the UK
Sanctions and public institutions in the UK
Questions for further work ...
My doctoral research extends my interest in the popular printed calendar discussed in this chapter. I explore the ways in which such graphic media visibly articulate transnational pan-Kachin identities. This also helps me to explore the mobilisation of cultural heritage by overseas Kachin communities who use and produce these forms of media, and others. Many of these disapora communities have developed in the post-ceasefire period, several through the intervention of the UNHCR’s Third Country Resettlement scheme. As one commentator recently observed, experiences of conflict, migration and displacement in the Kachin region might mean that the number of Kachin people actually living in Kachin State today is ‘at the lowest level in recent history’ (Nicholas Farrelly, “Democracy’s Kachin Dance”, The Myanmar Times, 11 Jan 2016). Through my research I show how culture and heritage are manifested anddeployed within diasporic settings , often in the service of current political concerns as well as social need. Most importantly, this has serious implications for the future of the Kachin identity project. My questions are informed by ongoing research with members of overseas Kachin communities in London, San Francisco and Kuala Lumpur. The questions that I would like to explore further include the following:
The central role of the church, particularly the Kachin Baptist Convention, in the formation and maintenance of Kachin culture has been noted elsewhere. Yet how does this work in diasporic contexts? The recent establishment of an ‘Overseas Kachin Baptist Convention’ (OKBC) is significant in this respect.
A fear expressed by many Kachin people in and outside Burma / Myanmar is that of assimilation by Burmese culture in tandem with political assimilation. How, they ask, can the unique characteristics of Kachin culture be sustained in diasporic settings and across generations? This is especially significant in the diaspora given the relatively small populations involved. What evidence is there of cultural survival amongst similarly-sized diaspora communities historically? What, if any role, can museums and other cultural institutions play in supporting overseas Kachin communities in their attempts at cultural preservation?
My chapter touches on the impact that my institution, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, had on understandings and articulations of Kachin cultural heritage in the 1990s. Given the traditionally static nature of museums and their collections, and their interest in geographically and historically situated ‘source communities’, how might museum practice be challenged by the forms of cultural heritage emerging from overseas Kachin communities? What kind of visual and material culture should the Museum be collecting that reflects recent Kachin experiences, including that of migration, conflict and displacement? How can the Museum develop productive research partnerships with Kachin researchers and organisations, which can meaningfully and appropriately sustain and extend understandings around Kachin culture and heritage?