Space of resistance and place of local knowledge in Karen ecological movement of northern Thailand: The case of Pgaz K'Nyau villages in Mae Lan Kham River Basin

Abstract

This paper is based on an insider's view of the ecological movement in Northern Thailand as carried out by Sgaw Karen (Pgaz K'Nyau) people whose knowledge was accumulated in the form of cultural capital including oral traditions such as legends, storytelling, hta (traditional songs or poems), and rituals. Through the movement, in which each of these repositories of knowledge were put into practice, the Pgaz K'Nyau image as conservationists was shaped and reinforced. Leaders of the Pgaz K'Nyau movement used their ecological knowledge, which was reinterpreted to represent Pgaz K'Nyau as children of the forest. Such images were the result of converting knowledge into symbolic power to create a space of resistance, which served as an instrument to contest the hegemonic discourse imposed by the state forestry agencies. A shift in Pgaz K'Nyau identity occurred through the process of inserting their relatively little-known cultural image into the political context of rights framed by the newly promulgated (1997) Constitution.) This paper focuses on the use of hta in the eco-political conflict in the Mae Lan Kham river basin, Sameong District, Chiang Mai Province.