Story: 7 August 2020
Painting: 8 August 2020

Acrylic paint on canvas

Yesterday I got to participate in the firebreak and forest ordination ceremony held by an ethnic minority of Pga K'nyau (Karen) near Mae Khan River to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Cabinet Resolution of 3 August 2010, which aimed to restore the Karen traditional livelihood. As part of the Art for Air project, I was invited by Chut and the Chiang Mai Breathe Council (CMBC) to join them to see what a spiritual forest is, allowing me to develop a better understanding of its sentimental significance to the Pga K'nyau people from the day they are born. In this community, a newborn baby's umbilical cord is cut and placed in a bamboo basket which is then attached to a tree. Such practice is part of their tribal ritual and belief that the child will be granted power from nature through that tree, and in return, the child must care for the tree throughout his or her entire lifetime. This helps to create a balanced ecosystem, resulting in the co-existence of humans and the forest - a truly unique local wisdom which captures the love and respect the community has for nature.

Extremely impressed, I was able to learn about the philosophy of their livelihood, including their practice of shifting cultivation, which is a significant and unique cultural legacy. The Pga K'Nyau have a total of seven sites for rotational farming. Each year they use only one site, leaving the remaining six to recover and grow into a new forest - a natural process of ecosystem restoration that provides food for wild animals. This newly grown forest becomes a more abundant source of food compared to old or "primary" forest.

Every year, one of the sites is cleared and burned for another year of swidden farming. However, the locals make sure that grass and weeds are completely dry to reduce smoke and time spent. This whole process takes about 15-20 minutes. However, the burning of fresh grass and weeds will emit a lot of smoke. Before I received this piece of information, I used to think that air pollution was primarily
caused by rotational farming/shifting cultivation. Now I've realized that the problem comes from slash-and-burn agricultural practice — a repetitive use of the same plot of land until it becomes infertile. Yet, it is certainly difficult for outsiders to distinguish new and old forests, leading urban dwellers like me to mistakenly believe that these hill tribe people destroy the forest by burning the land for agricultural purposes.

It is difficult to understand if we don't open our hearts and minds and listen to problems and facts without the influence of prejudice or prior knowledge. Towards the end of the discussion forum that featured panelists such as academics, village representatives, forest officials, and the mayor, one old Pga K'nyau lady ventured her opinion that she was happy to come and listen to the discussion on that day. She was moved to tears by the glimpse of hope that her descendants will be able to continue to live on their ancestral land that will not reclaimed by the law as areas where community forests and protected areas overlap. I felt hot tears well up, really empathizing with her and understanding her pure heart and hope, while also beginning to grasp the complexity of the issue at hand.

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