Visit the Beaty Biodiversity Museum for this community-based art exhibition, which honours the perseverance of life amid ecological destruction and cultural erasure. Featuring artwork from the Mekong River, this exhibit was assembled by guest curator Rapichan Phurisamban, who is a PhD Candidate in the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at UBC.
Until Fall 2024
Naga and the Great Migration by Chaiyapong Intasom
Mekong River-dwelling communities have been experiencing devastating impacts from large-scale river basin development. Hydropower projects, in particular, are causing systemic change, including unseasonal and fluctuating flows, the dying out of riverine mangroves, fragmentation of fish habitats, and the loss of valuable nutrients and sediments for floodplain and riverbank agriculture. These impacts are not just ecological nor economic, but also existential.
The very act of living on at the forefront of traumatic ecological change is both an act of survival and resistance — survivance. Many Indigenous and grassroots communities have also been organizing to demand for the recognition of their rights to policy decision-making and self-determination. By existing in defiance of the forces that destroy their spirits, they are supporting all communities of beings (also recognized as biodiversity) for mutual survivance and thriving.
-Rapichan Phurisamban
Artwork:
Om Gaud Mae and Kwam-Fun Kong Pla Sua-Tor: Fhakleum Surilub (artist/painter)
Hugged and Held: Sa-Ard Hansupoh (weaver)
Siang Ta Mui (The Sound of Ta Mui): Mae-Too Kayungan (singer); Sa-Lay-Tay band and Poh- Sung (music); Jamnong Jitniran and former Village Head Laokome Kayungan (lyrics); Napon Phatam (music composer); and Kumpin Aksorn (music video editor/photo/videographer)
Naga and the Great Migration: Chaiyapong Intasom (artist/painter)
The Art of Living Fiercely: Roengrit Khongmuang (photographer); Rapichan Phurisamban (photographer/ curator)
Sponsored by:
Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory
Centre for Southeast Asian Research
Beaty Biodiversity Museum